Learning the Speech

[iwantwizpod3]

Does anyone else want to learn the Speech?

I have an idea on how to do so. What if DD wrote a couple of short guidebooks, one on the written form, the other on the spoken form. If I get a few responses, I'll e-mail her this page, and then...

If you agree, please reply!

[alla]

DD has said in multiple chats (when we had a chatroom, over at YW.net), that she doesn't plan to write a 'guidebook' for the Speech. I went through the forums and the Concordance (which is probably the closest that we're going to get to a Manual), a couple of weeks ago in response to dagonra.

You can find the response here.

Hope this helps

[shadowkit96]

yes I think it would be cool to talk in the Speech DD should write a guidebook

[Wiccangixie]

I definitely agree! Creating a guidebook for us would be incredible of DD, and awfully charitable. I kind of want her to create a guidebook for the Wizards books in general too, somewhat like the Index she made for AWAB, except with more detail. What if she made a book listing details of the characters and their changes in the series once the series is done? That would be so nice to come upon later.

[imissroshaun]

Learning the Speech would be rad, but can you imagine how much time it would take for her to write like an entire dictionary of a language that isn't standard, that she'd create as she went along? Sounds like it'd be a really long process, I doubt that she'd want to do that.

[Wiccangixie]

That's true. I was just being wishy-washy though I just wish that she COULD do that.

[imissroshaun]

haha yeah all we can hope for is that we come across a wizards manual!
I can't tell you how many times I've read the Oath out loud, and I wake up in the morning hoping to hear the trees in my back yard talking or something.
Maybe, one day, I'll get the manual, and then I'll meet an awesome king-to-be from some random planet.

[alla]

I've been thinking about this a bit lately (since the topic keeps coming up), but not in the sense of 'DD should write a manual', but along the lines of what the Speech is, and how we could go about "learning" it.

If you think about it (well, when I think about it, anyway), the Speech is there so that wizards can be understood by everything and everyone, from tiny cells on Europa, to trees and rocks, and by the Universe itself. Wizards also use it for communication with lifeforms (wizardly or not) from other planets.

Now, no matter how much we think it would be awesome, being understood by rocks and trees and talking to cells on Europa probably isn't possible, and we probably aren't going to be meeting many people from other planets, but we can work on being understood by and be able to understand others and also learning to understand your environment.

Play with your pets and learn to read their behavior (although a lot of people that I know can do this already). For example, learn to read when they're in a good mood or a bad mood. If you have a cat who is liable to bite/scratch, learn to tell when. I'm still working on being able to understand dogs' behavior, but I know its possible. And talk to your pets - I think they understand more than we know.

Learning to listen to what your environment is saying is fun and useful. Learn to read the weather patterns for your local area (or if you're particuarly keen, your contintent). I started with my local area - learning to read what clouds meant a storm, which ones would mean rain, etc. - and then expanded out to what the broader scale patterns that move across Australia meant for different regions. Monitoring meteorology websites is a great way to do this. Learn what animals are living in your local area, learn a little bit about the botany and the trees - which ones are native and which are imported?

I may be a little bit biased here, but also learn a little bit about the geology of Earth - to me, the rock record is Earth telling her story (although she's forgotten some parts of it ). Don't just learn what type of rock you can see, but also learn what it means about the envrionment of deposition or formation. Learn the story of the planet that is our home .

Finally, learn to communicate effectively. Learn a language (or more than one) so that you can speak to someone from another country in their native tongue, or so that you can understand people from other places. Yes, learning languages is challenging, but I think its also rewarding - and its polite to not just expect that everyone can speak English. Learn your spelling and grammar rules, and put them to use. Just because someone else on the Internet has bad grammar, and uses 'netspeak' doesn't mean that you have to as well. It is a pothole for being misunderstood. Write proper sentences and describe things accurately and truthfully.

[iwantwizpod3]

cross references

please see my post on The Speech's Secret Identity.

[alla]

Uh, iwantwizpod3 - what about your post of the Speech's Secret Identity am I meant to be looking at? I had a read through the thread, and there isn't that much relative to this thread here. The only thing that I can see is a brief discussion on the use of netspeak.

Also, we try and avoid posting one liners that add no content to threads. Please explain why/what we're looking for in that thread. Cross advertising threads without explanations is annoying.

[spottyfirga]

Does anyone else want to learn the Speech?

I have an idea on how to do so. What if DD wrote a couple of short guidebooks, one on the written form, the other on the spoken form. If I get a few responses, I'll e-mail her this page, and then...

If you agree, please reply!

I so agree. I would do a triple backflip if DD makes some guidebooks on the speech.

[SaxySullivan]

From what I understand... the Speech bears some resemblance to Gaelic... or old Irish, if you will. I've kind of had that idea even before I got to the 4th book. I plan on learning how to speak Gaelic eventually. It's an awesome language that almost no one knows anymore.