"human language" in manual?

[InkSlinger]

on page 15 in book 1, the manual describes the speech as "the magical toungue in which objects and living creatures can be described with more accuracy than in any human language." Is this just the way they say it in the earth manual, or is this excluding the millions of species who aren't humanoid?

[Peter Murray]

I'd say, as it's the introduction, they're letting people in gently. Imagine Nita's reaction if she'd been told at that point there were cats, dogs, raptors and cetaceans that were wizards; and countless different types of alien wizards as well.

[spyells]

I don't know, but I do know that languages are an example of a people's hardship. Language is made as a mean of survival in certain instances. When the African slaves were brought to America they were taken from different tribes. Each tribe spoke a different language. Not only did they not understand the White people but they didn't understand each other. So they made up Creole languages. This is a mixture of things words and sounds. It is hard to explain, but some of that language is still used today in what is called Ebonics.

[the5potters]

i think there is because when u first get the manual u still speak your normal language. Even though all things understand the speech to some level, you would still need to get used to it.

[Dragon Writer]

there IS human speach in the manual...there has to be! i mean, for one thing, as others have said, you don't know the speach at first, and for a second thing...at least once nita is studying the speach out of the book...how could you do that without english AND speach to read? but most of it's probably speach still...

[Kaila Kirchner]

Originally posted by young reader:
there IS human speach in the manual...there has to be! i mean, for one thing, as others have said, you don't know the speach at first, and for a second thing...at least once nita is studying the speach out of the book...how could you do that without english AND speach to read? but most of it's probably speach still...

and how would we be able to read it if there wasn't?

[Rad]

First of all, being a wizard allows you to read the Speech. I'm sure there must be some kind of English, at least at first, to explain some things about the Speech's symbols.

Secondly, haven't you noticed that there are many variations of the Speech? The only one I can think of off the top of my head is the Enactive Recension. Nita mentions in book 6, when she couldn't figure out why she was having trouble communicating with the "people" in her dreams, that maybe she had been using a version of the Speech that was too local/humanoid, and perhaps she should use a broader version. "THE" broadest version is the Enactive Recension.

So anyway, I hope that answers some of your questions.

[Rubywolf]

Being a wizard doesn't automatically mean you Speak the Speech. You have to learn it. There's definately English in the Manual. For a Young Wizard on some planet, the manual would be written in both the speech and its own native language.

[A Traveller with Magic]

What about explaining some of the concepts? The only example I can think of is if a novice wizard is learning the "beam-me-up-Scotty" spell and has to familiarize him/her/itself with the effects it has on the physical world, while not having enough knowledge of the Speech to understand it if it was explained in the Speech (if this is a possible situation). So the wizard's native language would have to be used to explain, until the wizard has a grasp of the Speech. After all, English does have its limitations...

[Kaila Kirchner]

little kids are suppose to be able to hear the speach like in SYWTBAW it says that when nita was talking to the tree in her backyard the tree tells her when she (nita) was younger and climbed in the tree sometimes nita would talk to the tree and the tree would answer but Nita thought she was just pretending that the tree would talk back

Remember now?

[Dragon Writer]

assuming the tree was SPEAKING in speech...could just be tree language. maybe kids can just understand languages as a whole a lot better then adults.

[maxxrox]

I think DD was aiming for the idea that all living things understand the Speech, it's just that as humans mature, we tend to block our ears it, and wizards have just gained the ability to re-open their mental "ears".

[wizy123]

would it kinda be like the idea of that as you get older you start to lose the innocence in things but when your young your still innocent. i mean when most of us were young didnt you always have a fantacy or somthing that somthing impossable happend. i think that when your young (just like maxxrox said) your ears arnt 'blocked' from the speech so you can hear it but when your older you become for lack of better words a sheild to it. like you dont belive so when somthing unexplainable happens you pass it off as your imagination. and for the book itself how do you know that it isnt made from 'speech' if its a universal langage they should be able to read it(at least the simpliar one's or the beginning to read the oath. but still it would apper to be what ever langage they speck at the time(english).

[Dragon Writer]

The problem with people who can't see magic for what it is, i think, and ALSO for not just being able to understand the speech automatically, is that, like wizy said...they grow out of it. I mean, it's easy to not only want for it, but to believe it can be out there when you're a kid, but when you get older, and you still haven't actually managed to find it, you get more and more disappointed with it, and you begin to just think it can't be there, so you shut yourself off from it, not even being able to realize it for what it is when you see it...at least, that's what i think happens. *Shrugs*

[wizy123]

ya so whos to say the Manual isnt written in speach. what if the begging is speach that everybody can under stand and everything else is a speach that only wizards or rather more advansed wizards can understand. i mean its just a thought but it would make some kind of sence.