65 lines
3.5 KiB
Org Mode
65 lines
3.5 KiB
Org Mode
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#+setupfile: ../headers
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* Culture of the Proto-Ñyqy People
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While the Proto-Ñyqy is the most well attested cultural and linguistic
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family, the temporal distance between the Proto-Ñyqy people and us
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makes it extremely hard to reconstruct anything. The various branches
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of the Ñyqy family evolved over the past eight to twelve past
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millenia, and some changed pretty drastically compared to their
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ancestors. Therefore, do not expect an in-depth description of what
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their society was like, but rather what could be considered an
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overview compared to some other culture descriptions.
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** The Name of the Language
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First, it is important to know where the name of this language came
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from. Since it has such a wide spread in this world, giving it a name
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based on where its daughter branches went would give it a very long
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name, or with a shorter one we would have very boring or limited names
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--- the “Proto-Northern-Southern” language doesn’t sound very good,
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and the “Proto-Mojhal-Andelian” language leaves other major branches
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out, such as the Pritian branch which we cannot ommit, just as the
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Mojhal and Andelian branches. So, researchers went with the
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reconstructed word for the inclusive /we/: {{{recon(ñyqy)}}}. It itself is a
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coumpound word made up of {{{recon(ñy)}}}, which is the first person
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pronoun, and {{{recon(qy)}}} which is sometimes used as a grammatical
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morpheme indicating a plural --- it also means six, as we will later
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on, the number system of the Proto-Ñyqy people was a bit complex.
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** Geographical Location
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It is often very hard to find the location of very old reconstructed
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languages, such as the Proto-Mojhal language itself which location is
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still not clearly known despite its name. But when it comes to the
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Proto-Ñyqy people, we have a surprisingly good idea of where they
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were: in the hot rainforests of the northern main continent, most
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probably near nowadays’ Rhesodia. We know this thanks to some of their
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reconstructed words which are typical for the other people that lived
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or still live in hot rainforests, and these terms are older than the
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split between the northern and southern groups. For instance, both
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groups have a common ancestor word for /bongo/, {{{recon(zebec)}}}, as well as
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for the /bonobo/, {{{recon(pœwec)}}}, which are only found in these
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rainforests.
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** Society
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The Proto-Ñyqy was a matriachal society, led most likely by older
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women who had an important spiritual role. This cultural trait is
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found in numerous daughter branches of the Ñyqy family, and it would
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be unreasonable to think a large amount of them would change in the
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same way despite many branches being most likely disconnected from one
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another, and the patriarchal branches almost all retained women as
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their spiritual figurehead, even if political power passed in the
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hands of men.
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** Religion and Beliefs
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This question might be the hardest of all to answer, as we can only
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speculate based on the religions the daughter cultures of the Ñyqy
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family had, as well as the few hints we can get through the Proto-Ñyqy
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vocabulary. Through this keyhole, dusted by millenia of cultural and
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linguistic changes, we can offer an initial answer. It seems the
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Proto-Ñyqy reveered several gods, with however one god or goddes above
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them called {{{recon(Qiisci)}}}, that might have been to them some form of
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queen or some sort of god for the gods themselves. We can find for
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instance this figure in the Mojhal patheon under the name of Kísce.
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Other than the parental figure of this divinity, their role is vastly
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unknown.
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** Personal Names :noexport:
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