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Foreign Languages

Arka is a language in Atolas, but there's only one language in your world?



Of course, Atolas has many languages as Earth does. For example, there's Lutia and Nagili.
Every country has its own language(s): Lutia and Arka are spoken in Lutia.



By the way, Lutia is a natural language while Arka is a constructed language. It was made 300 years ago.



Oh, Arka is a conlang in Atolas, too?



Arka is a mixed language of Arbaren (the language of Arbazard) and many natural languages. Arka is like Esperanto on this point.
Arka is an a priori conlang in Earth, but it is an a posteriori conlang in Atolas.



I see. Well, can you speak any foreign language, Lein?



Many students in Arbazard study Lutia like I do.
But I think learning languages is easier in this world than in your world.



Yeah, in this world, human beings were separated from gods. So, there once was only one language in the world; the language of gods.
The language of gods were separated into many languages like Arbaren and Lutia. It means that there is only one protolanguage in Atolas.
Imagine that there're only Indo-European languages in Earth. Atolas is like that. So it's easy for Arbans to study Lutia. It's like an English native speaker studies French.



However, much time has passed since human beings were separated from gods, so our language family has wider variations than Indo-European languages have.
Metio was also separated from the language of gods. But it's very hard for Arbans to study it. It's like an English native speaker studies Chinese.


You mean Atolas has various languages like Earth does.
Anyway, Lutia is a foreign language learnt in Arbazard. And what's Lutia like?



Let me see... the difference between Arka and Lutia is that between English and French. Lutia is like French, I think.
The moon is called "xelt" in Arka, and "xeliu" in Lutia. They are similar to each other, you know.
On the other hand, the setting sun is called "cuuf" in Arka while it is called "lexie" in Lutia. You can find no traces among them.



Lutia has articles and sounds that Arka doesn't have. And learners have to memorize its grammar and phonetics.
In Lutia, the primary accent falls on the final syllable in any words. And it has its own system of intonation. It takes time to get used to them.
Here's an example of Lutia. Compare it to that of Arka.

Lutia: un manis an filial la xeliu izolet.
Arka: ko vik sinsat xelt a xe fian.
English: A man showed the moon to a girl.


Oh, I think the difference between Arka and Lutia is larger than that between English and French...
Lutia is an SMOV language while Arka is an SVO language. They are completely different.



And such sentences will be on the test.



Looks like students in another world are also occupied with study.