Mythology: Ragnarok

Chapter 296 Linguistics

Xuanyuan Muze waved his hand dismissively and said, "That's not important. After all, these are just our beautiful fantasies about things that don't exist. What I want to know now is whether I can learn magic?"

Just as Agred was about to reply, the door to the private room opened again, and the proprietress walked in with a plate of candied fruit and said warmly, "It's rare for you to be so generous this time, Rael. I'll give you a plate of dessert after the meal."

Agreed immediately greeted them with a smile, saying, "Thank you for your kindness. By the way, my friend was very satisfied with your dishes today. This is my service fee for your restaurant." As he spoke, Agreed laid out five shiny silver coins with a square hole in the center.

The landlady casually tossed a few silver coins into her palm, weighed them a couple of times, and then teased, "Wow, Leiler, you've struck gold today, haven't you? You're so generous! First, you spent twenty gold coins to book this room for the whole day, and then you ordered all these expensive dishes. That's almost half a month's basic salary already. Are you going to be eating dirt for the next two weeks?"

Agreed laughed and said, "I have plenty of money, this little bit won't make a difference. When you leave, please remember to close the door to the private room for me. I have some important things to discuss with him."

"Okay, okay, you've been talking in a language I don't understand since just now. If you don't want me to listen, fine. But don't do that outside. You know it's illegal to use a minority language in public."

"Okay, okay, don't worry, Auntie, I'm not that stupid."

The proprietress smiled and walked out, closing the door to the private room behind her. The conversation between the two surprised Xuan Yuan Muze, and Agreed, understanding his confusion, offered an explanation.

"Neither you nor I used the common language of the Kingdom of Ten Thousand Races to communicate. The reason we can communicate without barriers is that we have been communicating without barriers by transmitting our souls. The device in your ear was designed for this purpose. Moreover, the device will automatically recognize who you want to communicate with and then spontaneously translate your meaning and transmit it to that person's mind."

Even so, you might still encounter some trouble and misunderstandings when communicating with locals, but that's okay, you'll get used to it.

Xuan Yuan Muze was still somewhat puzzled and asked, "Why did the landlady say earlier... that it's illegal to speak a minority language in public?"

Agreed continued to explain: "For the sake of technological development, there are many aspects of unification and communication. In fact, the Kingdom of Ten Thousand Races had already popularized a common language a long time ago. Schools only teach the common language, and the law clearly stipulates that other languages ​​are not allowed to be used in any commercial occasion or paper documents. Otherwise, they will face heavy fines and caning. In special circumstances, they need to report to the nearest city hall. Under such circumstances, many languages ​​have now basically disappeared and lost their users."

However, no one cares in private environments like private rooms. Your situation is special, so I've informed all the relevant departments beforehand. Don't worry, you won't be punished because of this misunderstanding.

Xuanyuan Muze retorted, "But... why do you punish language differences so severely? Isn't linguistic diversity a good thing?"

Agreed looked at him with disbelief and said, bewildered, "What's so good about it? How can you ask such a question? Okay, I won't offer my opinion. Let's think about it in the way you call science: what is the function of language, or rather, what is the meaning it was created to represent?"

First, you must acknowledge that the fundamental purpose of language was to transmit information, through which an entire civilization began to function, wisdom was passed on and inherited, emotions and ideas began to be understood, intraspecific relations began to become peaceful, art was born, and life thus evolved in a more advanced direction.

So what happens if a race doesn't have a unified language? You'll find that language differences lead to significant gaps and differences in culture, art, and even lifestyle. This creates conflict: you don't understand me, and I don't understand you. Gradually, the situation becomes a deadlock where it's either me killing you or you killing me.

Most importantly, according to your logic, if a civilization wants to develop, isn't science and technology an essential path? Different languages ​​prevent wisdom from being passed down from one another. Take your home planet 'Blue Star' as an example. There are sixteen countries on Blue Star, which means that excluding dialects, there are at least sixteen languages, right?

Suppose country A possesses the most advanced science, technology, and theories in a certain field. In order to develop that field, country B will naturally learn country A's language and build upon it. This is a very common occurrence in your hometown, as the diversity of languages ​​due to the inability of countries to unify is understandable.

But I have to do some math with you. Your average lifespan is around seventy years. Let me add a markup and raise it to one hundred. In those one hundred years, after deducting necessary sleep, eating, miscellaneous time losses, necessary social interactions, and daily chores, I optimistically estimate that you only have about twenty years left for learning and working. And that's under the most ideal circumstances without any other interference.

In other words, the energy we humans have in our lifetime is extremely limited, and you want to divide your very limited energy into two or even more language systems. I want to ask you, does this have a positive effect on the development of science and technology?

Of course, this is a choice you have to make because you can't reach a consensus. You have no choice, but I do, and I have a better choice. I believe you will understand in the future how important a unified and specially designed concise language is to the development of a civilization.

In fact, by our standards, only a planet with a completely unified language deserves to be called a 'civilization.' After all, the multiverse isn't that vast, nor that small. If just any Tom, Dick, or Harry could be called a civilization, my civilization recorders would be exhausted to death.

After saying that, Agred suddenly remembered something and turned around to see Xuanyuan Muze staring at him with a resentful look. It was obvious that Agred had forgotten that by this standard, Xuanyuan Muze's hometown was just a "cat and dog" in his eyes. So Agred changed the subject and quickly comforted him: "Actually... the lack of a unified language is not the only standard for judging civilization. For example, a race that can perfectly utilize the resources of a planet, has the ability to destroy a star system, or has interstellar colonization technology can also be barely considered a civilization, as long as it has one of these three conditions."