Pietificity

Pietificity is a property of many ancient languages on the world of Asdar. Words, usually nouns, can express awe, reverence, or piety towards the subject or the absence thereof. This status is classed under one of three conditions: Pietific, Impietific, and Equipietific. In the culture of the speakers of the Thwarrish Language and the Donavish Language, many natural phenomena, animals, and often people were considered imbued with a status that summoned a sense of reverence or honor. It was possible through a mishap of disrespect to invoke the ill-will of a mountain, a river, a bear, or even the image of a god. These observances of the language were also applied to high-ranking members of one's people, such as the king. Thus one word was often reserved for use in the presence of the referred, while another was spoken in the absence of the referred. There was a certain word for day to be used in the daytime and another word for day to be used at night. Pietificity has been found in the ancient languages of the Gwenyans, the Common Giants, and in the modern surviving languages of the remnant High Shadevan Tribes and the Shadevan Trolls.

The Pietific form is used in the presence of the referred. The Impietific is employed in the absence of the referred. Equipietific mean the term could be used in either case. There were many words that were considered equipietific as the referred did not have any sacred bearing or its sacredness was considered inferior to most speakers and therefore not of concern. The pietific form, used in the presence of the referred, shows deference to curry the favor of the referred or employs circumlocution to avoid attracting the undue attention of the referred. For a phenomenon of immense power, such as the Shadew River, there were numerous pietific forms. For the River Shadew there were anciently at least twelve circumlocutions and this was thought necessary to prevent any single circumlocution from becoming common, profaned, and consequently impietific. The separation from the referred could vary. In the case of the River Shadew, many cultures around it believed that if you could hear the waters of the river, the river could hear you. In some cases, degrees of pietificity were observed, that is the closer you approached the river, the stronger the valence of the pietificity would become. Some of the High Shadevan tribesfolk would not utter the impietific name of the River Shadew outside of the hearing of its waters as long as birds which flew to its shores were overhead as they could betray the presence of the humans to the river. In this situation, the tribesfolk would use a mildly pietific circumlocution which would satisfy the birds and prevent them from revealing the humans. The term for water also could be due greater pietificity in the presence of the river.

Gwenyan poets who recited the history of the kings and the gods found themselves in the curious need of creating poetic pietific forms that could be alternatively used. These forms satisfied the same metrical requirements but could be swapped out as necessary to meet the local conditions of pietificity.

See Also

• Languages