"John Norman - Gor 13 - Explorers of Gor" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norman John)

1
I Talk With Samos


She was quite beautiful.
She knelt near the small, low table, behind which, cross-legged, in the hall
of Samos, I sat. At this table, too, cross-legged, sat Samos. He faced me. It
was early evening in Port Kar, and I had supped with Samos, first captain in
the council of captains, that congress of captains sovereign in Port Kar. The
hall was lit with burning torches. It contained the great map mosaic.
We had been served our supper by the collared slave, who knelt near us.
I glanced at her. She wore a one-piece tunic of rep-cloth, cut high at the
thighs, to better reveal them, her steel collar, which was a lock collar, and
her brand. The brand was the common Kajira mark of Gor, the first letter,
about an inch and a half in height and a half inch in width, in cursive
script, of the expression 'Kajira', which is the most common expression in
Gorean for a female slave. It is a simple mark, and rather floral, a staff,
with two, upturned, frondlike curls, joined where they touch, the staff on its
right. It bears a distant resemblance to the printed letter 'K' in several of
the Western alphabets of Earth, and I suspect, in spite of several
differences, it may owe its origin to that letter. The Gorean alphabet has
twenty-eight characters, all of which, I suspect, owe their origin to one or
another of the alphabets of Earth. Several show a clear-cut resemblance to
Greek letters, for example. 'Sidge', on the other hand, could be cuneiform,
and 'Tun' and 'Val' are probably calligraphically drifted from demotic. At
least six letters suggest influence by the classical Roman alphabet, and seven
do, if we count 'Kef', the first letter in 'Kajira'. 'Shu' is represented by a
sign which seems clearly oriental in origin and 'Homan', I speculate, may
derive from Cretan. Many Gorean letters have a variety of pronunciations,
depending on their linguistic context. Certain scribes have recommended adding
to the Gorean alphabet new letters, to independently represent some of these
sounds which, now, require alternative pronunciations, context-dependent, of
given letters. Their recommendations, it seems, are unlikely to be
incorporated into formal Gorean.
In matters such as those of the alphabet conservatism seems unshakable. For
example, there is not likely to be additions or deletions to the alphabets of
Earth, regardless of the rationality of such an alteration in given cases. An
example of the conservatism in such matters is that Goreans, and, indeed, many
of those of the Earth, are taught their alphabets in an order which bears no
rational relation whatsoever to the occurrence pattern of the letters. That
children should be taught the alphabet in an order which reflects the
frequency of the occurrence of the letters in the language, and thus would
expedite their learning, appears to be too radical and offensive an idea to
become acceptable. Consider, too, for example, the opposition to an
arithmetically convenient system of measurement in certain quarters on Earth,
apparently because of the unwillingness to surrender the techniques of
tradition, so painfully acquired so long ago.
"Do Masters desire aught else of Linda?" asked the girl.
"No," said Samos.
She put her small hand on the table, as though to reach to him, to beg his