Post by CAPTAIN on Aug 4, 2013 22:50:17 GMT -5
LANGUAGE and CULTURE
When the people of Earth-that-was left their dying planet on Generation ships
there was a huge cultural mash up. People were thrown together, and entire
generations lived and died on these massive Arks. Racial and cultural barriers
became less significant than class divisions. Because of this, the languages that
survived were the ones that had the most native, and second language speakers
Chinese Dialect Mandarin, and English. That is not to say however that other
languages died out entirely. Most of the hundreds of languages that made it
off of Earth-that-was are still spoken in isolated communities throughout the 'verse.
It is rare to find anywhere where either Mandarin or English is not spoken though,
as most folk speak one natively, and the other passably, if not completely fluently.
In large part, race is not as widely determinate of someone's social status as affluence.
In the verse, the core worlds are incredibly wealthy, whereas the outlying worlds tend
to be incredibly poor, crime ridden and illness ridden. The rich in the core worlds
live opulent lives of galas and parties, while the poor die of starvation. In many ways it
resembles the huge class divisions that existed on Earth-that-was, except now it is
even easier to ignore the suffering of others, when they're not even on the same planet.
The most desperate often end up with the worst fates. Occasionally the Alliance will
Terraform a new world, and begin to set up colonies. The Volunteers that go as
settlers are usually poor, and desperate, looking for a better life. Often they're
dumped on a new world with just enough to give them a fighting chance.
Sometimes they make it, sometimes they don't.
When the people of Earth-that-was left their dying planet on Generation ships
there was a huge cultural mash up. People were thrown together, and entire
generations lived and died on these massive Arks. Racial and cultural barriers
became less significant than class divisions. Because of this, the languages that
survived were the ones that had the most native, and second language speakers
Chinese Dialect Mandarin, and English. That is not to say however that other
languages died out entirely. Most of the hundreds of languages that made it
off of Earth-that-was are still spoken in isolated communities throughout the 'verse.
It is rare to find anywhere where either Mandarin or English is not spoken though,
as most folk speak one natively, and the other passably, if not completely fluently.
In large part, race is not as widely determinate of someone's social status as affluence.
In the verse, the core worlds are incredibly wealthy, whereas the outlying worlds tend
to be incredibly poor, crime ridden and illness ridden. The rich in the core worlds
live opulent lives of galas and parties, while the poor die of starvation. In many ways it
resembles the huge class divisions that existed on Earth-that-was, except now it is
even easier to ignore the suffering of others, when they're not even on the same planet.
The most desperate often end up with the worst fates. Occasionally the Alliance will
Terraform a new world, and begin to set up colonies. The Volunteers that go as
settlers are usually poor, and desperate, looking for a better life. Often they're
dumped on a new world with just enough to give them a fighting chance.
Sometimes they make it, sometimes they don't.