Verse:Hmøøh/Talma

The countries of the Bitaleta (Talma, Etalocin, and Bjeheond) area

The similarity of the name to the Terran composer Louise Talma is coincidental.

Talma (Skellan: Talma /t̪ʰãmə/, from Naeng Tălma /təlˈmɒ/, from tăle ăma 'mother land'; Netagin: Talma) is a cultural region of the conplanet Tricin. It is actually the northwestern portion of a landmass called Eta-Talma (Windermere: Eta-Tălma). The southern part of Eta-Talma is Etalocin, which is separated from Talma by the Venlafaxin Mountains. Bjeheond is located to the south of Talma separated by the Naeng Sea.

Todo

Talma should have a couple more languages that are not Standard Average Talman (Idavic or an isolate)

• Swuntsim is one, kinda Chinese-y syntax (/ɬ/ is not SAT, oddly enough for a Celto-Semitic inspired region!)
• Häskä should be Austronesian grammar wisw
• Ouřefr --- Czecho-Dutch may be a promising idea

History

Jeodganite Revolution and aftermath

A major war broke out about 80 years after the publication of Jeodgan's manifesto.

Geography and climate

Talma is located 35°N - 65°N and has a temperate climate. A natural barrier separates it from Etalocin.

Isolated areas:

• Skella is a peninsula separated by a mountain range

Languages

Modern Talman languages

These are some modern Talman languages:

• Talmic
  • Scellan
  • Anbirese
  • Ciètian
  • Qazhrian
  • Another Qazhric language?
• Lakovic
  • Naeng
    • Tergetian langs
      • Trây
      • Sătmașian
      • Pradiul
      • Tsăloșian
  • Tseer
  • Häskä
• Tsimulh
  • Swuntsim
• Idavic
  • Ouřefr

Of these, Anbirese and Pradiul are the most spoken languages. Many modern Talmans, especially Talmic speakers, speak Skellan as a second language. Swuntsim is spoken by some people in the minority Swuntsim ethnicity.

Holidays

Here are some common holidays celebrated in Talman and Bjeheondian-derived cultures.

Sarðbyçán

Traditionally, the Sarðbyçán (Spring Equinox; Windermere: Păchan Șer) holiday was celebrated in Talman paganism in order to bring good harvest for the year.

For the Spring Equinox holiday, there are foods that use lightly-flavored mushrooms, along with other spring herbs and other "bright"/tart-flavored ingredients.

Bleesi

Bleesi has its origins in the Tigol "festival of horns".

Sdahnsa

Sdahnsa (Windermere: Stansa, from Tigol Sdannasa 'gathering') is the celebration of the harvest.

Foods:

• Ripe autumn fruits and berries, Spices

Xiðaf

Xiðaf (Windermere: Șidaf), meaning "remembrance [of the dead]", is the fasting period in Ngronaism, especially Mărotłism. A more restrictive diet is followed for the month of Çatxiðaf until Vinwr 1, which is Bwrjadraig or Winter Solstice. The fasting is explained as mental preparation for scarcity of winter and remembering the loved ones who died.

Bwrjadraig

Falling on Vinwr 1, Bwrjadraig (Eevo; 'winter solstice'; Windermere: hălăhing srel) is a holiday which emphasizes resolve to survive and live, remembrance of those who have died, as well as hope for a future better than now.

Society

Talma boasts a robust tradition of intellectual activity in the sciences, philosophy, and music. However, Talman society historically was a highly stratified meritocracy, which historically caused considerable friction between social classes.

Historically the social cost of nonconformity was quite severe. Crimes were punished harshly. Legally, the most common punishments were exile, imprisonment and forced labor but often the criminals were tortured, castrated, or executed, in addition to public shaming.

Impact of birth control

Hmlai (Skellan) is a contraceptive plant native to Talma that's easy to farm, thus providing premodern Talmans with cheap birth control. (We'll call it silphium in English.)

Some possible consequences of Talman silphium:

• Polygamy was legally recognized in Talman cultures, though many people are monogamous.
• Premodern Talman culture doesn't have a traditionalist sexual morality (neither does modern Talman culture).
• Equal rights for women has always been an ideal, if not reality, in Talman culture in recorded history. (This is not because of some innate moral superiority of Talmans but largely due to external factors.)
• Women are less likely to die young in childbirth and thus more likely to participate in public society.

Pre-modern vulgar culture

The plebs were largely semi-literate but otherwise uneducated and were forced to do menial labor and/or live in unsanitary places. Non-elite military-age men were often drafted into wars.

The common people had plays, and later novels, as forms of entertainment.

Modern

The rise of the merchant class and the free-market economy marks the beginning of Etalocian modernity.

Contemporary social issues include:

• how much welfare?
• size of standing army?
• death penalty
• national parks etc.
• basic income and its effects
• automation
• effective altruism
• gender stuff
• etc.

The election system used is usually approval voting. Some countries use ranked-choice voting.

Agile legislation is considered a design ideal to strive for in Etalocian democracies.

There is no legal concept of marriage in modern Etalocian societies; marriage is essentially a "religious" concept to be negotiated by individuals.

Education

Traditional education

Elite education

Elite boys were first educated in either a "boarding school" which taught a curriculum of rhetoric, poetry, classical language, math, fine arts, and science, or a military academy. By age 15 they were expected to enter into university study (or military service) in order to specialize into one or more roles in elite society. To enter specialization one was required to pass the entrance exam administered by a university. If one could not enter specialist training he was effectively banished from elite society. Those who passed the "boarding school" curriculum but failed to specialize usually worked as "managers", low-level officials or schoolteachers. One or more requirements could be waived for a child of exceptional ability in one area.

Elite girls also had access to a full boarding school education (though not to a military education), enough for them to be independent. Unlike males, however, they were not expected to undergo male specialization. Women who wished to become schoolteachers or musicians received appropriate additional training. Some women, mostly courtesans-in-training or those who aspired to marry the most powerful aristocrats, underwent education meant for male specialists.

Modern education

The following applies broadly to Talma as well as societies founded by Talman settlers, such as Fyxoom.

Primary and secondary education

[...]

Lastly, traditional-style private boarding schools still exist.

Higher education

Humanities in science degrees, Naquian style

Art

Visual art

Non-representational art based on geometrical patterns predominates, such as tiling patterns and creating various shapes by cutting and folding paper.

Theater

The aristocracy consumed early forms of Talman theater. However, theater as a public art form enjoyed a boom starting in the post-Grouidite Revolution period, with Etsoj Jopah's and Lesch Mltzhyphe's writings.

Typically the most attractive actors and actresses were selected for protagonist roles. [?]

Music

Main article: Verse:Tricin/Talma/Music

Architecture

Buildings

looks like something a music-geometry synaesthete would dream up

• gently curved, sloping roofs like in traditional Japanese architecture?
• tessellations like in Islamic architecture? (and isomorphic keyboards)
• space and relationships are emphasized (just as relationships between notes are important)
• multiple layers, with varying ratios used - overkill?

Material-wise, polished wood is the main material in many buildings; expensive buildings such as palaces use more stone, mortar, and ebony.

Gardens

Gardens are highly valued in Talman culture. They may be based on "natural balancing" or based on intricate patterns.

Fashion

Vegetarian or vegan fashion

Mostly consists of cotton

how insulate with no leather

• wool
• down feathers
  • heavy seabird nesting sites that provide down, fertilizer, later gunpowder ingredients
• ymnahd oil
• basically a lot of "hacks"

Technology

Modern Talman and Fyxoomian technology is more advanced than ours. Almost all cars are electric, and solar, wind, hydrogen and thorium energy are the main energy sources. Fossil fuels are still used for airplanes.

Cuisine

Vegetarian cuisine has been advocated by various ethical philosophies that prohibit either killing or inflicting suffering on animals. Some form of vegetarianism is common among modern Etalocians. Talman vegetarianism usually allows at most one of:

• milk
• eggs
• insects, seafood and fish

Vegetarians are fairly evenly distributed among all social classes. Being a morally contentious issue, cuisine has been a subject of cultural conflict and even wars over Talman history.

Veganism is a modern invention, after the invention of factory farming and synthetic vitamin B12; it is more common for more affluent people to be vegan.

Using umami ingredients such as seaweeds and mushrooms, and herbs and spices is common to make up for the lack of meat.

Religion

Note that religion is largely a translation convention. Folk religion, or people making up religions, is common.

Mainstream

The two main Talman religions are Mărotłism and Ngronaism.

Swuntsim

Main article: Verse:Tricin/Swuntsimism

Notable figures

TODO: more non-music, non-STEM heroes

TODO: more Amphirese, Yekhanese, Qazhrians, Phormatians, Chthryxians, ...

• Yăchef rith-Ătsa - Windermere physician who verified germ theory of disease
• pseudo-[???] - group of ancient Tergetian mathematicians, authors of the Brøøhad Manuscript which is the first text to mention negative numbers, complex numbers and algebra
• [???] - Tergetian astronomer, developed the heliocentric model of planetary motion
• Jissarāφom = Windermere geometer, described Euclidean geometry in 2- and 3-dimensional Euclidean space; his work appears in Thensarian translation
• Snoeδiret Aecsarbē - Thensarian mathematician, who first approximated π to 96 base-12 places (~ 104 decimal places)

A series of natural disasters strikes Talma and sets off the "Warring States Period".

• Tsăhongtămdi - composer, physicist and mathematician who wrote Elements of Harmony, which has the first known mention of harmonic series; the just ratios generated by a given set of primes
• Rith-Mărotł - Windermere statesman, philosopher, and political theorist
• Hădech Angcem - Windermere naturalist who deduced the theory of biological evolution from Pategian wildlife which was similar but different than wildlife of continental Talma.
• Báñas Gnachat = a Tigol-language poet, supposedly was a lesbian.
  • the namesake for the Eevo word for "lesbian", gnahadol
• Fosean Tsarir - Windermere chemist, physicist
• Ichmu fa-Rothap - Windermere geometer, physicist and engineer
• Răngeay Pănof - Windermere physicist and mathematician who invented calculus

[The Revolution]

• Jemisam Jeodgan - Amphirese poet
• Sngü Pde - Windermere physicist
• Tăbich Waseng - Windermere mathematician who worked on complex analysis, discovered Riemann zeta function
• (Amphirese poets and writers)
• Stuthil Alcphe - Amphirese writer
• Astęras Sawmeter - Amphirese inventor
• Axtxo Byjah - Sfətsiv-Fyxoomian writer
• Ilsá Josive - Skellan geometer
• Sduþel Bolltind - Skellan linguist, discovered Roshterian
• Tzintve Vitzyza - Sfətsiv-Amphirese linguist, discovered Sowaár
• Alg Geom - Anbirese algebraic geometer
• Rewhd Gneevon - writer
• Çela Jaivon - Skellan fantasy writer and conlanger, Tricin's Tolkien figure