The Fourth Night: Setting 1 - Yokai and Language

"Yokai"

Yokai is a general term for beings that are not human but exist in this town. They are entities that may not have a physical body, such as spirits or ghosts. They can also refer to ambiguous intermediate beings between the otherworldly, such as ayakashi, strangers, and monsters, and those that have become fixed in this world, or the present.

Their existence is often characterized by the fact that they may or may not have a physical body, and that they are unique, with no equivalent "individual" in the world. They often do not grow or reproduce, and while they can communicate like humans, they are more akin to a kind of phenomenon than a living creature. Additionally, even if they are part of one race, if their habitat is on the other side, or the otherworld, they are also considered to be yokai.

Thus, even the definition of yokai can be ambiguous. Yokai can change through their interactions with humans, and the concept of individuality can arise, leading to reproduction. If they breed or produce offspring with humans, they are considered to have become established in this world.

Language

The language primarily used in this town is similar to Japanese, but the writing system is significantly different. There are roughly three types of characters used. The first is ideograms that are similar to kanji. They are similar to pictograms but are much more simplified and closer to simplified Chinese characters that were transmitted from other continents. In this town, they are referred to as "kanji."

The second is a phonetic script that is similar to the alphabet that was transmitted from the west. It is so similar to the alphabet that it can feel like looking at Cyrillic characters to someone who doesn't know Russian, but the only difference is that it is not an alphabet. They are called "west characters" in this town, and they are used like Japanese kana.

Therefore, in general documents, a combination of kanji and west characters is used. If it is further simplified into simplified characters and the equivalent Cyrillic characters, it can come closer to the image of the town's writing style.

Finally, the characters equivalent to hiragana in our world are complex and have many variations. They resemble cursive script and have shapes that look like tangled eels. They are used in old signs and mystical items like talismans found throughout the city. As for me, I have no idea about these characters.

By the way, there is a machine in this city that looks like a typewriter, and I still use it today. It can type both western letters and simplified Japanese characters, which are organized by radical combinations such as left and right, top and bottom, and enclosing elements like "en" and "shin."

To use the simplified characters, I switch to the simplified mode, and then the dial-type character board moves to select the appropriate radical combination. The machine then prints the character. It is like using an old word processor or label printing machine.

I don't know exactly how it works, but I've heard that it contains a spiritual calculator, or a magical computer, that combines rotating ritual language character boards. However, I don't have the courage to take it apart and find out for myself.