Chapter 30: Promotional Text

For example, in Ma Shao's memory, chrysanthemum was once just a plant, and wood ear was once just a food. Later...

But it is not easy for Indians to understand this concept. Even all people in the pre-Internet era find it difficult to have an intuitive understanding of the changes in language and writing.

"Will language change?" Rainy Day expressed his doubts.

"Of course, otherwise why would the Apache language of each tribe be different, and why are there so many languages ​​in the world." Ma Shao said casually.

Rainy Day said, "Maybe they were created that way."

"Things that don't change won't be created," Ma Shao said. "Besides, isn't what we are doing now a change to the language?"

It was raining and he didn't say anything, but frowned slightly. He still felt something was strange and not easy to understand.

But he supported Ma Shao's ideas and worked with him to improve the standard usage of Apache writing and update the rules.

With the cooperation of the two, the writing of the Apache language was basically completed after a few days. Although it was not perfect yet, it was already usable.

The twenty-six English letters, plus Arabic numerals and some symbols, constitute the cornerstone of this system, which is then combined into characters using the "Hanyu Pinyin Scheme".

In this set of Apache characters, Ma Shao also added some bold expressions.

For example, he added brackets that can enclose parts of a sentence to eliminate ambiguity or better reflect logical relationships, just like in mathematics.

In his opinion, the Apache language, which has long been spoken and lacks communication, is prone to ambiguity and confusion during use. Introducing some expressions from mathematical language can effectively solve this problem.

There is nothing more precise than mathematics.

In fact, he once considered introducing mathematical language on a large scale, including many mathematical symbols that have not yet been invented, but after trying it, he found that the layout was too messy, so he gave up.

The updating rules for the language and characters have also been set up. Since only Ma Shao and Xia Yutian understand this set of characters now, the updating rule is very simple: with the consent of both people.

When more people have learned it in the future, we can set up an "Apache Language and Writing Committee" or something like that to be responsible for revising the language.

"Now that we have the written language, how should we spread it?" Rainy Day said, "Call the tribesmen over and we'll explain it to them one by one?"

"Of course, this is an indispensable step." Ma Shao said, thinking for a while, "but I think we still need some auxiliary means."

"What kind of assistance?"

"You'll know in a few days." Ma Shao smiled and kept it a secret.

The next morning.

Xia Yutian and Ma Shao gathered fifty or sixty young tribesmen in the open space in the middle of the camp, preparing to teach them the new Apache language.

"I have some amazing news for you." Rainy Day looked at the fifty or so young students sitting in front of him with great interest, and there was an irrepressible excitement in his voice, "We invented - writing!!!"

He opened his arms, his face flushed, like a passionate singer.

"…"

However, there was total silence below.

The young people sitting on the ground looked confused, then looked at each other and talked among themselves.

"Text, what is that?"

"seems very amazing..."

"I'm so hungry. I want to eat raw beef liver."

No one paid any attention to the text at all. If it weren't for the fact that Yutian was the high priest and Ma Shao was a formidable warrior and craftsman, they would not have stayed here honestly.

"Words, they are words, we invented words, you——" Rainy Day suddenly became a little anxious, but was quickly interrupted.

Ma Shao patted his shoulder and said, "They won't understand now."

Rainy Day sighed, then nodded: "You're right."

He no longer tried to make people understand the meaning of the text, but instead assumed the posture of a high priest and held out a piece of paper with letters written on it.

"Look at the paper in my hand. There are twenty-six symbols written on it, and you must remember them like you remember your fingers."

"Repeat after me. Ah, bo, ss, de, er, fo, ge..."

The young tribesmen seemed to understand but they knew they should obey the high priest's orders, so they all followed suit.

In the next few days, Xia Yutian and Ma Shao took turns serving as primary school Chinese teachers, teaching pinyin rules and some application examples to these dozens of young tribesmen.

It has to be said that the "Hanyu Pinyin Scheme" from 1958 is indeed a powerful scheme. Although it is most suitable for the Chinese language, it still shows active vitality after being combined with Apache.

After only a few days of study and training, the first batch of students had initially mastered the use of words, and some of the more talented ones could even express themselves in writing relatively fluently.

At this moment, Ma Shao appeared in the classroom with a leather bag and a wooden board engraved with grids, with a rather mysterious expression on his face.

"Teacher Ma Shao, what is that?" The students couldn't help but ask as they looked at his expression.

Rainy Day, who was sitting nearby, also looked curious.

"I'm going to teach you a game." Ma Shao said, putting the wooden board on the ground, then opened his briefcase and took out a stack of papers. There seemed to be a lot of words written on the papers, and some patterns were drawn on them.

"Game?" People became even more curious.

Ma Shao randomly pointed to a student and asked him to sit opposite him across the wooden board, then asked everyone, including Lan Yutian, to come over.

"This is a card. I have sixty cards in this stack." Ma Shao pulled out a piece of paper, on which a giant dragon was outlined with simple lines and colors.

"Blue...Blue-Eyes White Dragon?" Some people recognized the words on the paper.

"You have learned the characters well, it's 'Blue-Eyes White Dragon'." Ma Shao said with a smile.

These pieces of paper are exactly the "Yu-Gi-Oh" cards he made, mixed with many "Hearthstone" designs.

Of course, whether compared with Yu-Gi-Oh or Hearthstone, the set he just designed is a low-profile version, or a youth version.

The pattern is very simple, the rules are greatly simplified, there are only sixty cards, but there are more words, the purpose is to assist in promoting the words.

People of that era had little entertainment, and the Indians were particularly poor in entertainment. He believed that this novel game could arouse people's interest.

If you want to win the game, you must understand the text description on the card, which plays a role in promoting text.

Ma Shao also added a lot of Indian elements, such as cards such as "Thunderbird", "Blessing of the Great Spirit", "Central Great Plains", "Tecumseh", "Sequoyah", as well as technological elements such as "Railway" and "Battleship".

Some cards related to the United States are also designed, such as "American President Harrison", whose main effect is "massacre": killing all Indian characters on the field; and "occasionally catching a cold": can only exist for one round, and die of pneumonia in the next round.

"The name of the game is 'Duel Card'. Both sides follow the basic rules and card effects to duel. Whoever makes the opponent lose all health points first will be the winner of the duel." Ma Shao continued.

"What are the rules?"

"Let's start with the duel arena, which is this wooden board. Look at the grids on it. These grids are used to place character cards, and these are used to place item cards..."

"These small circles represent life points. At the beginning of the game, put stones on them. Every time a point of life points is reduced, remove a stone. If all stones are lost, the duel fails."

After explaining the rules clearly, Ma Shao looked at the student opposite him, smiled and said, "Okay, you already know the rules, now let's start the first duel."