Linguistics and the first night

Lev returned to the first group and sat near the fire, alone.

He picked up a small stick and tried to write something in the dirt. It was a couple of symbols of conlang, one of them ment "joke/anecdote/irony" while the other one could be understood as "best/leader/top". Looking at this two symbols, the phrase "Funniest person in the room" popped up in Lev's mind.

He erased the words and wrote them again, but in a reverse order. It ment "The greatest joke" now. The meaning changed slightly and he knew it, instinctively and effortlessly

'How much of this new language I know? Do all people have the same level or proficiency, or some are better?'

It was hard to recall everything he new about the language. It's pretty hard to recall everything you know about any subject in general.

But after some time a lot of data appeared on the surface of Lev's mind and he sat near the fire, analysing it.

'Everything is very logical, but it's not optimized to perfection, leaving a lot of room for mistakes and freedom of speech and self-expression. The symbols are created through a smart combination of curved and choppy strokes allowing this language to be carved and written with relatively same amount of effort. The symbols that are more common are less complicated, the world "this" is just a line "—" and can be written on top of the symbol(s) that describe the object in question, while the word like "tranquility" require three symbols [immobile] [daze] [peaceful]. It might be not accurate in terms of the meaning of an English word, but it's the closest thing that mind gave me.

Simplicity of a concept means simplicity of a character describing it, which also mean simplicity of a pronunciation. The word "this" is the laziest "eh" sound imaginable, while the word "tranquility" is something close to [on'maH'ley]. The characters are not representing different ideas or concepts, but rather "convenient" combinations of sounds. There's one for [T-sh] but the one for [Sh-ch] is missing. But there are a number of them for individual sounds, so you can still write it if you want.

It's very fun to experiment with, trying to write modern day concepts. The best thing for "computer" would be [Chi'oro] which can be literally translated back as "contraption for correct computation". There's a parallel word for [oro] and it's [obo]. It means "to count/calculate incorrectly" and if I were to use it in a previous phrase it'll be [Chi'obo] and there's no distinct thing for it, but the image that pops up in mind is something between the random number generator and a slot machine

There's also a word [vos']. It means "predictable". If I were to add the "a" sound in the beginning it would turn into [avos'] - "unpredictable". So, combining this with the previous word we will have [avos'-chi'obo] - random number generator. To make the distinct word for slot machine we will need a word [bo] - "unhealthy/bad for you". [ba'vos'] means "risk", so [ba'vos'-chi'obo] is "risky contraption for incorrect computation" - a slot machine.

Wait, why can't I say [chi'avos']? I actually can. And it preserves the meaning... Kinda. [Chi'ba'vos'] would be the right way to say "the slot machine" too. What's interesting, it has no bad connotation, even though it has [bo] inside. To say "gambling" I'd have to say something like [bo'ba'vos'] but it would just be "a risk that is not worth it". There's no way to say "gambling"? If I'll just say it-'

"Gambling"

Lev whispered quietly. No one really heard him over the sound of burning fire.

He stood up, went back to pick up his "grilled" mushrooms and came back.

'I immediately and intuitively said [Sti'avos']. [Sti] means "addictive/pleasant to repeat". Addictive unpredictability, kinda true, but why not [Sti'ba'vos']? It has a meaning of "the one who is keen on losing"? A loser? Not really... A masochist? It seems like gambling has a positive connotation in conlang'

Lev ate his mushrooms while thinking about linguistics of his new language. After finishing his meal he waited for an opportunity to join the conversation.

Avery was in the spotlight, but everyone was speaking. The topic seems to be "the past life", but with an emphasis on good things.

"...So that was the way we cheated the system a bit, to get the insurance for half price, essentially. I really hope they helped him. Who knew that I'll die faster than him? I'm still finding it hard to believe that I did"

"Yeah me too"

"Same"

"About dying, how did it happen to all of you?"

Lev unceremoniously entered the conversation

Everyone seemed a bit upset, bitter and unwilling.

"Personally, I'm an idiot and poisoned myself it seems like"

Lev smiled and nervously chucked

"Oh god, how did it happen?"

"You we working on a plant of some sort?"

"They will pay a lot in damages in court, your family will be fine, don't worry"

People sitting around the fire tried their best to console him. Almost all of them were women.

"I was working by myself for myself, so no one is paying. Also I was only 27, so I had no family yet. My parents were already dead. But I left behind a person who I would call my "benefactor", but he is in no need of help, that's for sure"

Lev made a small pause

"So, how about you?"

'Revealing this much information will make them more willing to share their own. Also I almost didn't lie, so I don't think I'm tricking them to satisfy my curiousity'

Some people shared their stories to the fullest, while the other were reluctant and silent. That was the first time Lev learned one of the rules of etiquette of new world.

'Asking for the age at which a person died in a past life is pointless. They either get mad, joke away from the question or obviously lie. One girl even claimed that she doesn't remember. Of course, we can speculate that brain tries to lock such a traumatizing memory, but what about me? I remember everything. I'm not 15 to think that I'm special... So, no questions about the age of death in the future, got it'

The conversation continued up to the evening. The stars lit up and soon the moon was brighter than the dusk. The first night in the new world was approaching. Everyone who was on their search of food came back. The "pile" was pretty much finished and some people began to "book the seats" to sleep a bit more comfortably, which was almost impossible, taking to the account the fact that the floor was made out of leaves that were barely covering the soil and roots of the oak.

Soon the theory of "architects" was put into practice. It was almost impossible to properly sleep in that "building". People had to lie on their sides and "spooning" the person in front of them, forming a perfect spiral to fit. It took a while to manage this without braking the shelter, but, eventually, it was done. The fires were not extinguished and a couple of people were chosen to be on guard in shifts throughout the night. They were lying near the exit to disturb just a couple of people when they'll get up instead of everyone.

Victoria was looking for Lev and after finding his spot she laid down in front of him.

"Maybe I should move slightly?"

Lev asked

"No, you don't"

"It's kinda awkward. You know, biology"

"Don't worry about stupid things. We should ignore such things in this environment"

"Ok"

Lev leaned against the wall of the shelter and rested his hand on the shoulder of Victoria. It was really uncomfortable to do it in any other way. She slowly inched back, leaning her back again his chest.

'Why is she acting like that? Wasn't she uncomfortable around Den? And her stigma is an endless source of paranoia. Am I that charismatic and easygoing? Well, probably there's another reason, but I'll find it out later'

Lev was tired and began to fall asleep. He could hear some weird noises outside.

One that resembled howling

One that resembled knocking

One that resembled a high frequency screeching

And many more. They would emerge from the darkness of the woods every ten minutes or so. Lev could hear a silent wave of whisping and wailing amongst the people in the shelter after each weird noise. He could also feel Vica's shivering. She seemed to have troubles sleeping in such environment. But Lev couldn't care less

'Eh, who cares. Animals, monsters or a f*cking windigo. If it comes here I'll try to do something. If I'll fail I'll die. If I'll die I will care even less. I already did this once, so I have plenty of experience...'

His consciousness began to drift away in the veil of dreams. Images and ideas were flowing and intertwining, forming a vivid memory of distant past.

The boy was sitting near the dinner table. There also was a man. The boy was around 10 years old and the man was around 40. He seemed to be his father. The man speaked.

"Do you want to hear a joke?"

"Yes"

"The man dashes into the shop and shouts:

"Give me 100g of cheese, fast!"

The vendor is confused, but gives the cheese. The man throws money and sprints away.

Soon the situation repeats, but the man asks for 300g of cheese. Everyone in the shop is confused beyond reason."

"How can someone need the cheese so badly?"

"Listen. So the man returns and asks for half a kilo now. The vendor asks:

"What is going on? Can you explain?"

Everyone in the shop are asking the same thing.

The man grabs half a kilo of cheese and says:

"Come with me, I'll show you"

So everyone in the shop are going after the man. He makes few turns and enters the alleyway. There's a half-opened manhole there. The man puts the cheese in front of it and waits. Soon the huge hairy arm pops out of the manhole, grabs the cheese and dissapears.

Everyone is shocked:

"WHAT WAS THAT?!"

The man calmly answers:

"I don't know, but it really loves cheese"

"So what was that?"

The boy asked

"I don't know, but it loves cheese"

The man repeated himself and chuckled

"Not funny"

"Why?"

"It doesn't even tell me what that was. I was so interested and it told me nothing!"

The man looked at the table. There was an empty glass. He gently knocked it over.

"What can you say about the fall of this glass?"

"You did that"

"Correct, but why?"

"I don't know"

"Do you think I had a reason to do so?"

"You are very smart, you always have a reason"

The dad smiled. He felt warmth in his heart

"I glad that you think so. Me knocking over the glass is an "event". Well, because something happened. You can find a "cause" of it. I wanted to explain something, so I did it. Events have to have a cause, they don't happen without them. It's called "causality". Do you agree that this glass would not fall without a cause?

"It could if the earthquake hit!"

"The earthquake would be the cause"

"Wind? No, wind would be... So no?"

"It's safe to assume so. But we can also look at any cause and call it "event". Me wishing to explain something is kind of an event, right?"

"Right..."

"So every event has to have an event prior to it to happen, right?"

"Right!"

"But what was the first one?"

"The big bang!"

"And how did it happen if it was the first one? There would be no events to cause it then"

"I...don't know. Do you know?"

"No, I don't. No one does. And I would even say that no one probably will. It just doesn't make sense. If there was no first event, than how events happen? Events are happening and they been doing so for a while. Does it mean that the past is infinite and you can always uncover something before anything? If there was a first event, then how did it happen? Does it mean that something can happen anytime without a reason?"

The child looked confused. The grasp on reality that was so firm a moment ago began to slip away.

"Our world is absurd. No matter how we think of it, it doesn't make sense. So, I think that we should treat it like a joke I told before. Smile and laugh to the confusion and absurdity. What do you think?"

The child said something back, but the dream was long over. The new one was emerging.

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A.N: Sorry for the long brake. Some things happened in my life