The Wang-Tongue was spoken by members of the Wang Kingdom during The Magic Sword Kings Period. After the end of the Wang Era, its use diminished, and in later eras, knowledge of the language became increasingly rare.
It is one of the languages that Tycho Brahe enumerated in various appendices, and there are an estimated 3,000 fans of his work that speak The Wang-Tongue with some degree of fluency. As of yet, (and unlike the language K'th's) there are no real life native speakers of The Wang tongue.
(A native speaker is defined as someone who learned the language as their first and possibly only)
The Wang-Tongue's grammar is quite complicated, with each word capable of taking both a prefix and suffix that indicate honor and status. For example:
"tsa-na" -> 'man'
"hu-tsa-na" -> 'honored man'
"tsa-na-ro" -> 'foolish man'
"hu-tsa-na-ro" -> 'honored but foolish man'
Other syntactic combinations have led linguists to criticize the language as 'obviously artificial,' as no other human language allows for many of the forms detailed in the Wang-Tongue.
Phonological problems also call the utility of the language into question, including examples of irregular vowel harmony, contour tones consisting of five or more tones, and retroflex sounds preceded by high vowels. These facts make correct pronunciation virtually impossible, causing many to dub the language 'a hopeless mess.' Nonetheless, fans from around the world have been eager to learn and master the mysterious Wang-Tongue.
| Does anybody else remember that didactic song taught to children of the neighboring kingdom to help them to learn the Wang-Tongue? Every Gwendsday evening the kids would gather around the fires and their elders and betters would speak only in the Wang-Tongue.. and the children would sing... sing their traditional song "Everybody Wang-Tongue Tonight". |
| I think you might actually be thinking of the feast of Wang Chung. --bfg00 |
| Perhaps.. there was something similar to this in Book 8, but I think that The Dark Side of Carry had a mini-parody of that scene from the cycle. |