Machi Tobaye (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
machitobaye) wrote2013-04-04 04:12 am
machitobaye) wrote2013-04-04 04:12 am
Entry tags:
[OOC] Headcanon FAQ
What it says on the tin: the post where all headcanon explanations and elaborations are listed and explained.
Because not everyone has played this game, I've taken the liberty of italicising all of the canonical information. Hopefully that helps put more of this in perspective. Maybe not. We'll see.
What is Borginia like?
Borginia is a small northern European country that's still recovering from a few years of civil strife and conflict, a small internal war. It's very pretty out in the rural areas and the countrysides are often mentioned, but this is done in much the same way that Russian and Chinese countrysides are described as beautiful in the real world. The actual country itself is not peaceful so much as "peaceful"--this is a country with a death sentence for the smugging (or attempted smuggling) of a cocoon outside its borders. It may be one heck of a cocoon, but that's the kind of ruling that implies something else going on.
In canon, Lamiroir and Machi are referred to as "goodwill ambassadors," which implies that Borginia itself still has something of a reputation it's still working on improving, and is in poor or unstable political standing with the rest of the world.
This may not be a popular interpretation(??), but there's actually a lot more reasoning behind this conclusion than I've listed here; since it doesn't really add anything to the overall message, however, I think this will do for now.
What is the Borginian language?
Borginian (or Borginese) is a linguistic mutt in some regards, but it's also its own distinct language, with little shared between it and any other language in the region.
In pronounciation and vocabulary, Borginian bears resemblance to a number of languages; French is the clearest immediate influence, but both Russian and German are related as well. In Borginian, Lamiroir's name supposedly means 'Siren,' but Le Miroir is French for "the mirror." Machi's accent, which is quite heavy, also gives us some clues--he has trouble saying Apollo's last name, 'Justice', instead pronouncing it as 'Yoostis.' This shows a similarity to both German and Russian, but given the symbolic nature of the Borginian 'alphabet,' which appears to consist of approximately sixteen almost pictorial symbols, I tend to lean towards a somewhat more Cyrillic interpretation of its origin. This gives Borginian a blended heritage--traces of French and Russian can be found in its linguistic roots, with a Germanic influence that can be inferred both from Machi's accent and from Klavier's interest in the country and language. Machi's grammar does lend itself more to a Germanic or Russian interpretation as well, meaning that in the end, it's impossible to pare down its nature to fewer than three influences--if not more.
As a side note, the Borginian alphabet is actually completely unique, and bears no resemblance to any language on Earth--some out-of-canon comparisons have been drawn between ancient Egyption hieroglyphs and the Borginian alphabet, but only in terms of form and style.
Even more interestingly, Borginian does not appear to have separate gender markers for nouns, as in the French la/le or 'un/une' ; this means that either gender is indicated with a structural change in the word itself or that there is no gender to nouns at all--like English.
Given the big difference in meanings between the French word 'Le Miroir' and the Borginian word 'Lamiroir,' it's likely that the Borginian vocabulary has such a wide variety of influences and mutations that it actually has little functional relation to any existing language--only a historical one.
No wonder no one can understand him!
Because not everyone has played this game, I've taken the liberty of italicising all of the canonical information. Hopefully that helps put more of this in perspective. Maybe not. We'll see.
What is Borginia like?
Borginia is a small northern European country that's still recovering from a few years of civil strife and conflict, a small internal war. It's very pretty out in the rural areas and the countrysides are often mentioned, but this is done in much the same way that Russian and Chinese countrysides are described as beautiful in the real world. The actual country itself is not peaceful so much as "peaceful"--this is a country with a death sentence for the smugging (or attempted smuggling) of a cocoon outside its borders. It may be one heck of a cocoon, but that's the kind of ruling that implies something else going on.
In canon, Lamiroir and Machi are referred to as "goodwill ambassadors," which implies that Borginia itself still has something of a reputation it's still working on improving, and is in poor or unstable political standing with the rest of the world.
This may not be a popular interpretation(??), but there's actually a lot more reasoning behind this conclusion than I've listed here; since it doesn't really add anything to the overall message, however, I think this will do for now.
What is the Borginian language?
Borginian (or Borginese) is a linguistic mutt in some regards, but it's also its own distinct language, with little shared between it and any other language in the region.
In pronounciation and vocabulary, Borginian bears resemblance to a number of languages; French is the clearest immediate influence, but both Russian and German are related as well. In Borginian, Lamiroir's name supposedly means 'Siren,' but Le Miroir is French for "the mirror." Machi's accent, which is quite heavy, also gives us some clues--he has trouble saying Apollo's last name, 'Justice', instead pronouncing it as 'Yoostis.' This shows a similarity to both German and Russian, but given the symbolic nature of the Borginian 'alphabet,' which appears to consist of approximately sixteen almost pictorial symbols, I tend to lean towards a somewhat more Cyrillic interpretation of its origin. This gives Borginian a blended heritage--traces of French and Russian can be found in its linguistic roots, with a Germanic influence that can be inferred both from Machi's accent and from Klavier's interest in the country and language. Machi's grammar does lend itself more to a Germanic or Russian interpretation as well, meaning that in the end, it's impossible to pare down its nature to fewer than three influences--if not more.
As a side note, the Borginian alphabet is actually completely unique, and bears no resemblance to any language on Earth--some out-of-canon comparisons have been drawn between ancient Egyption hieroglyphs and the Borginian alphabet, but only in terms of form and style.
Even more interestingly, Borginian does not appear to have separate gender markers for nouns, as in the French la/le or 'un/une' ; this means that either gender is indicated with a structural change in the word itself or that there is no gender to nouns at all--like English.
Given the big difference in meanings between the French word 'Le Miroir' and the Borginian word 'Lamiroir,' it's likely that the Borginian vocabulary has such a wide variety of influences and mutations that it actually has little functional relation to any existing language--only a historical one.
No wonder no one can understand him!