From: itn1@cornell.edu (secret asIAN man --- Ian T Ng)
Date: 21 Apr 1995 14:21:45 GMT
Newsgroups: alt.humor.best-of-usenet
Subject: [rec.arts.sf.written.robert-jordan] Re: Old Tongue vs "new" tongue

[Submitter's note: AoL is the Age of Legends... or AOL. Take your pick.]

In article <3n0tit$44b@newsbf02.news.aol.com>,
Robin Jim <robinjim@aol.com> wrote:
>This began to bother me last night. From what I understand, the language
>that everyone spoke in the AoL was the Old Tongue. After the breaking,
>when people were scattered everywhere, how (and why) did they make up a
>new language? It just seems weird to me that after all of the trama
>during the breaking, that people would begin speaking a new language.

In fact it was the introduction of the Aol that caused most of the confusion. You see, when the Aol began, it allowed people to communicate to a wide audience with little or no knowledge or practical experience. One of the more common occurrences was known at the time as Rah'paraund, which translates very roughly as "beyond the bounds of the medium" and which makes interpretation a very tiresome process. The "rah" syllable is the crucial one, as it took a similar name when it affected someone who repeated something that had already been said. That word was "Lai'nerahp".

Many of these new AoLers were let loose on the world unknowing what kind of world it was, and there was much confusion as the citizens of the land strove to accept them, failing many times. For the ignorance that came with them was not easily cured, and in many cases the damage was irrepairable.

As time passed, many conventions were created to deal with these AoLers, including the foundation of an institution that lives on to this day, represented by the symbol known as the Flame of Tar Valon. As Aolers became more common, the High Chant that had been sung so proudly before developed a commonly heard descendant named Low Chant, for the murmers that were exchanged between the AoLers and their more experienced mentors as they learned to avoid the humiliation of Lai'nerahp and Rah'paraund, the embarassement of speaking on long closed issues and the shame of lying bent and broken beneath the Symbol of the Tower.

This still goes on, but there are many that learn, and learn well, and they speak the truths they have learned to their brethren. The Wheel will turn, eventually, and we will enter a new Age, but with wisdom and good fortune the world will not be Broken before the AoL comes to a close.