'Al-Ka!'
said Torm, pointing one long, authoritative finger at the sign.
'Al-Ka,' he said.
'Al-Ka,' I repeated.
We looked at one another, and both of us laughed. A tear of
amusement formed along the side of his sharp nose, and his pale
blue eyes twinkled. I had begun to learn the Gorean alphabet.
~
Tarnsman
of Gor
Whereas
there was a main common tongue on Gor, with apparently several
related dialects or sublanguages, some of the Gorean languages
bore in sound little resemblance to anything I had heard before,
at least as languages; they resembled rather the cries of birds
and the growls of animals; they were sounds I knew could not
have been produced by a human throat.
~
Tarnsman
of Gor
Occasionally, however, an English word in Gorean, like 'axe' or
'ship', would delight me. Certain other expressions seemed
clearly to be of Greek or German origin. If I
had been a skilled linguist, I undoubtedly would have discovered
hundred of parallels and affinities, grammatical and otherwise,
between Gorean and various of the Earth languages.
~ Tarnsman of Gor
Gorean
is written, as it is said, as the ox plows. The first line is
written left to right, the second, right to left, the third,
left to right, and so on. I had once been informed by my friend,
Torm, that the whole business was quite simple, the alternate
lines, in his opinion, at least, also being written forward, `only
in the other direction.'
~ Players of Gor