Dathon and Picard at El-Adrel
The Tamarian Language has been a mystery to most of the Federation since before Picard and the late Dathon made their communication breakthrough. The story of the language's unique structure is a story of freedom from bondage.
The People of Memory
The People who would become The Children of Tama have a unique brain structure and physiology, in that memories can be passed on genetically. This applies differently to different kinds of memories: myth, legend, literature, and history embed themselves into the genome most readily, and are most resistant to fading, while language only passes into the genome if constantly used, and tends to fade most readily. Science, skills, and technology fall somewhere in the middle. Thus, by the equivalent of junior high school in most Federation cultures, history classes would already have transcended dates and events, and become a free discussion of motivations and interpretations. This in turn led to a society that was unusually advanced in some areas, while unusually backward in others.
The People in Bondage
The People were conquered by another race, from another world, and enslaved. They were deemed ideally suited for this, because one would only need to teach them how to do something once, and not only would they retain it, but their children would be born with the skill. They endured many generations of thralldom, unable to plan effective revolts. But of course, every single one of them remembered freedom, even if their great-great-great-grandparents had been the last to experience it personally.
Tama in Bondage
One of The People, Tama, had an idea: with each of The People a walking encyclopedia of historic, mythical, and literary referents, they could easily converse in metaphor and allusion, utterly confounding their masters' ability to understand them. It would take time, but if they gradually eliminated verbs from their vocabulary, their oppressors might not notice.
The Children of Tama Free
It took generations, but eventually, The People were able to throw off their yoke with very little bloodshed, and to hold onto their freedom. And they honored the architect of their freedom by taking on a new name for their species, becoming The Children of Tama. But by then, their language had evolved from one in which verbs were merely avoided, to a point where they had become something almost vanishingly rare among them: forgotten knowledge.
The Tamarian Language has been a mystery to most of the Federation since before Picard and the late Dathon made their communication breakthrough. The story of the language's unique structure is a story of freedom from bondage.
The People of Memory
The People who would become The Children of Tama have a unique brain structure and physiology, in that memories can be passed on genetically. This applies differently to different kinds of memories: myth, legend, literature, and history embed themselves into the genome most readily, and are most resistant to fading, while language only passes into the genome if constantly used, and tends to fade most readily. Science, skills, and technology fall somewhere in the middle. Thus, by the equivalent of junior high school in most Federation cultures, history classes would already have transcended dates and events, and become a free discussion of motivations and interpretations. This in turn led to a society that was unusually advanced in some areas, while unusually backward in others.
The People in Bondage
The People were conquered by another race, from another world, and enslaved. They were deemed ideally suited for this, because one would only need to teach them how to do something once, and not only would they retain it, but their children would be born with the skill. They endured many generations of thralldom, unable to plan effective revolts. But of course, every single one of them remembered freedom, even if their great-great-great-grandparents had been the last to experience it personally.
Tama in Bondage
One of The People, Tama, had an idea: with each of The People a walking encyclopedia of historic, mythical, and literary referents, they could easily converse in metaphor and allusion, utterly confounding their masters' ability to understand them. It would take time, but if they gradually eliminated verbs from their vocabulary, their oppressors might not notice.
The Children of Tama Free
It took generations, but eventually, The People were able to throw off their yoke with very little bloodshed, and to hold onto their freedom. And they honored the architect of their freedom by taking on a new name for their species, becoming The Children of Tama. But by then, their language had evolved from one in which verbs were merely avoided, to a point where they had become something almost vanishingly rare among them: forgotten knowledge.
