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1 - 1: WHAT IS ‘SYAI’?
A few remarks about me and my Syai project
Lakka (L.) is
my pseudonym. Another name I use is Terres,
(T.), from the adjective ‘Terrestrial’. (That name was given by the Syai
people to their alien visitor because of the difficulty they have in
pronouncing ‘th’ in ‘Earth’.)
I, Lakka (or L.),
have worked on this project since I was seventeen. At that age, trying to teach
myself Russian, I realized that English was also very difficult to learn as a
second language. In undertaking the Syai project there have been many stops and
starts and revisions over many years.
Syai is a constructed language, imagined as the lingua franca of an alien
people of a planet similar to Earth.
Although this alien race are imagined as having a somewhat different
evolutionary origin – more from rodent-like than ape-like ancestry – Syai
people are very like us in appearance and character. That is important, for the objective of
creating the Syai language is that it may easily be adapted to become an Earth
language. My hope is that others with a philosophic interest in languages (and
fantasy-sci.-fi.) will enjoy
contributing to Syai’s creation and development. I have worked on the Syai language with the
intention that it be relatively simple and yet able to articulate complex ideas
based on the Syai world-view, relevant to the present human condition. Syai
persons (‘hrumans’) are not quite like us, but civilized with their own
distinctive culture. They are not alien curiosities or monsters.
My additional aim in presenting Syai
L. and T. have accumulated
material that could be made available on the history and culture of the Syai
people. Some of this enters into the
language background, and is developed as far as seems relevant to the double
purpose. The primary aim of this work is to present Syai as a prospective “fun
to learn and use” Earth-language. But the additional aim is to present Syai as
a symbolic mirror in which we may see ourselves entering into a better future
for this planet.
Syai as a utopian vision
By “a better future” is meant a future
that provides every individual with a fair start. While some are more fortunate
than others biologically, all should be given in equal measure opportunities
for happiness and fulfilment. To realistically approach the utopian vision, a
degree of limitation on freedom and privacy is necessary. Our human (or ‘hruman’)
natures - though basically co-operative and benign - have a negative side that
requires restraint. Reproductive
restraint must become a democratic necessity, that is, a necessity for both the
affluent and those who are less fortunate and successful in life. Lack of appropriate
restraints has allowed the growth of socially and environmentally corrosive
accumulations of power and wealth.
What sustainability should mean
Sustainable
to the Syai means not only a well-managed ecological network but a united
world of folk-communities in which secretive manipulation and corruption to
obtain and maintain advantage is not tolerated. The better future we all hope
for does not need over-privileged professionals, family dynasties, corporate
giants, self-serving political leaders and religious and media propagandists.
Introducing the teacher, nicknamed Terres
Terres (T.) has the task of
directly expounding the language. I as Lakka (L.) will play an explanatory
part, mainly concerning the culture, especially in its relationship to Earth’s
mix of cultures. T. has visited a Syai village near the capital of an island
where the Syai social and environmental regenerative movement began centuries
before. I leave to the imagination how
T. got there. T. is a youngish person (man
or woman as the reader pleases). T. might have somehow crossed the vast ocean
of space in a sci-fi ship, or – as in one fictional work – telepathically
entered the mind of a Syai psychic. No
matter. What matters in this Syai context is that T. experienced life in a
village on planet Féshoafés long enough to retain a fair mastery of the
Syai language and to gain an overall picture of Syai history and culture. (Féshoafés means Home-away-from-home.)
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