Poswob culture and sociolinguistics

Moonshine is a language spoken mostly in cold climates north of Poswob territory. Throughout its history, it has been a very rapidly changing language, in both grammar and phonology, such that speakers at one time could not understand texts written 200 years earlier. For example, Diʕìlas tĭniku "doll" becomes Poswa tinik, Pabappa timpi, Sakhi tiniu, and Moonshine č. Another example is Diʕìləs luməs "sunshine" becomes Poswa rumus, Sakhi lump, and Moonshine lut, though not all preserve the meaning. (This word disappeared in Pabappa.)

Culture

The first thing outsiders notice about the Moonshine people is that their women are consistently taller than their men. This is a biological trait, not due to high heels or any other type of clothing the speakers wear. In fact, despite most of their people living in very cold climates, they don't tend to wear thick boots that would give them extra height. Although Moonshines are a blend of various peoples from around the world, the tall-female trait is impressively consistent throughout the empire and has even bled out into the neighboring Poswob Empire (Pusapom) which largely encircles the southern rim of the Moonshine Empire. The Moonshines know that being tall-femaled is unusual on this planet, but their societies are almost perfectly homogeneous and they do not think about it very often, because to anyone in any part of the Moonshine Empire, women being taller than men is unquestionably normal. And because this trait has pushed its way well beyond their borders, Moonshines are not in contact with tall-male populations even at the edges of their Empire.

Thus Moonshine is a strongly feminist society, and this is a stable trait, not reliant on police or weapons any other artificial structure to keep women in power. They tend to have a high birthrate, even though their disproportionately large wombs are no more likely to conceive multiple births, because the female-led culture sees a large family as the primary measure of power, rather than accumulating wealth or weapons. This same ideal of high-birthrate feminism has led the tall-female parts of the Poswob Empire to outgrow the tall-male ones and essentially turn Pusapom into another feminist empire led from its North.

They are also very pacifistic, although they were pacifist even before they developed the trait of tall women, and there are other societies on this planet that are far, far more pacifistic than Moonshines, to the point of dying by the hundreds whenever a wild animal such as a pig or wolf gets into a town. Moonshines live in very cold climates, such that life for any other human culture except for some of the Poswobs would be essentially impossible, and therefore they rely almost entirely on eating animals for food. Although the Moonshines are settled thinly enough that they could likely survive entirely on animals such as penguins who vastly outnumber humans and die frequently of natural causes, Moonshine society relies on a stable food supply and that means making hunting animals a regular part of daily life.

Because women are taller than men, they are generally stronger than men even though they have less muscle. This leads to the fact that men attacking women is considered "fair", even though it is discouraged the way all violence is disourcaged. Basically they dont have a "fairer sex" because men and women are weak in different ways. They are like young children, or like video game people where all women are magical and can entrap men with Womb Magic, etc, even though they are weak to physical attacks that men are not weak to.

The Moonshine Empire consists mostly of territories that were never claimed by other peoples. Although they have been unified as a single empire for thousands of years and wielded immense military power, very rarely have they started wars to take over new lands to add to the Empire. However they have absorbed aboriginal peoples through slow-paced conflicts where the Moonshines overwhelmed the aboriginals by birth power rather than weapons. Even then, however, the remaining aboriginals blended into the Moonshine society rather than being killed. This is why even today there are very few ethnic minorities anywhere within the Moonshine Empire.

All of the constituent states within the Empire are defined by water boundaries: either they are islands, groups of islands, coastal land areas, or in one case a state separated by a powerful river from another state.

Most Moonshine territory is very cold, with an average temperature below freezing, and in many areas it is well below freezing. They do have some warmer lands, with the warmest parts of the territory consisting of inland semiarid valleys with average temperatures of around 51°F ... similar to Vancouver or Toronto. Thus Moonshine territory could be compared to Russia or to Canada plus Greenland in terms of climate. However, unlike these countries, the warm areas of the Moonshine Empire which would be good for farming are still as sparsely settled as the frigid icecapped areas because Moonshines can actually survive quite well with just the animal food sources.

Obscene and profane language

Poswa's approach to obscene and profane language is unique and stands out even from its close relatives and neighbors. It could be said that Poswa has a strict dividing line between obscenity and profanity, or that obscenity simply doesn't exist and profanity is the only offensive language available to the Poswobs.

Obscene language

Poswa lacks offensive terms for body parts and bodily functions that most other languages have. Adults and toddlers use the same vocabulary for every conceivable construction in which one might expect an offensive mental image to arise. Obscene words are called waptipopo, derived from the verb wapti "to face away; turn one's back to someone" and popo "words, speech, language". This can be used as a verb, to make sentences such as

Mampum waptipoparebe?

Why did you swear at me?

And like other verbs it can take the agentive suffix -ta, to form waptipopota "potty mouth".

Instead of relying on the words themselves, Poswobs who want to offend people often go for intense graphical imagery, far beyond what speakers of most other languages are willing to do. For example, one can say

Prabbo popabem!

My diarrhea in your mouth!

Speakers of other languages generally translate Poswa terms for obscene concepts using the least offensive possible word, partly because of the childish sound of the Poswa language in general and partly because among Poswobs, even the youngest children freely use such expressions whereas in almost every other culture there are dividing lines between terms acceptable for children and terms acceptable for adults, often with more than one gradation between the two extremes.

However, it would be wrong to equate the speech of Poswobs with that of toddlers in general. Angry toddlers and angry grownups in Pusapom use the same terms for the same things, but when they want to offend someone, adults pull on a diverse catalog of mental imagery, whereas toddlers rely heavily on the single word pobbop "poop" and its derivatives. More than a hundred derivations of pobbop are in common use; some are regular, others are irregular.

Water and wheel are not euphemisms.

Twub

Twub "urine" appears in few constructions because most of its noun forms are homophonous with those for water, and even though the true meaning of the word is usually clear, twub lacks even the mild mental association of many of Poswa's other words for obscene concepts. Many speakers use the word twop "pain; louse" as an intensifier for painful or unpleasant sensations, and this word also happens to be the accusative of twub. Thus one can say

Plefi! Pattšapio twop pobiba.

Whoa! My coffee is painfully hot.

While this may make some elementary learners giggle, few listeners would interpret a sentence such as this as something such as

*My coffee is piss hot.

Or anything similar.

References to sex and violence

As above, Poswa stands out even from its close relative, Pabappa, in lacking an established variety of obscene terms for bodily functions and activities. Poswa has quite a lot of words for "vagina", for example, including iši, lara, pal, pip, rubae, pumpi, valem, and wavie. However, none of these words stands out as particularly obscene, and an angry Poswa speaker using one in a sentence such as

Pumpiže!

You're a vagina!

Would trigger a puzzled reaction from the listener similar to what one would expect from its literal English translation. Thus, it could be said that Poswa simply has no way to translate English slang terms such as "pussy" and its wide variety of meanings. A speaker seeking to trigger an angry reaction would be much more likely to use an expression such as

Pumpem!

Up your vagina!

Which can be directed at a listener of either sex. However, even this is context-dependent.

Terms for female anatomy

As above, there are many words for vagina, but they have little difference in meaning and, for the most part, any of the words can be used in any context, from the doctor's office to the bedroom. The commonest terms are pumpi, valem, and wavie.

Wavie is an irregular noun which mutates to an alternate stem wavv- when combined with possession markers.

Valem is a very strong word, and is sometimes replaced by the euphemism walem "middle, center" in polite speech. Note, however, that Poswobs measure their politeness depending on context and culture, and that even valem is not always considered rude.

Lesser-known words for vagina include pabaffo, bvo, romne, and pfo.

Although Poswobs do not consider talking about female genitalia to be obscene or offensive, one sometimes hears romba "womb" used instead of one of the words for vagina.

Many of the other words were originally slang terms whose original literal meaning faded after thousands of years of sound changes. The commonest word in general speech is pumpi, which ends with a wet syllable.

The clitoris

Most of Poswa's words for clitoris are derived by adding the morpheme -va to the end of any word for vagina. Thousands of years ago, this word could stand alone, but it now occurs only in compounds. The morpheme obeys the sound changes expected for a suffix, so that for example, the compound of valem and va is valemba. There is also another word, wavva, derived from an obsolete term for the vagina. Others, mostly obscure, are piva, palva, pabva, rombva, šuva, buva, puva, and luva. Additionally, the synonym pižbis exists, and is not derived from a word for the vagina.

Menstruation

Menstruation is considered an impolite topic to address in mixed company. A man might say

Fwulpiae?

Are you on your period?

To his wife or girlfriend, but in a wider public situation the same question would invite a violent answer. Indeed, in some social circles, males are not allowed to use the word fwulpwa "to menstruate" at all, nor any of its derivatives. Instead, they use euphemisms. Some people extend this taboo to encompass any word beginning with the rounded bilabial fricative /fʷ/, since it is one of the rarest consonants to find at the beginning of a Poswa word, and any word beginning with /fʷ/ will remind the listener of fwulpwa. The commonest word affected by this taboo is fwava "cosmetics, balm".

However, this word taboo is found primarily in southern areas where Poswobs live with speakers of Pabappa, which has similar taboos. In the wider Poswob homeland, words for menstruation are used freely by males and females alike, whether socially appropriate or not.

Gender-specific taboo vocabulary

Nevertheless, despite Poswa's immodest habits of using the most straightforward terms for obscene body parts and activities, taboos do in fact exist. Searching deeply, one finds a rich assortment of words for the uterus and other related concepts. Here the Poswob cultural trait of superstition comes into play, and this has created an intricate array of synonyms and taboos.

Traditionally, in Poswob schools, young children learn that there is a list of words in Poswa dictionaries which females are allowed to say, but males are not. Since the words are largely terms for adult concepts, young boys and girls usually do not know the meanings of the many words or why girls are allowed to say them whereas boys are not; they learn the list and move on to learning how to count on their hands. (Most teachers of small children are females.)

This taboo is very rarely broken, and a man or boy uttering one of the words on the list will be assumed to be quoting someone else. These words are not taboo because they are considered obscene or disgusting, but because they are considered powerful.

For example, men cannot use the terms tweb or warma, both of which mean "abortion". Male Poswa speakers are allowed to use mappapa for "abortion" and wabviwabi for "miscarriage", but many prefer to avoid the subject entirely and merely say that a woman is no longer pregnant.

There is another word for menstruation, waviop, on the list of words that males are not allowed to say. However, this word has nearly disappeared from Poswa speech in general, including the speech of females. The word waptem "woman" is also on the list, meaning that only a woman (or girl) can refer to another woman as a waptem. This has made the term take on insulting connotations, although the term has never had a more precise definition than simply "woman".

Neighboring cultures think it is strange that Poswob men are allowed to use words like wavie "vagina" in public without the fear of punishment, yet none will dare to so much as utter the related term waviop, which means menstruation, or any of its derivatives. These words are forbidden because of cultural superstitions largely related to childbirth, and not because they are considered obscene. The two phenomena feed each other; in the closely related Pabap culture, the taboos on words such as waviop disappeared but were soon replaced by more traditional taboos for obscene concepts.

Terms for male anatomy

Terms for male anatomy are generally more descriptive than those for the female anatomy. Poswa has eight words for vagina with little difference in meaning. By contrast, although the commonest word for the penis is noppupu, there are other words available to describe the penis with finer precision.

For example, a healthy adult penis can be called popwap, "that which causes children". An infertile one can be called pwabwap "that which causes urine", which is also the word for urethra. (Note that the word used for urine here is not twub, the modern term, but rather an earlier one that died out.) Both terms are often used sarcastically or otherwise figuratively.

Wider varieties of obscenities

Poswa more rarely uses terms and interjections involving whole sentences:

Bwaptwipši!

Get raped!

Which is the closest literal equivalent to the English "Fuck you!" and its equivalents in many other European languages.

Despite the presence of vocabulary such as the above, Poswobs are just as likely to use more childish-sounding substitutions for this interjection such as

Pobbwutši!

Get pooped on!

Twatwutši!

Get peed on a lot!

And for those who are really worried about offending someone

Myptalwutši!

Get slimed on!

Thus, the offensiveness of an expression is determined by the literal meaning of the words being chosen rather than by a word's belonging to a particular category of "adult" vocabulary despite sharing a literal meaning with some much less offensive word. Put another way, there is no way to make a sentence like "get pooped on" any more offensive in Poswa without changing its meaning.

Profane language

By contrast, blasphemy is strictly taboo, and this taboo has extended to other religions adopted by the Poswobs throughout time.

Use of obscene words as slang vocabulary

Poswa also does not have a large corpus of slang terms that are confined to informal usage. An old word for the buttocks, puspe, contributed the modern Poswa word lyppysypa "silly, crazy" by compounding it with a morpheme meaning "consisting mostly of". That is to say, a silly person is one whose butt is bigger than the rest of their body put together.

Tòdʔřóm

Did I spell this right? Sorry, even I have trouble with it. Todrom is a state that is often mistakenly believed, even by the Moonshines themselves, to be the original Moonshine homeland, because it is very cold and Moonshine settlements often seem to have radiated outward in all directions from northern Todrom. But actually this is not so. Todrom is merely the first place where a Moonshine society won a battle with an Ogili army, and was given independence and a land to call their own. The pattern of settlement is indeed due to Moonshines leaving Todrom for warmer areas of the Empire, but on the way they encountered and absorbed older Moonshine settlements, some of which were in place before Todrom had even been discovered.

The climate of Tòdʔřóm is similar to that of Alaska, in the sense that it is very diverse, ranging from subarctic but with fairly mild snowy winters along the west coast to -50F as the average winter temperature in the highlands near the Xeman border. Most of Todrom is very windy which makes the winters and even the summers feel considerably colder than temperature would indicate.

Outside

Poswobs have a few cities outside their empire. One is on the far east coast, the only east-coast city populated by Poswobs. It is difficult to reach, since one must cross 6000 foot glaciers to get there from the rest of the empire, but the east coast people around them are glad to have an outlet to the rest of the world through those glaciers. It is a rare example where Poswobs are the upper class, because all the other people are dependent on trade with the Poswob Empire and most are not willing to deal with -55F temperatures to get it.

Another is Baeba, on the fat west coast. It is the only west coast city with a significant Poswob minority, although some cities in Goga are roughly 20% Poswob/Moonshine, where Poswobs and Moonshines have blended into one identity, with both speaking Moonshine. Poswobs in Baeba have no rights and are generally considered the lowest class. They mostly come from Lypelpyp, which is so poor that even being a slave in Baeba is better.

Both of thses cities can participate in the Poswob government and are considered part of the empire. Howeerver the Poswobs do not claim the territory in btewteen ars part of the empoire. And Baeba isnt claimed entirely, just the Poswobs that live in Baeba.

Inside

There are a few places in the Poswob Empire where Poswobs have become a minority themselves.

Miršif

This is the old Pabap hiomeland, where most people who live there that callthemselves Posowbs are actually older tribes who assimilated because they were non-Pabap. the Poswob elite was doing this to try to win them over as allies, saying that they were aboriginals who were being oppressed by the Pabaps. The new "Poswobs" were thus free to move anywhere else, and some did move, but most stayed./ They have little cultural connection to the rest of the Poswobs/

Wawiabi

Wawiabi is a state that secdede from the Moonshine Empire into the Poswob one. It is majortu Moonshine today, and is divided into two major districts. The Moonshine district is officially 100% Moon, although some Poswobs do live there even though MS doesnt officially allow any foreigners at all to visit. The other district is diverse, because Poswobs allow immigration. There are many Moonshines here, too, however, because it was historuically a Moonshine terrirotiry. Most Poswobs in West Wawiabi are descendents of people who were there before it secdeded, even though, as above, it was illegal even then for them to be there.

Nama

The south coast of Nama has been invaded by p[eople from the tropics and thus Pusapom has no free access to the south coast. Some Poswobs stayed here after the conqyuest, but they are the underclass.

The Moonshine Crown

THe Moon shine Crown is the name given to an alliance of fours states which do not allow Posowbs to visit, because they are 100% Moonshine. Even so, the Poswobs supply them with food and labor, and they do not have to pay taxes to Pusapom. Thus they are among the richest states of all,.

Animals

Poswobs are the most interspecies people in the world, in the sense that they have the most different species of sentient animals living with them. The way they handle things is a bit different than Moonshines though.

Penguins

Penguins live in a fairly restricted area of the land. However, this happens to be exactly the same areas that humans live in, so the species are in common contact. Penguins and humans communicate primarily through hand signals, with one sign for each letter. Penguins also have their own series of languages, which is even more diverse than the human series, and appears nothing like any of them. Few humans have learned these languages, but in grammar they are surprisingly similar to those of humans, so "immersion" is possible. Of course since humans have lips and penguins have beaks the himans' attempt to speak is very different in sound, but again, still possible, because the penguins' phonologies tend to have only a few consonants. Common consonant invernoties are /p ḅ m s l/ or /p b m s w/. Consonants are mosdtly bilabials because that is what humans are most comfortable with and it makes it easier for te penguins to see. Nontheless, even though pegnuins have good hearing, sometimes it is better to have just 1 consojnant at each POa, hence the subtle differences in POA in setups like /p ḅ m s l/ (even here, /p/ and /m/ share a spot, thoiugh).

Penguins range in size from 0.2 humans to 13 humans. They have a much more meat-heavy diet than humans, but both eat primarily fish. This puts the two species in competition, but violent incidents are rare because both species are sparse enough that there is generally enough food for everybody. Humans have even introduced the penguins to cooked meat, and penguins often prefer this to fresh kills. And opewgnuins are good at sharing dfood that they have caught, thus penguin + humans is the most lovable combination of species.

Dolhpins

Dolphins range in size from 6 to 84 humans, and are present on every coastline. They have independent nations of their own, with distinct boundaries, and so they dont just simply roam throughout the entire ocean. The fact that a few dolpinh nations have žž in their name led them to be called "the ŽŽ zone". For the most part, the Dolphins standy by an agreement made with the Moonshines about 1350 years ago promising that each would defend the other. But since doilphins have nations of their own, they have wars of their own too, and humans cannot just tell the difference between a pro-Moonshine dolphin and a pro-Vatala intruder trying to destroy all the other nations. Dolphins communiate primarily through interpreters, but can learn human languages, so the interpreter just needs to repeat the sounds, not actually translate the language.

The world population od dolphins is about 3.6 million, just slightly lower than the human population.

Firebirds

The only spcies that is predominantly hostile, firebirds see humans as prey and only occasionally will cooperate with umans when their interestes coincide. On the island of Lan, for example, humasn are still 100% captive and have not yet been rescued from the firebirds' rock nests by other humans. But Lan is outside the territory of Moonshine. Within Moonshine, the two species mostly manage to coexist despite being at war, since neither exposes itself to harm often enough to make the kill worth the risk. i.e. a firebird could capture a human and then swoop away to safety, but this would rsult in a reventge attack of some sort, whereas they could choose instead to eat a fish, which has a lot more meat and muscle, and there will be no revenge attack from a colony of fish.

Like penguins and humans, firebirds are mostly found right near the water, but they prefer a warmer climate than the other two species because they have very little body fat. This is part of the reason why the temperate climates to the west of Nokʷ are almost entirely free of humans: this is the firebirds' main habitat. Firebirds range in size from 2 to 8 humans. THye usually die around 70F so Poswobs have to dwealth with them less than Moonshines do. Note that there are tropical firebirds which are smaller but just as deadly.

Rabbits

A very violent species that is responsible for hundreds of thousands of human deaths.