Wednesday, July 3, 2013

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The Rokininuwe live in a world where technology and the environment are seen as preeminently important. The image of infrastructure development is devoid of any large image of an individual, showcasing the importance of collective action for the benefit of all. It is interspersed with an image of electricity, a modern technological force that brings people and the world together, and the sole image of a leaf as a reminder of the importance of the environment of the world they live in.

Rokininuwe cultural elements


  • Children in the Rokininuwe culture acquire language at much the same rate and in much the same manner than children do in human populations. The pharynx, larynx, glottis, tongue, lips, teeth, and nasal cavity are all as important in Rokini speech as in human speech. Infants tend to make the same or similar prelinguistic sounds as human children with much babbling and cooing.
  • Children are introduced to, and taught language by, their parents. Most parents interact with their children using a form of 'baby talk' as it is not necessary for infants or small children to speak with perfect inflection or intonation, this is something that will be acquired over time. Since the Rokini people and the Rokininuwe culture are the only ones present there are no alternate languages to teach or learn. 
  • Certain metaphors work to maintain order and structure within the society. For example when someone is said to be becoming 'like Rokininuwe' it is understood that they are attempting to make themselves significantly more important than other members of the society and are appropriatley chastised. Similarly someone described as 'jantozant' (fast running water) is often considered difficult to work with cooperatively. An adult said to act as a 'kagraz', or a child, is considered to be quite irrational and illogical, possibly even selfish. Such behavior is fine for children but not considered acceptable for adults of the Rokininuwe who value science and rational thought. Conversely to act as a 'rozit' (dam) is a special form of giving of oneself to the community, involving herculean effort, and is quite admirable. Someone acting as a 'tazzin' (bridge) is similarly seen as favorable but this person is liked for their ability to rise above personal feelings and bring distant groups and people together for a common goal. 
  • The Rokininuwe have sought to catalog as many emotional states as precisely as possible so that they can be spoken of in a logical and rational manner. Unfortunately lived experiences that are not understood to fall neatly into one of the catagorizations are sometimes relegated to 'kagraz' behavior in adults and they may face cultural recrimination of a sort. 
  • It is specifically the technology of infrastructure that has influenced language either in the identification and naming of new types of water: 'jantorozim' (water that generates electricity) or the creation of new words like 'rozit' (dam) and 'rozitrozim' (dam that generates electricity). 
  • Neologisms include ideas like the popular saying 'prenotoz' (the future is now) - the abstract modifying term for something which will happen in the future is turned into a subject and modified to signify the idea that technology has become fairy advanced for the Rokininuwe. 'kagrazvimine' (child time) is a special term that has appeared recently to denote the time that adults do not act in rational or logical manners. It challenges the old metaphor of acting like a 'kagraz' however and is used to illustrate that such action does not often last for long and that there may be no need to reprimand the individual in some way. 
  • Much of the slang register continues in this way creating new compound words out of words, that are generally believed not to be compoundable, and thereby repeatedly challenging the status quo of the Rokininuwe. 
  • With their interest in being as precise as possible the Rokininuwe has created detailed word lists to describe everything from race, to sexual orientation, class, and gender. Because of the overlying cultural belief of importance of all individuals and the overall importance of harmony of the collective there is no value placed on such distinctions. Such categorization words are seen as merely tools to facilitate faster communication and understanding of specific individuals.
  • The most political aspect of the language of Rokininuwe then is that it is so actively apolitical. It is not that the people do not have propensities to calculate or to pass cursory often irrational judgements, they do, but since they know this they use language as a tool to actively guard against allowing such prejudices or beliefs from becoming too strong in their minds or in their culture. 
  • Advertisements, when they are seen, take the form of messages aimed toward facilitating group cohesion. New equipment or infrastructure developments will be displayed as 'helpful' or 'important' for the group as they will make lives easier for all. Such advertisements are usually put together by the 'Rokinigoz' in an effort to bring group cooperation together for more projects in the future (the ability to put projects together is, of course, how they became 'Rokinigoz' in the first place). 
  • Advertisements for personal property tend to be much more subtle and may not be recognized as conventional advertisements. This is almost exclusively done through word of mouth, or if in print, television, or radio what is being advertised must be done in a very indirect manner. This is because the idea of acquiring property, for the sake of acquiring property, is not seen as worthy behavior for the Rokininuwe. However, it is also accepted that people do generally act this way. Advertisements for personal property, and the acquisition of said property, together inhabit a zone for Rokininuwe where what is real and what is ideal and what is real do not match up creating a kind of confusion for many. Ex. An advertisement for a new television will generally not focus on the distinct features of the television but speak of how it can be a tool for teaching (educational programming) or in bringing together and providing shared experience of watching a sporting event or other program.
  • Rokininuwe people prefer to stand 18 inches to 2 feet apart when conversing. This is close enough for friendly gestures like handshaking but provides each with comfortable space for movement as they tend to be quite animated and talk with their hands to help give a more personal and emotional dimension to the exacting language they speak. 
  • Despite the seeming drive to homogeneity the clothing and personal styles of Rokininuwe are quite different and unique to individuals. There is no harm in self expression unless there is a tendency to put oneself above others, and personal styles and preferences are not seen to have this effect. 

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Rokininuwe Language


  • Rokininuwe language relies on the creation of compound words to create clarity in meaning. Modifying words or ideas like more (than), less (than), most (best/favorite) will often simply be added to the ending of a subject or object word. 
  • If a number is used to modify a subject or object word it is placed at the beginning of the word ex. zakimno, or nose (literally 2 breath in reference to the 2 nostrils). 
  • Multiple modifying words can be placed at the end of a subject or object word. 
  • Capital, or formal letters are reserved for proper names of people, in which case only the first letter is formalized. The exceptions are the words for Rokini and Rokininuwe which are entirely capitalized. In this manner the importance of individuals and the overarching importance of the species and culture are specifically marked.
  • Masculine and feminine forms of words generally do not exist except in some familial circumstances. There are words for brother/sister and father/mother which can also be compounded to create terms for uncle/aunt. Children, however, are generally collectively only referred to as children if not addressing them with their proper name. People within the Rokininuwe culture generally only reference others using their proper given names for this reason and must make efforts to develop knowledge of and relationships with new members of the group quickly for this reason as well. 
  • This phenomenon of the language helps to built rapport quickly and strengthen the nuwe (collective) for the Rokininuwe. 

Overview of the Rokininuwe culture


  • Individually the people of the Rokininuwe culture are identified by the term Rokini (literally person or individual). Nuwe, being the word to describe a collective or network is easily added to to the term Rokini to create implicitly the idea that the culture is understood as a collective of individuals. The understanding of connectedness with other autonomous individuals drives the Rokininuwe's underlying ideology of the importance of collective action for the good of all.
  •  The Rokininuwe culture exists in an environment composed of countless rivers and waterways. The area occupied by the Rokininuwe people is of temperate climate with long spring and autumn seasons punctuated by short winter and summer seasons of little extreme. The world is still heavily forested outside of major population centers with large collection of deciduous trees. 
  • Small communities are guided by managers known as Rokinigoz who are able to secure such a position due to their ability to bring community members together to work constructively for the common benefit. Small communities are subsequently brought together under a central governmental which is identified with the same term as the collective culture, Rokininuwe, reflecting the belief that the society and the people are the same. 
  •  Dedicated to the ideals of science, engineering, and mathematics the Rokini have striven to become the masters of their environment. Infrastructure construction and advances rate as the highest expenditure of of energy and resources for the people. In return levees, dams (for hydroelectric power generation as well as irrigation) roadways, and bridges have led to prosperous lives for the Rokini. 
  • Access to resources and education are open to all. The Rokini operate under a doxic understanding of the principles of baseline communism which follows "from each according to their abilities to each according to their needs". It is commonly accepted that all members of the society are not equal in all ways, and that to pretend this were the case would lead to vast inequalities in the accumulation of goods and relationships. Those with access to more things are expected to use that access to benefit those without such easy access. In this way the Rokini actively protect against the establishment of social classes and inequities between people. 
  • There is much stigmatization tied to the act of attempting to acquire large stores of 'things' and rise above others in the society. In such an event it is said that that individual is attempting to act as "Rokininuwe" - In essence it is understood that the single individual is attempting to become sufficient and powerful in a way that only the collective of all the individuals should be. This is somewhat alike to the idea put forth by Durkheim that the society is god. In this case, though the Rokini have no official deity, the understanding of Rokininuwe is like that of a god. When one person attempts to make themselves like the whole of society, or like a god, it is offensive and intolerable to the rest of society. The offender has their property seized and distributed to those in greatest need. 
  • Rokininuwe culture operates under the idea of a human economy rather than a commercial economy. The primary concern in the trade of goods or services is not that any inherent value of a commodity be matched with other goods or money but in the webs of relationships and binding cooperation which are built through such exchanges. Similar to some cultures on Earth today in the language of Rokininuwe there are no words to signify lend/borrow or sell/buy. 
  • Rokininuwe culture has also adopted a base 12 mathematics system in the belief that such a system is more easily taught to children and is also more easily applied to everyday life. This highlights the belief in open and fair access to both education and knowledge. 
  • The construction of dams for hydropower and irrigation, among other uses, has become a very important aspect of Rokininuwe culture and language has begun to change to reflect that reality. Rokininuwe culture has always had multiple ways of describing and discussing water (janto) including jantokinden (deep water), jantozant (fast running water) jantochidlo (clear water) and jantotroon (murky water), but with the advent of constructing dams and the creation of lakes behind the dams new forms of water have emerged including jantorozim (powerful or electric generating water), jantodrazen (farming water), and jantobwudie (or recreational water) among others. This reflects a belief that water is a thing with the ability to be many different things and possess many different meanings at the same time. The act of creating single new words out of separate words (like jantokinden) also reflects the idea that the idea that the water is deep, fast, or clear is just as important to what it is as the fact that it is water. 
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