Bjted

Bjted is the universal language of the Neon Worlds. It is spoken by the Bjtedar, written in the Tedsar script, and preserved in the founding song Gesbkydvnki.

On the Name

Bjted is the name of the language. It is not the name of the people, the place, or the script; those have their own names:

The Language - Bjted - The Old Fire Tongue

The People - Bjtedar - The Bjtedar

The Homeland - Bjtedon - (the Homeland)

One Speaker - Bjteda - a Bjteda

The Script - Tedsar - fire-writing

Informal Name - Stgoki -"our tongue"

Adjective - Bjtedic - (of or relating to Bjted)

On the Sound of the Name

Bjted begins with a consonant cluster that is unusual in English: bj-. This cluster is common in Bjted and is one of the ways the language announces itself as something other than English. The j is not the English j, it is the zh sound, as in "measure."

The word is short, hard-edged, and carved. It sounds like what it names: something old that has been burning a long time.

On the Shortened Form

Bjted is the shortened form of bjbjted. The shortening follows a general pattern in the language: when two syllables of a compound are identical or near identical, the first is dropped in casual speech. The full form bjbjted is preserved in formal and poetic registers, including the founding song: Gesbkydvnki.

On the Informal Endonym

Stgoki ("our tongue") is what the Bjtedar call their language in casual speech among themselves. Bjted is the formal name, what they call it when speaking to outsiders, in official documents, and in song. Both are correct. The choice between them signals register, not correctness.

On the Script

Tedsar ("fire-writing") is the script used to write Bjted. The two names are companions: Bjted is the language as spoken, Tedsar is the language as carved. A person who knows Bjted but cannot read Tedsar is literate in the spoken tongue but not the written one.

On the Founding Text

The language was created from a song with imaginary words. That song, Gesbkydvnki is the founding text and is preserved as-is, in its original unspaced form. The first word of that song is bjbjted, the full form of the name. Everything else in the language derives from the vocabulary, grammar, and phonology of that founding text.

On the Universal Function

Bjted is the universal language of the Neon Worlds. It is not a local dialect or a secret code. It is the shared tongue of the Bjtedar and the common speech of the world they live in. Its universality is not a mystical property; it is a historical fact about how the world came to be organized around a single trade language.

The name is a compound of ordinary roots, ancient and fire, and its meaning is descriptive, not sacred.

The origin is human and historical: the language came from the song Gesbkydvnki, and the song came from people.

Cross-references

bjbj root: "ancient"

ted root: "fire"

bjbjted full compound form

Bjtedar the people

Bjtedon the homeland

Bjteda one speaker

Bjtedic adjective

Stgoki informal endonym

Tedsar the script

The founding song is Gesbkydvnki, the text from which the language was built.