John Norman: Savages of Gor

"To be sure," I said, "it is extremely difficult for them to speak Gorean, oranother human language." It was difficult for them, of course, given the natureof their oral cavity, throat, tongue, lips and teeth, to produce human phonemes.

They can, however, sometimes in a horrifying way, approximate them. I shuddered.

I had, once or twice, heard such creatures speaking Gorean. It had beendisconcerting to hear human speech, or something resembling human speech,emanating from such a source. I was just as pleased that we had a translator atour disposal.

"Look," said Samos.

"I see," I said.

A small, conical, red light began to glow on the top of the machine.

The slighter of the two monsters then drew itself up. It began to speak.

We understood, initially, of course, nothing of what it said. We listened to it,not moving, in the dim, pale-yellowish, flickering light of the unshuttered darklantern, amidst the dark, dancing shadows in that abandoned tam complex.

I remember noting the glinting of the golden rings in its ears, and themoistness of saliva about its dark lips and on its fangs.

"I am Kog," came from the translator. "I am below the rings. With me is Sardak,who is within the rings. I speak on behalf of the Peoples, and the chieftains ofthe Peoples, those who stand above the rings. I bring you greetings from theDominants, and from the Conceivers and Carriers. No greetings do I bring youfrom those unworthy of the rings, from the discounted ones, the unnamed andcraven ones. Similarly no greetings do I bring you from our domestic animals,those who are human and otherwise. In short, honor do I do unto you, bringingyou greetings from those who are entitled to extend greetings, and bringing youno greetings from those unworthy to give greetings. Thus, then, do I bring yougreetings on behalf of the Peoples, on behalf of the ships, and the SteelWorlds. Thus, then, do I bring you greetings on behalf of the cliffs of thethousand tribes." These words, and word groups, came forth from the translator,following intervals between the creature's inputs. They are produced in a flat,mechanical fashion. The intonation contours, as well as meaningful tonalqualities, pitches and stresses, from which one can gather so much in livingspeech, unfortunately, tend to be absent or only randomly correlated in such aformal, desiccated output. Similarly the translation, it seems, is oftenimperfect, or, at least, awkward and choppy. Indeed, it takes a few momentsbefore one can begin to follow the productions of such a machine coherently but,once this adjustment is made, there is little difficulty in comprehending thegist of what is being conveyed. In my presentation of the machine's output Ihave, here and there, taken certain liberties. In particular I have liberalizedcertain phrasings and smoothed out various grammatical irregularities. On theother hand, given the fact that I am conveying this material in English, at tworemoves from the original, I think that the above translation and what follows,is not only reasonably adequate in a literal sense, but also conveys something,at least, of the flavor of the original. On the other hand, I do not claim tounderstand all aspects of the translation. For example, I am unclear on the ringstructure and on the significance of the references to tribal cliffs.

"I think, Samos," I said, "You are expected to respond."

"I am Samos," said Samos, "and I thank you for your cordial and welcomesalutations."

Fascinated, Samos and I listened to what was, with one exception, a successionof rumbling, throaty utterances emanating from the machine. The machineapparently accepted and registered Gorean phonemes, and then scanned thephonemic input for those phoneme combinations, which expressed Gorean cognitiveunits, or morphemes. In this way, morphemes, per se, or linguistic cognitiveunits, at least as comprehended units, do not occur in the machine. With a humantranslator sound is processed, and understood morphemically, which understandingis then reprocessed into the new phonemic structures. With the machine thecorrelation is simply between sound structures, simpliciter, and it is theauditor who supplies the understanding. To be sure, a linguistic talent of nomean degree is required to design and program such a device. We did hear oneGorean word in the translation. That was the name "Samos'. When the machineencounters a phoneme or phonemic combination, which is not correlated with aphoneme or phoneme combination in the new language it presents the originalinput as a portion of the new output. For example, if one were to utter nonsensesyllables into the device the same nonsense syllables, unless an accident or acoincidence occurred, would be played back.

The creatures, then, heard the name of Samos. Whether they could pronounce it ornot, or how close they could come to pronounce it, would depend on the sound andon the capacity of their own vocal apparatus. This is different; it should benoted, with the names of the two creatures, "Kog' and "Sardak'. These names weregiven in Gorean phonemes, not in the phonemes of the creatures' own language. Inthis case, of course, this made it clear that these two names, at least, hadbeen programmed into the machine. The machine, doubtless, had been altered to beof aid to two particular individuals in some particular mission. PresumablySamos and I could not have pronounced the actual names of the creatures. "Kog' and "Sardak', however, doubtless correlated in some fashion, given some type ofphonemic transcription found acceptable by the creatures, with their actualnames. There was probably, at least, a syllabial correlation.

"I bring you greetings," said Samos, "from the Council of Captains, of Port Kar,Jewel of Gleaming Thassa."

I saw the lips of the two creatures draw back. 1, too, smiled. Samos wascautious, indeed. What would the Council of Captains know of such creatures, orof the warrings among worlds? He had not identified himself as being among theparty of those forces arrayed against the ravaging, concupiscent imperialism ofour savage colleagues. I myself, whereas I had served Priest-Kings, did notregard myself as being of their party. My lance, in such matters, so to speak,was free. I would choose my own wars, my own ventures.

"I bring you greetings, too," said Samos, "from the free men of Port Kar. I donot bring you greetings, of course, from those who are unworthy to greet you,for example, from our slaves, who are nothing, and who labor for us, and whom weuse for our sport and pleasure."

Kog briefly inclined his head. I thought Samos had done rather well. Slaves onGor are domestic animals, of course. A trained sleen in a sleen market willusually bring a higher price than even a beautiful girl sold naked in a slavemarket. This is doubtless a function of supply and demand. Beautiful femaleslaves are generally cheap on Gor, largely as a result of captures andbreedings. It is not unusual, in most cities, for a prize tarsk to bring ahigher price than a girl. The girls understand this, clearly, and it helps themto understand their place in the society.

"I speak on behalf of the Peoples, on behalf of the Steel Worlds," said Kog.

"Do you speak on behalf of all the Peoples, on behalf of all the Steel Worlds?" asked Samos.

"Yes," said Kog.

"Do you speak on behalf of all of those of the Peoples, of all of those of theSteel Worlds?" asked Samos. This, I thought, was an interesting question. Itwas, of course, subtly different from the preceding question. We knew thatdivisions as to tactics, if not ultimate objectives, existed among parties ofsuch creatures. We had learned this in the Tahari.

"Yes," said Kog, unhesitantly.

When Kog had made his response to the question I was, by intent, watching nothim but the other of the two creatures. Yet I saw no flicker of doubt oruneasiness in his eyes, nor any incipient lifting of the broad ears. It did,however, draw its lips back slightly, observing my attention. It had apparentlyfound my attempt to read its behavioral cues amusing.