Culture Shock - 9. Notes on people, pronunciation and place names

Pronunciation guide and listing of people & places:

Natives of Hester-b speak a wonderfully complex language that clearly reflects the frustrating psychology of the natives. I have made no attempt to actually create this language so to clarify when English is used versus the Hester-b language I will use double quotes for “English” and single quotes for the 'Hester-b' language.

The names and objects are pronounced pretty much as they appear, with some influence from the Hawaiian language for actually vocalizing the names.

The Trainer Ot-val'o'o would be pronounced “aught-val-oh-oh” where the first syllable rhymes with hot and the second syllable would rhyme with the man's name Hal. Names of Hester-b natives have each and every syllable being stressed and a bit of a pause added when a syllable is separated by an apostrophe, like in Hawaiian/Polynesian dialects. All vowels are pronounced as soft vowels unless they follow an apostrophe, at which point they are pronounced as long vowels.

For non-person names the vowels are always soft, and stress is on the second last syllable. For example, the word for the game kfara is pronounced like “kuh far ah”. If two consonants are together, the short “uh” sound like a quick grunt is added for ease of pronunciation.

When a child is born on Hester-b the child receives the first syllable of its name. With each major life event another syllable is added to the name. If it is a “normal” event then the syllable does not have a vocal separation and is hyphenated to denote the addition of the event. If the event is special, the added syllable is separated by an apostrophe to denote a partial vocal separation in the speaking of the name. The longer a person lives the more likely they are to have extended their name.

For normal events the name will not typically exceed four syllables but special events or milestones of training are added and can be changed depending on the milestone or level attained. Most adults will have three to four syllable hyphenated names, some will have an additional apostrophe-separated syllable or two. Names with many apostrophes hold a higher place in the hierarchy of the society. Typically names with apostrophes will only have two hyphenated syllables but there are exceptions. The Eldest of a village may have three or even four hyphenated syllables with perhaps one or two additional syllables using an apostrophe in rare cases.

Wind Dancers do not always follow the naming conventions and typically have three to four hyphenated syllables with one or two using an apostrophe. It is common that some syllables are altered, even to the point of having more than one pronounced syllable to each “syllable grouping”. Upon completion of Training, the Wind Dancer may choose to use a different name, wherein all vowels will be soft unless following an apostrophe. The new name may even be one syllable long depending on the Uplifting Ceremony results. The Uplifting Ceremony is held upon graduation from Training and may be for a single Wind Dancer or a whole group.

Terran personae dramatis:
Second Lieutenant Robert Anderson Blake aka Robbie: 29 yo, 6'1 tall (average), blond hair, green eyes, muscular but not bulky build, right handed, easy on the eyes while not being a “pretty boy”, main story is told from Robbie's point of view

Staff Sargent Christopher Clark: 41 yo, 6'2 tall, black hair with grey streaks, dark brown eyes, on the thin side, aide to Robbie Blake, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Corporal William Yuzima: 24 yo, 5'11 tall, reddish brown hair, hazel eyes, has adopted Robbie as an older brother and has a serious case of hero-worship as well, can get Robbie to relax in spite of himself, dazzling smile that usually gets him what he wants

Lt Col Mitchell Blake: Robbie's father, highly disappointed in his son for a variety of reasons and doesn't even bother trying to hide it.

Captain Anton Volod: captain of space ship Argos, a no-nonsense person making him an ideal choice to captain the maiden voyage of the new star ship.

John Mysra: Astronomer that discovered Hester-b, brought along on Argos as a political move to increase popularity of the grossly expensive project, competent scientist that doesn't have many original ideas.

Dr Andrea Marshall (PhD): 47 yo, 5'8 tall, shoulder length auburn wavy hair that is usually tied back severely, on the stocky side, lead scientist (anthropologist) on landing team

Dr Mary McCraken (medical): 36 yo, 5'1 tall, naturally platinum blond hair, blue eyes, physician on landing team

Juan de Palma: 31 yo, 5'11 tall, black tight curly hair, clerk assigned to landing team

Gunnery Sargent Carolina Cicone: 35 yo, 5'8 tall, close-cropped dark hair, head of security detail on landing team, pulse & energy weapons sniper/markswoman

Master Gunnery Sargent Keith Laferrier: Robbie's ex-boyfriend, definitely a “pretty boy” and he knows it, blond hair, blue eyes, face and body so perfect they look like they were moulded out of plastic.

Hester-b personae dramatis:

(Note: Just about all of the natives of Hester-b are delicate and so thin that they might even be considered skeletal. The average height is about 5'2 and they usually have sandy-blond hair with intense beige coloured eyes. They resemble humans, with the only notable exceptions being slightly elongated fingers on both hands with almost uniformly tiny button noses. There is deviation in size & hair/eye colouring, as well as skin tone, but not as wide a distribution range as the human norm.)

Kla-por'o'a'o: female, Seer to Council of Hester-b village #1

Li-ria-vuh-ti: female, young Wind Dancer student of Ot-val'o'o, almost done training and ready for Uplifting Ceremony

Ot-val'o'o: male, Trainer, adviser to Council of Elders in village #1 in all matters pertaining to Wind Dancers/Training and also a source of common sense mixed in with a healthy dose of caution

Syn-dra-val'i: female, Eldest of Village #1, very old woman, with a large dose of intuition, rarely speaks up in Council, can be very blunt almost to the point of being rude

Ra-suh-var: female, neighbour and friend to Ot-val'o'o

Bah't: male, Wind Dancer to Elder Council from Village #1

K'i: male, Legendary original Wind Dancer who designed the entire Training program many generations ago.

Va-ar-lat: male, Elder in Village #1, works with arts & entertainment people

Mo-teh-von-way: male, food preparer in Village #1

Ol-ya-trin: female, Elder and quasi-manager of domestic affairs in Village #1

Il-gat-fed: male, philosopher in Village #1

Zeh-li-fon'u: male, Elder and chief mediator/counsellor in Village #1

Geh-tril-pah'o: male, support staff for Wind Dancers in Village #1

Ho-mah-sed: female, Elder from Village #1, communications co-ordinator between villages on east coast of main continent

Yan-tar-ber'a: male, Elder from Village #2, communications co-ordinator between villages on east coast of main continent

Ur-lit-van-pil'o'o'u: male, Eldest Trainer, presides of all Uplifting Ceremonies

A note on Hester-b place names: The natives have three words for place names: “my home”, “my village” and “my area/route”. Any differentiation between places simply adds a “not” in front and the name of the person from the other “place” as in “not my village Bob's” which understandably adds a bit of confusion for Terrans. Because the Terrans do not know the people in other villages, they have assigned numbers based on the distance from the original landing site with the original landing site being #1.

The name of the solar system comes from the Greek goddess Hestia, goddess of the hearth and humble domestic joy. The planet is the second from the star at the centre of that system, hence Hester-b. The planet Hester-b has one large continent, three smaller continents and a large number of small island and islets. Trade exists between all villages in a well co-ordinated and efficient rotation.