Fluccish

First Appearance and Context

Fluccish is heard prominently when the gates open for Apert: onlookers beyond the walls speak it openly, and a man addresses a distressed woman in slangy Fluccish. The narrator also recalls everyday Fluccish words such as "barbecue," "cooler," and "cheesburg." Inside the math, avout switch to it when addressing visiting artisans so they are better understood. Beyond the gates, a visit to a burger household shows a servant speaking in a local Fluccish that is difficult for avout to make out, underscoring dialect and register differences.

Roles/Actions and Affiliations

Fluccish functions as the common tongue used extramuros by visitors, artisans, servants, burgers, and officials. Within the mathic world it serves as a practical bridge to outsiders, while Orth remains the customary language for scholarship and internal discourse. Avout typically use Fluccish only when clarity for non‑avout is the priority, such as during guided conversations or public interactions at the gates.

Relationships

• Counterpart to Orth: Fluccish contrasts with the mathic language and register maintained inside the walls.
• Reference usage: The Dictionary marks certain headwords as Fluccish and dates senses by period labels (e.g., late Praxic Age, early Reconstitution). The entry for Sline explicitly treats it as a Fluccish slang term with evolving senses.

Descriptions/Characteristics

Fluccish includes colloquial and slang registers common outside the walls and varies by locale and social group, which can challenge comprehension for avout unused to current accents and idioms. The Dictionary shows that some terms are tagged as Fluccish and traced across eras (for example, "sline" as a truncation of "baseline" with senses that shifted over time). Everyday vocabulary is broad and fast‑changing (e.g., devices and media like "speely"/"speelycaptor"). Some school and civic terms preserve older layers (e.g., a modern "stabil" identified as deriving from an older Fluccish "Stabilization Center").

Current Status/Location

Fluccish is in active use outside the walls and is commonly heard around the gates during Apert. Inside the maths, it is employed selectively—chiefly when communicating with visitors—while Orth remains the default for study and daily discourse.