Orth

Orth is referenced as the formal language of the mathic world. Speakers note differences between Orth and extramuros speech, and will sometimes switch to Fluccish when addressing visitors from outside the walls.

The in-world reference work The Dictionary explicitly tracks meanings across multiple historical forms of Orth—Proto Orth, Old Orth, Middle Orth (sometimes subdivided into Early and Late), Praxic Orth, and New Orth—showing how usage shifts over time.

First references and context

• Orth is invoked alongside a headword entry that contrasts the senses of “extramuros” across the forms of Orth, illustrating how meanings changed with circumstance.
• In conversation, Fraa Orolo refers to “moving picture” as a phrase in Praxic Orth, and the narrator Fraa Erasmas remarks that speaking in Fluccish sounded less awkward than saying the same thing in Orth when addressing an extramuros artisan.
• Another headword, “Cloister,” lists its senses across Old Orth, Early Middle Orth, Late Middle Orth, and New Orth, explicitly showing the subdivision within Middle Orth.
• A headword “Aut” distinguishes Proto and Old Orth from Middle and later Orth, showing the shift from an individual action to a formal communal rite.

Historical forms and example sense shifts

The Dictionary (4th edition, A.R. 3000) gives “extramuros” as an example of how meanings vary among Orth’s forms: - Old Orth: literally “outside the walls,” used in reference to the walled city‑states of that age. - Middle Orth: “the non‑mathic world,” the turbulent and violent state of affairs following the Fall of Baz. - Praxic Orth: geographical regions or social classes characterized as not yet influenced by the resurgent wisdom of the mathic world. - New Orth: similar to the Middle Orth sense, but often used for settlements immediately around a math, implying relative prosperity and stability.

Another entry, Cloister, demonstrates the subdivision of Middle Orth into Early and Late by enumerating distinct senses across periods: - Old Orth: any closed, locked‑up space. - Early Middle Orth: the math as a whole. - Late Middle Orth: a garden or court surrounded by buildings, understood as the heart or center of the math. - New Orth: any quiet, contemplative space insulated from distractions and disturbances.

A further example is Aut, which uses the period labels directly to mark a semantic shift: - Proto and Old Orth: an act; an action deliberately taken by some entity, usually an individual. - Middle and later Orth: a formal rite, usually conducted by an assembly of avout, by which a math or concent performs a collective act, often solemnized by chants, gestures, or other ritual behaviors.

Another entry, Saunt, illustrates New Orth standardization and orthographic drift: - In New Orth, it is a term of veneration applied to great thinkers, almost always posthumously. - It was formally accepted at the Millennial Orth Convox of A.R. 3000; before that it had been treated as a misspelling of “Savant.” - On stone, where only uppercase is used, it appears as SAVANT (or abbreviated St.); a later decline of standards led to U/V confusion (“SAUANT”), which fostered the lower‑case forms “saunt” (now accepted) and “sant” (still deprecated). - Some traditional orders continue to pronounce it “Savant,” likely including Millenarians.

Another headword, “Mystagogue,” shows how period labels mark different senses: - Early Middle Orth: a theorician specializing in unsolved problems, especially one introducing fids to them. - Late Middle Orth: a member of a suvin that dominated the maths from the middle of the Negative Twelfth Century until the Rebirth, holding that no further theoric problems could be solved; discouraging theoric research; locking libraries; and making a fetish of mysteries and conundrums. - Praxic and later Orth: a pejorative for anyone thought to resemble those of the Late Middle Orth sense.

Usage and relationships

• Domain of use: Orth is used inside the walls of a math by avout; Fluccish is a common tongue spoken extramuros.
• Register and tone: Phrases in Praxic Orth can sound quaint or formal to extramuros ears.
• Practical communication: Avout may adopt Fluccish when speaking with visitors to ensure clarity.

Current status

Orth remains an active language within the mathic world, including in official and scholarly contexts such as The Dictionary’s entries. The labels Proto, Old, Middle (including Early/Late where relevant), Praxic, and New Orth are used in‑text to qualify meanings and mark historical or cultural context.