Kanal reader

DISSONANCE: Reading the Languages

Kanal is the common speech of the Mud. It grew over many generations out of Louisiana Creole, Haitian Kreyòl, Louisiana French, the English of New Orleans, Spanish, Vietnamese and, later, Korean. Its sentences run subject, verb, object, with small words before the verb for time and manner:

• te past; ap in progress; gon about to, intending to; ve will
• pa not
• mo I, tu you, li he, she or it, nu we (with you), vu you all
• la the; di of (ekip di Delphine, Delphine’s crew)
• yodi at the end of a sentence means “they say”: the speaker heard it and did not see it. A runner’s report closes with viza (seen) or yodi (heard).

Pronunciation. Kanal has six vowels, a e i o u è, with è as in “bed.” Ou sounds as in “soup,” ch as in “shoe,” j as the s in “measure,” y as in “yes,” and r is a light tap. Stress falls on the next-to-last syllable. Older speakers keep the è and the final consonants; younger speakers often let them go.

The switch. The Canopy speaks a flattened standard English. Mud speakers change into it at checkpoints, counters and hearings, and out of it at home. In this book that change is shown by the line turning into English.

Other languages of the Union. The companion novel, The Fourth Rail, is set on the northeastern corridor, where people speak Span, Latch and Switch.

Glossary

Words as they are spoken in this book. Each entry gives the form, what it means, and the language it came in from where that is known. Readers do not need this list to follow the story; it is here for anyone who wants to look.

Sources: EN, English. HK, Haitian Kreyòl. KO, Korean. LC, Louisiana Creole. LF, Louisiana French. SP, Spanish. VI, Vietnamese. An entry with no source is part of the old core of the language.

Dictionary

Kanal is the spoken language of the Mud. The standard English of the Canopy is what its speakers switch into for officials, forms and the Board.

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