Melothia

Me and my twin sister, Pselati, had decided to go out to enjoy the morning breeze in the city. Usually, the area outside the park was crowded with people, chatting with each other. Noise was a common thing throughout this packed urban area-the most populated in the whole world. Talata Park was right in the central area of the city, and also the most commerce-packed. This was the time of day in which the general population had gone into their houses for the day.

Even though this city was nocturnal, it still seemed packed in the daytime. I easily handled this fact. Pselati was the one who was barely able to stand that many people. Especially this region-we lived out in the suburbs, and those areas were pretty lightly packed. Thus, we were used to that.

Pselati was on her phone, scrolling through Spotify. She had a lot of favorite artists, mostly of Atlasian music. Very few were European, and to my knowledge, only one was American. For startlingly obvious reasons, she had the default language as Rengeti.

The breeze was refreshing. Yesterday was a Friday, and thus we had all classes that day. All night last night I had been preparing for the exam on mathematics and linguistics, two of the most important topics here in East America. My sister had used the opportunity to go on a shopping spree instead. She was unconcerned about the exam.

“How was your studying last night? You were buried in your room and wouldn’t come out.” she asked me, in the elegant Solarian language.

“I made a lot of progress. I am already confident in my ability to pass it. However, I think I could still use a little bit more practice beforehand, just to be prepared.” I replied, in the same language.

“Cool! I was able to buy a tremendous lot of things. I barely finished putting them away when you came.” she exclaimed.

We continued to chatter for a little more time, before I noticed something: one sign now said West instead of North, like it was supposed to. Probably someone stole it.

“I think perhaps somebody stole that and replaced it, or maybe they’re just pranking us.” My sister dismissed it carelessly, and I found reason in the madness of her usual logic. We continued to chatter, changing the topic to the sunrise. It was a beautiful, natural yellow-red color, blending into a deep blue on the far horizon. The clouds around it made the whole city even more beautiful, taking the colors of the sunrise and casting them upon the city.

Then, another strange thing that was completely unexpected happened. The Sun seemed to be getting somewhat brighter. The signs we could easily ignore, but not this. People couldn’t have done that. Maybe it was space bending, or just air lensing.

“What do you think is going on?” I asked my sister, as if she would know.

“And you expect me to know?” she asked. Now, the sun was fluctuating, in size and position. It was now wandering across the sky far faster than it should be able to. It was growing significantly hotter, too. And now, it was visibly fluctuating in size. A car horn honked, and I jumped as it ran into a pole. Almost instantly, distant sirens started to wail. Probably called for some other reason, though. The city was clearly already in a panic.

People dashed from building to building. They dialed various other people. Cars were beginning to ignore traffic lights. This was clearly a dangerous thing, considering they were there for a purpose. Even as this was happening, the grass turned blue. I decided the world had gone truly mad and got up.

“Pselati, we should get going. It’s getting more and more dangerous by the moment.”

“I agree, Ramalo. We should. It’s probably a lot safer in the suburbs. Certainly a lot less people.”

Even as we went, the chaos seemed to increase. This was probably because more and more people were realizing that they didn’t know what was happening. Even though the walk home only lasted ten minutes, it seemed like forever. We were relieved to finally get there.

Even there, though, it was somewhat chaotic. I didn’t like chaos, and promptly went to my room to think. A while later, I went back outside, to enjoy the breeze and ignore the changes. Suddenly, however, three houses picked themselves up and rotated ninety degrees. I could not possibly ignore that. The air felt very strained, almost as if it would snap, and I headed straight back inside. This was too much.

Even compared to the chaos outside, this was a bit much for me. I retreated to my bed and tried to take a nap. However, with all the noise going on outside, that was not possible. My phone had no signal, either. So, I went over to Pselati’s room.

“I want to be able to end this chaos. Who even caused this in the first place?”

“You really expect me to know.” my sister responded.

“Then what are we going to do about it?”

“Let’s find out!”

“I’m not sure if I want to…”

This was probably the third time that we had come out of the house today, which was unusual for me but not for Pselati. I managed to get to the curb. Then the truly strange thing happened.

I noticed that the cars were going by a lot faster suddenly. So were the people. This was a very strange thing that was happening to the world, and suddenly I felt alone, even though Pselati was right next to me. This was the strangest day of my life. I did not like new experiences. I liked life the way it usually was. I hated the fact that time was seemingly speeding up.

The cars and people kept moving faster and faster. At the point where I thought they couldn’t possibly go faster, however, things snapped back to normal. The sun was suddenly back in the position it should be. But I still felt afraid. I felt that this was not going to be the end of it.

“Sister, what do you think will happen next?” I asked.

She said something unintelligible in another language that I hadn’t encountered before.

“I didn’t know that you knew another language! Why didn’t you tell me?” I was wondering. Then I realized: I was speaking in a language that I had never heard before.

She said something else. I realized that this couldn’t have been a prank from her. She didn’t know a Fliani language-and I knew that this was one because of the sound of it. Since nobody from here knew one, I wondered what had happened to this world. I most likely would not want to know.

I saw somebody on the road trying to talk to someone else, and I realized that we were not alone. Everyone was also having this problem, which made this even worse. I didn’t even know what this language was. I witnessed more and more people having this happen to them.

It seemed to be an extremely wide variety of languages, too. I guessed that this was the effect of what had happened earlier. But all effects have causes, and if you think about it, all causes can be an effect. So, what happened to make that happen? I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know, and I wasn’t sure if I could ever know. This would certainly a mystery to plague us.

My sister seemed to get the idea as well, which was a surprise, because she usually took time to get ideas. I saw a traffic warden yelling at some old lady, to no effect. I had no clue what language he was speaking. She seemed to be fairly confused too. Perhaps everyone felt the same way I did.

Just then, I realized that I had lost knowledge of all languages except this one. As the chaos subsided, I returned once more to my room. At least it was quiet. I got onto my phone to message my half-brother Khalagis about this. He lived over in Atlantici, which was several thousand miles away. If this had happened to him too, then we were screwed. If not, he would speak Ignan, characterized by its harsh consonants, and I could feel relief.

“Khal, Khal! How are you?” I said on the call to him.

I, to my despair, heard him speaking in another language. I recognised it, though-it sounded European. Probably German, but I had no clue beyond the phonemes.

“Khal, stop messing around. I need to talk to you. Also, when did you learn German?”

He continued to speak in that language. I was beginning to get frustrated by this new change.

“Khal! Stop messing around! I actually have to talk to you! I know you cannot understand me, but please-” He hung up on me.

I now knew that this was possibly a nationwide thing-a government test. But there should have been a warning. There would probably have been multiple warnings, so that people could prepare. I wished that people could be reasonable for once. Now, the air was filled with the sounds of shouting, alongside police sirens. Distant fire sirens had begun to fill the air.

I knew that if this continued, shortly the world would end. I was also increasingly anxious about it. I knew that there was one last thing I could do: if I called my Dutch friend Luuk, I could see if it was worldwide or not. If it was worldwide, then we could possibly still check if the influence extended to online.

I found out that he, also, was having issues with this. This meant that everyone on earth was having issues. I guessed, we would have to cope with it until it ended. I didn’t even know how long it would last. The government should have told us about this. But, they did not, and this was what happened. There were over 10,000 languages on this continent alone. People around the world were probably panicking.

I checked the news, to see what people would have to say about this issue. It turned out, the captions were unreadable and the reporter was in tears. They seemed to be babbling in yet another language. The cityscape behind her was brighter than usual: I could pick out several pixelated fires.

My next stop would be google translate. It was entirely dedicated to languages, and there were over two hundred on it. I watched as the website loaded on my computer. Then, I found that the same thing had happened to it. By chance, one language was one that I had heard of: Navajo. The rest might as well have been gibberish, invented languages.

My last stop on the internet was email. Since the other two stops had been affected, I had no doubt this would be too. Besides, I had my weekly email of strange events around the world coming in today. Unfortunately, it was unreadable-but I somehow could tell it was a Turkic dialect.

I knew that there would be thousands of mini-crashes in the stock market as people found themselves unable to read what was on it. Millions would lose their jobs. The entire rest of the day went by like that. Nobody would be able to understand each other.

The next morning, I woke up expecting the same thing to be happening. However, I instantly realized: I had the knowledge of the original languages back. I knew Solarian, Ignan, Basicca and this new language: I also realized, from the context of the other languages, that it was called Logavidese, and it was a Coldonese dialect. I figured that this language would be quite useful in the future.

It would, for instance, help me gain a deeper understanding of the Peladi-Nestoi languages to the south. Two, it would give me an advantage over anyone who didn’t know that language: my older sister knew all the languages I did, plus Rengeti. Based on what I knew, only 600,000 other people would know it, plus the natives and 50,000 extras in Atlasia. So, it was unlikely that I would find someone else who would know that language.

After that one fateful day, the world became more connected, as people realized the urgency of this. Plus, it had connected people on a personal level, and in society, it revitalized previously moribund languages. Suddenly, the 600,000+ people who knew them would be able to share the knowledge of it online. Not everyone had internet access, however, so they wouldn’t be able to. Anyway, it would be hard to find all the extra speakers of any particular language. But, it would prove to be a unifying, as opposed to a dividing force.

Cultures around the world would connect with each other, and people would find their careers easier now that they knew another language. Elements of languages as diverse as Avvan and Thai would have influence on speakers of, for example, Belarusian, or Swahili. Linguistic barriers would be erased, and this would hasten the globalization of technology.

Looking back on this event, six years later, I would say that it also changed me as a person. It got me very interested in the cultures of other people. It also connected me to the millions of people who spoke a Coldonese language. It has inspired me to learn as many languages as possible. Now, as opposed to then, I know the additional languages Tseric, Zelua, Piscan, Rengeti, English and Hindi.

Luuk, Khalagis, Pselati and I had found many, many differences and similarities in the languages. We found that we were able to create a code-language between the new ones, and were brought closer together by this. On the other hand, it has also made us more unique. For example, I myself had been drawn outside my shell, and now enjoyed the company of several new friends.

Luuk was even more social than he already had been, and had grown a close bond with his brother and aunt, who he lived with. Khalagis was now more interested in the intricacies of nature, and he was taking biology classes. Pselati herself became influenced by the culture of the Fliani language that she had learned-she had converted to their faith. She was the one perhaps the most dramatically affected by that day. Even dad had become closer to his coworkers-and was lucky enough to find someone who had learned the same language as he had. Now, the two were excellent friends, and did everything together.

Overall, that day-with the intensely multinational dialogues, exchanges and more-has changed humanity, linguistics, culture and the sciences, as a whole.