Address and Titles

Some of the most spoken words in the Spraecha are the words of address. See also Common Reason Tongue#Address.

Addressing the free

Jor: What a slave calls any free person, without distinction — a magistrate, a guild master, an elder, and a child of the house are all Jor. Jwygor in the formal register.
Moejor: What a slave calls her own owner: Jor with the possessive Moe- fused on, and among the most frequently spoken words in the language. Jor goes around the room; Moejor lands on one person. The other possessives work the same way — Woe- yours, Ae- theirs, Woes- ours — and one slave asking another where her owner is asks after Woejor. The possessive fuses only onto address words; in the formal register it stays separate, so before a magistrate Moejor becomes moe Jwygor. Where a household owns her jointly any member may be her Moejor; in practice it is whoever bought her or whoever she was assigned to.
Jan: Free people spoken of as a class — reference, not address. A slave says the Jan when speaking of free people in general, usually to another slave. Not an insult, and not entirely neutral; within earshot of a free person it is a small impertinence. Jwygaen in the formal register, which a clerk writes and a philosopher says, and nobody uses in a kitchen.

Addressing a slave

Daes: A slave, and what a free person calls any slave. A slave someone knows is called by name; slaves use each other's names and call a stranger daes. Sei-daes is a female slave and broe-daes a male one. Daesei is the formal register — what a magistrate writes, a Bill of Chattel records, an auctioneer says.
Moedaes: What an owner calls his own slave, the mirror of Moejor. Called across a market, only one head turns.

Names

A slave has no Famrae of her own, so the Sigring carries her owner's. The name she is called is what her owner gives, as for a pet or livestock, and each sale can bring a new one. On manumission she chooses her own — the one she was born with, the one she was given, or a new one — and it is her first decision as a free person. A freed person calls her former owner by his name, as any free person would.

Gender

The Spraecha does not carry gender by default — a habit inherited from a time when nobody could see who they were talking to — and marks it only when the distinction is doing work. The authority prefixes Da- (man) and Ma- (woman) attach only to words for free people: Da-Jor, Ma-Jwygor. The casual prefixes broe- and sei- mark gender on ordinary nouns and are the ones a slave word takes; a slave is never addressed with authority forms. An owner may require the gendered form for himself — Moedajor and Moemajor are both common — and in a room she uses whichever he requires for him and Jor for everyone else.

The formal register

Used where the setting calls for it, and each city has its own settings: Eldershore around elders, Stormharbor at a Thing, Clearhold before the Registrars and in examination halls, Forgegate in its government buildings, Shining Reach before the Senate and in magistrate courts. The Iron Coves never use it. A Shining Reach salon does not require it and it comes out there more than in any other informal setting, and which register a slave uses, and how, is read for what it says about her and her owner.

At home

A household sets its own address within its walls. In private a slave calls her owner Moejor unless he wants something else. A change of register at home can mean something or nothing: a business owner who calls his slaves daes is running a business; an owner who requires the formal register at home is usually correcting someone.

Speech

Four rules, all practical. She speaks when speech is useful — to report, to warn, to answer, to ask. She does not interrupt and does not contradict her owner in company. In private she may say anything and is obliged to be honest with him. She does not volunteer opinions to guests and defers what is her owner's to answer.

Refusal

A slave may firmly refuse any free person whose request contradicts her owner's. Danger is one case: a free person who means her harm is contradicting her owner's standing wish that she be kept safe, so she leaves. It escalates in steps — she tries to leave politely, then says no firmly, then raises her voice and calls for help. What follows if it goes further is under Protection and Its Failures#When she is in danger.