All the tribes
of men, or gilaks, of the inner world, speak the same common language of
Pellucidar. David Innes learns this language while on the Sagoth slave march
to Phutra. He describes it as charming and monosyllabic. This language has
no similarity with any of those from the outer crust. David learns the
tongue from Dian the Beautiful, also a prisoner on the march.
Jason Gridley of
California is another man from the surface that learns the inner world’s
language of men. His motivation is obvious. His instructor is Jana, The Red
Flower of Zoram!
Lt.
Frederich Wilhelm Eric von Mendeldorf und von Horst, former German officer
of the Imperial air forces, now lost in Pellucidar, learns the language from
his new friend Dangar. Von Horst was already the master of four or five
languages and now has nothing better to do, since he is paralyzed by a
trodon’s bite, lying on his back, and waiting his turn to be gobbled up by
the beast’s hatchlings. This language has nothing in common with any of
the ones already known by von Horst.
The
races and tribes of Pellucidar are varied indeed, but most all of them speak
the language of gilaks. The giant man-eating Azarians, Amiocap’s Buried
People, the Bison-Men, the insane Jukans, the colorful Korsars, the
Mammoth-men, and the bronze-age Xexots all converse in the same tongue. As
diverse are Pellucidar’s people, plants, and animals, it seems unusual
that the races of this large landmass speak the same language.
I
would not have guessed it, but even my favorite Pellucidar race, the gorobor-riding
reptile men, the Horibs, converse in this language. Tarzan is shocked when
he hears one speak like a man. Jason is repulsed by their hideous attributes
and this is magnified because of their human speech.
There are a few
exceptions to the rule. The first race encountered by David Innes and Abner
Perry is a black-skinned, arboreal race of ape-men. David describes their
communication as chattering and gibbering. He also says that “roars of
laughter” ensued when they discovered that he had no tail. David had not
yet learned the common language, but it is obvious that these creatures do
not speak it. Perhaps they speak a version of mangani.
Tarzan
encounters a band of the gorilla-like Sagoths early in his adventure in
Pellucidar. Three of the brutes seize him, and one bull asks, “Ka-goda?”
“This
word, coming from the lips of a hairy gorilla man of the inner world,
suggested possibilities of the most startling nature. For years Tarzan had
considered the language of the great apes as the primitive root language of
created things. The great apes, the lesser apes, the gorillas, the baboons
and the monkey utilized this with various degrees of refinement and many of
its words were understood by jungle animals of other species and by many of
the birds; but, perhaps, after the fashion that our domestic animals have
learned many of the words in our vocabulary, with this difference that the
language of the great apes has doubtless persisted unchanged for countless
ages.
That
these gorilla men of the inner world used even one word of this language
suggested one of two possibilities---either they held an origin in common
with the creatures of the outer crust, or else that the laws of evolution
and progress were so constant that this was the only form of primitive
language that could have been possible to any creatures emerging from the
lower orders toward the estate of man. But the suggestion that impressed
Tarzan most vividly was that this single word, uttered by the creature
grasping him by the throat, postulated familiarity on the part of his fierce
captors with the entire ape language that he had used since boyhood.”
--from
Tarzan at the Earth’s Core
The
Sagoths are also surprised. They have captured many gilaks before, and
Tarzan is the first one that has ever been able to speak and understand
their language. However, later, when Tarzan and the Sagoth, Tar-gash,
encounter the gilak, Thoar, they discover that he is able to understand a
little of the Sagoth language. Tarzan’s considerable experience in
learning new dialects allows him to quickly master the language of
Pellucidar under Thoar’s tutelage.
On
the slave-march to Phutra, David observes that the Sagoths speak a different
language when addressing their captive gilaks. He describes it as being
similar to the “Pidgin-English of the Chinese coolie” and later, “a
bastard language.” This is not the mother tongue of the Sagoths but one
they use when conversing with gilaks.
When David first
meets Ja the Mezop, Ja speaks in an unknown tongue. This must be different
than the common language because by this time, David was fluent in it. The
two are able to converse using the bastard tongue the Sagoths use.
The
Sagoths speak to their earless Mahar masters with a sign language.
The
Mahars communicate among themselves by projecting their thoughts into the
fourth dimension where they are perceived by the sixth sense of the
listener. It’s not telepathy, and the Mahars have to be in each other’s
presence for it to work. They can’t use this method with the Sagoths or
gilaks.
In
the Forest of Death, von Horst and La-ja are captured by the cavern-dwelling
Gorbuses. Von Horst is amazed when he hears one of them use the English
words for cleaver and dagger. This hideous race of cannibals has fleeting
memories of outer world life, where they were all murderers. They boast of
how many they’ve killed and by what means. Could this be hell? Burroughs
doesn’t develop this interesting concept enough to satisfy.
The
sabertooth men who live inside a volcanic crater near Kali have their own
strange monkey-like language. Ah-gilak, also called Old Man whose name
was not Dolly Dorcas, has been a prisoner of the sabertooth men long
enough that he is able to jabber back and forth with them in their own
tongue.
The
gorilla-sheep of Indiana (Hooja’s Island) are a barely human race of
peaceful farmers. They speak a simplified version of the common language.
Words
from the common language of Pellucidar:
