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Chapter 85: Chapter 83: Original Vowel (Please Follow Read)
New Year’s Day.
Two in the afternoon.
East Capital Library, the annex.
Fang Cheng glanced at the display shelf that introduced the holiday activities.
Then he walked down the corridor and quickly found a multimedia amphitheater classroom.
Upon entering, he saw a silver-haired female scholar standing at the podium, adjusting the slides.
The lecture seemed to have just started.
There were already quite a few people sitting inside, including some older industry scholars and some young students.
Fang Cheng quietly took a seat in the last row of empty seats and joined them.
The female scholar fiddled with the microphone on the podium and cleared her throat.
This was a signal for the audience, who were whispering among themselves, to quiet down.
As the murmur in the room gradually ceased, the female scholar began the lecture.
"As everyone knows, our world is home to many different languages and scripts. Within Xia Country alone, more than 100 languages have been identified to this day. If we consider the whole world, that number is even more astonishing..."
Fang Cheng pricked up his ears, focusing on the lecture.
He had already seen the resume of the main speaker on the display shelf.
A professor at East Capital University’s archaeology department, a renowned scholar in ancient human linguistics, Hao Yu.
In some areas of academic research, she can certainly be considered a top authority in the world.
And the title of this lecture was:
"The Common Origins of World Languages and Its Significance to the Evolutionary History of Humanity."
Just as Professor Hao began her introduction, the sound of urgent high heels tapping on the floor could be heard.
Following that, a whiff of fragrance breezed by.
An elegantly poised woman sat down right next to Fang Cheng.
Fang Cheng looked aside and realized it was Lin Chuqiao, the beautiful teacher he had met that day.
"Shh!"
Arriving late, she raised her finger to her lips, signifying not to speak.
Fang Cheng turned his head away wordlessly.
Although this woman had helped him once, surely they weren’t that familiar with each other?
Today, she wore a dignified beige suit dress that emphasized her figure even more impressively than before.
The faint scent of perfume she wore drifted over intermittently, causing one’s attention to waver involuntarily.
Fang Cheng sniffed and slightly frowned.
Sometimes, having too keen a sense of smell is not a good thing.
After glancing at the woman beside him, he chose to move and sit with an empty seat between them.
Lin Chuqiao calmly observed the direction of the podium, the corner of her lips curling into an almost imperceptible smile.
"In our academic field, we refer to the most ancient common linguistic elements as ’Original Vowels’, which originated from Primitive Tribes living in the highland areas of the continent during the great flood. After the floodwaters receded, the survivors spread them throughout the world."
Professor Hao turned on the projector, using the prepared text and pictures to outline her academic viewpoint.
"The Original Vowels can be considered the most basic type of human throat sounds, with vowels and monosyllables as the core elements to express significant events in the lives of primitive people."
"For example, the connection between humans and gods, sacrifices, celestial bodies, the changing of the seasons, and the cycle of life and death, leaving traces in almost every language."
She walked around the stage, reaching out to point at the five basic vowels displayed on the screen.
"The vowel E, in Xia Country’s language, retains the most original state in both pronunciation and script, represented by a horizontal line symbolizing the earth stretching from east to west, the source of all things, and also the numeral ’one’, the ’one’ of the Taiyi."
"The vowel O, in the original writing, is a circle representing the sky, boundless time, without beginning nor end, also corresponding to the Wuji concept in Xia Country’s culture."
"The vowel I is a symbol from top to bottom, representing the ladder connecting heaven and earth, humans and gods."
"Interestingly, these three vowels combined also happen to be the name of the Creator in ancient Desert Language..."
Professor Hao went on to describe the primitive significances of the five vowels, then summed up with:
"All languages in the world can be seen as a branching system of evolution, with the Original Vowels at the root of the human language tree."
"The Xia Country language system is one that is extremely important, involving both phonetic and pictographic meanings, and is also the language system with the largest user base in the world today, thus holding immense research value to our academic community..."
Saying this, Professor Hao took a sip of tea and rested momentarily.
As he continued the narration, his tone became somewhat heavy.
"Everyone here might have heard about the unfortunate incident that occurred at West Mountain at the beginning of last month. I lost several colleagues and friends in the tragedy."
"However, in the archaeological remains of West Mountain, items were also discovered that could corroborate the theory of the Original Vowel."
Upon hearing this, not only was Fang Cheng’s strong interest piqued, but other scholars could not help but whisper among themselves.
Professor Hao didn’t beat around the bush and quickly continued:
"Next, I will play an audio recording."
"This is a compilation of vocal materials based on the primitive script found in the Underground Palace, which has been decoded."
As soon as these words were spoken, the whole audience couldn’t help but buzz with excitement.
At this point, Lin Chuqiao leaned in and whispered a reminder: 𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑝𝘶𝘣.𝑐𝘰𝘮
"Listen carefully, perhaps the answer you’re looking for is within it."
Fang Cheng gave her a somewhat surprised look.
He also settled down with some anticipation, quietly waiting.
Professor Hao took out a cassette and placed it in the tape player on the podium.
Perhaps to allow everyone to better immerse themselves in the experience of listening, the lights above were turned off one by one.
Click.
As the button was pressed, the faint rustling of the cassette turning could be heard through the microphone, filling the entire lecture hall.
In the darkness, everyone held their breath in concentration, waiting for the voice recording to officially begin.
Rustle, rustle, rustle...
Just as everyone was getting a bit impatient.
Moo—
All of a sudden, a desolate and deep moo sound came from the player.
And through the microphone’s transmission, the sound waves spread instantly to everyone’s ears.
The sound seemed as if it had traveled from the distant primordial times, across epochs, to this very place.
It made one’s heart tremble slightly.
Fang Cheng did not know how other listeners felt exactly.
But in his mind, it was as if a chord was suddenly struck.
Buzz, buzz, buzz—
With the vibration of the sound waves, he felt a peculiar resonance between his body and the surrounding environment.
That deep, profound melody was like knocking on a firmly closed door in his brain, giving him a sense of sudden enlightenment.
Before he could concentrate and reflect.
Another vowel followed.
This vowel seemed to seep through the barely opened door.
Very slight, yet very noisy.
Gradually, it turned into a sound reminiscent of the tide.
In a trance, Fang Cheng actually felt as if he were there in person.
Right before him, a gigantic wave was forming, continuously crashing against the door, about to break forth.
The grandeur of it made Fang Cheng doubt whether he was experiencing some kind of illusion.
In the blink of an eye, however, he was still deeply captivated, his mind and spirit elated.
And right at this moment.
The panel’s light flickered, also appearing before his eyes.
[Japan Language lv1 (13/250)]
[Nanyang Language lv0 (95/100)]
[Desert Language lv0 (87/100)]
[Latin lv0 (64/100)]
The four language-related Skills lit up with an unusually bright glow, even brighter than usual.
If one observed closely.
They could see that the experience values on the panel were, in fact, soaring up with each echoing syllable.
