Chapter 376. [All Words Began As "Onomatopoeia"]
‘You want to stay here? Why?’
The local man asked in return.
By the banks of the Amazon River, I was desperately trying to communicate my thoughts to him.
‘I want to return to my homeland. If I wait here, someone else might pass by.’
‘That’s unlikely. No one else is in this area but us.’
‘But… what if,’
by some chance, a “boat” happens to pass by?
I tried to express this idea, but I didn’t know how to say that word in their language.
So, I attempted to share the image using every means I could.Specifically...
‘It floats on water. Made of wood. "Plop plop", "splash splash", "whoosh", "creak creak",... "splash splash."’
I used gestures and plenty of onomatopoeia to get my point across.
Apparently, one of them seemed to land.
‘I understand. You’re talking about a “parsh", aren’t you?’
‘Ah, so you call it a “parsh.”’
I had become capable of unearthing unknown words like this on my own.
This was because their language contained many words derived from onomatopoeia.
Perhaps it was because their language was still young.
It’s just a theory, but...
Some say all languages began with onomatopoeia.
In reality, many words in their language directly connect sound and meaning.
They’re intuitive, which makes individual words easier to remember.
Even when teaching children, we often use onomatopoeia. It’s the same idea.
At the same time...
‘We don’t have boats. We don’t know wooden—boats.’
‘Cooking prey, weaving leaves, building with wood?’
‘That usage is correct.’
Perhaps the progress I had made in analyzing their language also helped.
By now, I could infer meanings from the sounds of words I heard for the first time.
“Flapping” becomes a flag.
“Chirping” becomes a chick.
“Quivering” becomes trembling.
Even without knowing the exact meaning, I could roughly guess it.
Of course, not every word works this way.
After all, words carry “arbitrariness”.
If every word truly originated from onomatopoeia,
then similar objects should have similar names across all languages.
For instance, imagine a creature that goes “meow” existing worldwide.
If so, its name should resemble “meow” in every language.
It wouldn’t be called disparate names like “neko” or “cat”.
This indicates some human “arbitrariness” at play.
‘Still, I see.’
It seemed they really didn’t have boats.
And they didn’t know how to build them.
I had suspected as much.
After all, in all my time living here, I had never once heard the word “boat.”
‘If it’s come to this, I’ll just have to make one myself.’
‘If you plan to travel down the river on your own, you should stop.’
‘Why?’
‘Because it’s dangerous. There are ferocious creatures in the river that attack even from the water.’
Indeed, just the other day, I saw a crocodile.
At best, I could only build a simple raft. If attacked, I wouldn’t stand a chance.
No, I probably couldn’t even chop down a single tree by myself.
So, after all...
‘I’ll have to stay here and wait for a boat to pass by someday.’
‘You can’t do that either.’
‘W-why not!?’
‘This place belongs to everyone.’
‘Then I’ll return to the village and ask for everyone’s permission—’
‘That’s not what I mean. This place...’
‘Belongs to everyone in the forest.’
‘...!’
‘Half of everything is ours. And the other half belongs to them.’
It seemed I still didn’t fully understand what they meant by “equality”.
I never imagined that this “everyone” included animals as well.
Nature’s bounty, the land... everything belongs to everyone.
The local man explained this to me gently.
I hadn’t grasped that before, which might be why my language analysis was only ever “approximate”.
‘If you stay here too long, other animals will think you’re “invading their territory” and attack.
You’re only allowed here to hunt prey or use the water.’
‘Then, at least, can I come here once a day? Could you bring me here?’
‘That’s not for me to decide now. Tomorrow’s tasks are for tomorrow’s me to decide.’
That’s right. They didn’t have a concept of time.
Because of this, they didn’t make plans or schedules.
Although the translation rendered it as “tomorrow", the man didn’t actually use that word.
So, was there really no other choice...?
‘Do you truly want to go back?’
‘Huh?’
Suddenly, the man faced me with a serious expression.
I nodded repeatedly, vigorously.
‘I have so many important things waiting! My family and friends are waiting for me!’
I’ll return home, rescue the Secret Service woman, reunite with Ang-Oug and the others...
And I’ll finally catch up on the archive backlog!
‘I see. I understand.’
Sensing my resolve, the man nodded deeply.
And then, he said:
‘In that case—I’ll take you to the edge of the forest.’
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