Some more good news! I received the html version of my piece: A Brief Essay on the Language and Mythology of the Ekhié and the neighbouring Mákek Peoples of the Highveld Forests and the Ancient Watmákekhié Site to check and will be published in the Speculative Grammarian. If you have studied language or linguistics, give this online journal a try. Although the writers act extremely serious, it is an extremely fun and funny journal to read.
In a previous blog post I mentioned that I felt let down when I found out that the "lost city" that had been "discovered" was just an advertisement for a casino. In the last two pieces that I've written for the Speculative Grammarian, I found myself not only writing a diary entry for an expedition into the mythical "Highveld Forests", but also constructing a whole mythology for the people of the forest.
In a spoiler (of sorts) I can say the following: no, there are (in at least some realities) no dense, tropical jungles (with pyramids) in the Highveld. But there are a lot of gold and gold mines and Johannesburg is often referred to as "eGoli", which means "place of gold" in Sotho. I did have a lot of fun in creating the "Ekhié" and "Mákek" mythologies and the few words of their lexicon which is given in the piece. The name "Watmákekhié" is made up of a contraction of Afrikaans "Wat maak ek hier"; which literally means "what am I doing here", but sounds (and looks) exotic enough. O, yes, and I just had to add some extraterrestrials and fairy dust into the mix…
I will definitely post the link when it's available.
If you'd like to check the journal out, here's the link: http://specgram.com/
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