"Emotion," muttered Speidel.
"Every spoken language of earth has migrated away from emotion," said Francine.
"Can you write an emotion on paper?" demanded Speidel.
"That does it," she said. "That really tears it! You're blind! You say language has to be written down. That's part of the magic! You're mind is tied in little knots by academic tradition! Language, General, is primarily oral! People like you, though, want to make it into ritual noise!"
"I didn't come down here for an egg-head argument!" snapped Speidel.
"Let me handle this, please," said Langsmith. He made a mollifying gesture toward Francine. "Please continue."
She took a deep breath. "I'm sorry I snapped," she said. She smiled. "I think we let emotion get the best of us."
Speidel frowned.
"I was talking about language moving away from emotion," she said. "Take Japanese, for example. Instead of saying, 'Thank you' they say, 'Katajikenai'—'I am insulted.' Or they say, 'Kino doku' which means 'This poisonous feeling!'" She held up her hands. "This is ritual exclusion of showing emotion. Our Indo-European languages—especially Anglo-Saxon tongues—are moving the same way. We seem to think that emotion isn't quite nice, that...."
"It tells you nothing!" barked Speidel.