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<h2>Diagrammatic conventions</h2>
<b>Solid colors</b> represent regions of <i>human habitation</i>. The color represents the <b><i>linguistic family</b></i> of the dominant people. No attempt is made to indicate linguistic minorities within a state, something to especially bear in mind with the larger empires. The diagram shows the colors used and the relationship of families. Gray lines are highly speculative, and red are simply racial groupings.
<p>In the early maps <b>stippled</b> areas are used for <i>hunter-gatherer</i> populations, <b>striped</b> for <i>pastoralists</i>, and <b>solid</b> for agriculturalists; this is explained in the text.
<p>A <b>red outline</b> is used for <i>organized (human) states</i>. A <b>dashed</b> outline is occasionally used to show <i>autonomous regions</i> within larger states. Due to the small scale of the maps these are shown only when historically significant; e.g. when the state later becomes independent.
<p><b>White space</b> indicates <i>unpopulated regions</i>, with the exception that <i>nonhuman races</i> are shown as uncolored areas with a color-coded border. The border does not imply that the area is unified in any fashion recognizable to humans.
<ul><li>The <i>elcari</i> and <i>icëlani</i> are often found in habitats too small to be indicated (but characteristic of their species— mountains and forests, respectively).
<li>The <i>ilii</i> have settled the entire continental shelf, except that adjacent to Dhekhnam; as this is the case throughout the period it seems unnecessary to indicate it on each map beyond the first few.
</ul>
Following McEvedy, I do not indicate <b>cities</b> on the main maps, unless they are key to some geographic development mentioned in the text. These are small-scale maps, and the aim has been to reduce extraneous and repetitive detail. The periodic city maps show the locations of cities and the extent of urbanization.
<h2>Names</h2>
What language should be used to name historical states and peoples? Their own, if possible; but very often it is not. Sometimes, as for instance in Peruvian history, we simply do not know what languages early peoples spoke, much less how they named themselves. Other times, convention has decreed the use of distorted, fourth-hand English equivalents, to the extent that the use of more accurate names, such as Osmanli, Hàn, Kenistenoag (for Ottoman, Chinese, Cree) would only cause confusion.
<p>The Almean scholar has more freedom, as his subjects normally have no accepted English name. However, the vast majority of sources on the history of Ereláe are either Verdurian or Xurnese, and a purely nativist nomenclature would ill serve those who further pursue Almean studies. Eretald knows Obenzaya under that name, for instance— only the folks who happen to live there call it <i>Ubiŋkayaz</i>, and they don’t write many books— and if they do they write them in Verdurian.
<p>I have chosen, then, to divide Ereláe into cultural spheres— Caďinorian, Axunaic, Lenani-Littoral, and Dhekhnami— and to label both great and small states according to the chief language in each. In more detail:
<ul><li>For the early history of Eretald, <b><a href="../cuezi.htm">Cuêzi</a></b> (normalized to ZE 300) is used for Cuzeian states, and <b>Caďinor</b> (normalized to 1700) for Caďinorian states. Verdurian glosses are generally provided in the text for Caďinor names. Beginning in 2200 (the beginning of the Dark Years), <b><a href="../verdurian.htm">Verdurian</a></b>, <b><a href="../barakhinei.htm">Barakhinei</a></b>, and <b><a href="../ismain.htm">Ismaîn</a> </b>are used, in modern orthography.
<br>The ancient Monkhayic states are labelled in reconstructed <b><a href="../kebreni.htm">Meťaiun</a></b>; these can be assumed to be reliable in Kebri and Leziunea, somewhat less so in the north of Eretald, and quite speculative elsewhere. Our knowledge of the ancient Monkhayic languages is limited, since they were never written.
<br>The western and southern barbarians are labelled using the names Verdurian scholars use for them. Only in modern times can these be assumed to relate to the native name.
<li>Verdurian forms are also used when we have occasion to refer to the <b>ilii</b> or <b>icëlani</b>. Elcarin names are quoted in <b><a href="../elkaril.htm">Elkarîl</a></b>.
<li>(Reconstructed) <b><a href="../munkhashi.htm">Munkhâshi</a></b> is used for names in Munkhâsh, (modern) <b><a href="../dhekhnami.htm">Dhekhnami</a></b> for those in Dhekhnam. However, the states in Sarnáe are labelled in <b>Sarroc</b> from the Caďinorian period till the Dhekhnami conquest.
<li>The ancient <b>Wede:i</b> states as well as the <b>Jeori</b> empire are labelled in <a href="../wedei.html">Wede:i</a>— to be precise, in the idealized Xengi Delta language described in <i>Language in Almea</i>. There were of course multiple Wede:i languages, with particular variation evident in Jeor and in the Mnau peninsula. However, since the script is largely logographic (especially for toponyms), we cannot recapture the phonetic variation we know to have existed.
<li><b><a href="../axunashin.htm">Axunašin</a></b> is used for the Ezičimi and Axunaic states (including minor kingdoms speaking other languages) up till 2500; thereafter we use <a href="xurnash.htm"><b>Xurnese</b></a> and, in the Mnau peninsula, <b>Ṭeôši</b>.
<li>Ancient Skouras is labelled in the <b><a href="../lenani.htm">Old Skourene</a></b> tongue (normalized to 1400). From the time of the Tžuro conquest, standard literary <b>Tžuro</b> is used for Skouras and the Lenani area; modern<b> Uṭandal</b> for the areas still under Littoral control, including Gurdago.
</ul>
I have anglicized adjectives freely (Xurnese, Caďinorian, Alfonine, Verdurian) but not uniformly (Čeiyu, Dhekhnami, Tžuro, Naviu). I have also half-translated geographical names, in order to reduce the burden on the reader, preferring for instance “the Ediri Mountains” to the romantic but impenetrable <i>Ediri Bormai</i>.
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