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Gilkesh Anshag - The Gilkesh Universe 

 A short introduction.

The Gilkesh civilization originated on the planet Shakti, in the system of the star Zir. However, early in the history of Gilkesh space colonization, all traces of Shakti and Zir were lost due to a devastating attack by the doomsday cult Singularity - an event known as the Cataclysm. Despite this tragedy, the Gilkesh civilization continued to thrive in the diaspora of space. The story of the Cataclysm is told in The Queen's Courtesan.

The Gilkesh (gil, star + kesh, living being) are an all-female, humanoid race believed to be closely linked to modern humans. The exact nature of the relationship, however, remains in dispute. It is unclear whether the Gilkesh arose from humans, or the humans from Gilkesh. There is considerable variation among the Gilkesh in physical characteristics, owing to genetic drift and bioengineering, but overall they tend to exceed baseline humans in physical endurance, strength, mental acuity, agility, and tolerance for adverse conditions. They are nocturnal and have acute night vision. Reproduction is through a form of parthenogenesis.

Numbers played an important role in the development of agriculture, accounting, and astronomy in early Gilkesh civilization. Although most archaeological records have been lost, the surviving information attests to a well-developed system of mathematics dating even from prehistoric times.

Hexadecimal numbers first evolved as a shorthand form of octal notation. It should be noted that conversion between octal and hexadecimal is not generally trivial for large numbers (since sixteen is not a power of eight) and requires conversion to binary as an intermediate step; however, for numbers of one or two digits it is not terribly complicated. Probably the notation passed through a transitional, mixed-base phase. In any event, the hexadecimal system retained all the advantages of octal and allowed for large numbers to be expressed more concisely.The names of the numbers in the Gilkesh hexadecimal system are:

decimal hex GK name

0 0 run

1 1 dil

2 2 min

3 3 esh

4 4 lem

5 5 shum

6 6 seth

7 7 sab

8 8 astu

9 9 astil

10 A asmin

11 B astesh

12 C aslem

13 D astum

14 E assith

15 F astab

16 10 mist

32 20 minon

48 30 eshon

256 100 rab

4096 1000 rob

65536 10000 ribub

The use of large numbers is of great antiquity, and both exponential and mantissa numeration were introduced early. Large quantities may be denoted either with common numbers, as above, or with exponential numeration. The suffix -oi marks the exponent and may be roughly translated as, "times sixteen to the power of". Thus, rab=minoi, rob=eshoi, ribub=lemoi. Additionally, the word 'diyul' serves as a mantissa marker (or hexadecimal equivalent of a "decimal point"). It can combine with the exponent marker to produce a form of "scientific notation".

Gilkesh (Gilkeshka or Gilkesh duor) is the indigenous language of the Gilkesh people. The Gilkesh language originated on Shakti, and gradually spread throughout the inhabited regions through exploration and commerce. The language is widely used as a lingua franca among non-Gilkesh peoples.

Strictly speaking, there is not, and never has been, a single "Gilkesh language", as a wide varitey of dialects (some of which are mutually unintelligible, and should probably be classed as separate languages) are in use among the Gilkesh. However, a regularized form known as Universal Standard Gilkesh (USGK) has been adopted, and is understandable to all educated native speakers of the language.

The core vocabulary of Gilkesh exhibits strong affinities with Sumerian, including such staple words as dil (one), min (two), esh (three), sag (good), qhol (bad), an (sky), nin (queen), nend (bread), ab (water), and nangi (to drink); however, terrestrial researchers have also noted affinities with the Semitic languages, particularly Arabic and Hebrew. Gilkesh has a number of grammatical features in common with the Indo-European and particularly Indo-Iranian languages. Additionally, some scholars have observed common elements with Laadan, Kesh, and Quenya. The exact relationship between Gilkesh and these various, non-cognate terrestrial language groups is still poorly understood. The field of exolinguistics awaits a comprehensive study on the subject.

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