BASE TONGUE
Substrate Layer — EMS BASIS × EMS MICRO
Definition
Base Tongue is the foundational encoding layer of the Federation.
It is not rhetoric.
It is not persuasion.
It is not narrative.
It is the minimal symbolic substrate from which higher articulation becomes possible.
Where Common Tongue governs expression,
Base Tongue governs structure.
What Base Tongue Is
Base Tongue is:
Pre-narrative
Pre-translation
Constraint-bound
Execution-ready
It defines:
Primitive symbols
Allowed transformations
Dependency order
Structural boundaries
It is the grammar of the machine before the poetry of the world.
BASIS × MICRO Relationship
EMS BASIS
Houses the substrate.
Defines the weave, the loom, the permitted threads.
EMS MICRO
Executes operations on that substrate.
Applies instruction sets without altering invariants.
BASIS = structure.
MICRO = action.
Base Tongue is the shared floor beneath both.
Most systems begin with communication and patch structure later.
Base Tongue reverses this.
Structure precedes outreach.
Constraint precedes expansion.
Invariant precedes adoption.
This prevents:
Semantic drift
Authority confusion
Value leakage
Narrative mutation
What Base Tongue Does Not Do
Base Tongue does not:
Teach fluency
Adapt to audience
Persuade
Localize meaning
Those belong to higher layers.
Base Tongue remains stable regardless of context.
Architectural Role
Within the Federation stack:
BASECELL — containment
BASIS — substrate definition
MICRO — execution engine
GNOMON — measurement plane
SEMAPHORE — signaling layer
Base Tongue anchors levels 2 and 3.
Without it, all upper layers drift.