Dwarfism in Kiravia

Dwarfism in Kiravia is documented from ancient times. In Kiravia's hierarchical and deeply segmented society, persons with dwarfism in Kiravia have in most cases been treated differently than people with normal stature of the same background, sometimes for the sake of their own welfare, but also as a form of discrimination and exploitation. People with dwarfism have made notable contributions to Kiravian society and Coscivian civilisation, and have come to enjoy greater equality and opportunity in the modern era, but many continue to suffer from various social ills on account of their stature.

Nomenclature

Dwarves or midgets are called by various terms in the various languages of Kiravia. The currently accepted formal Kiravic term used in academia and newer government sources is mùgorikuv or mùgorihan (lit. "pygmy" or "pygmy human") mirroring zoological and botanical usage of the term for congenitally smaller variants of wider species or clades. Older formal terms include dundrikuv (lit. “stunted one”), which now properly refers to persons whose growth has been stunted by nutritional/ environmental factors or infectious disease, but remains the most widespread polite term in the common parlance and in older sources. Dwarves may consider dundrikuv and dundrix mildly offensive, depending on the context. The National Association of Very-Very Short Kiravians prefers isnidalix isnidalikuv (”very, very short”) in Standard Kiravic and biþnidalix, biþnidalikuv (”deeply short”) in Literary Kiravic, but also deems mùgorix/mùgorikuv acceptable.

Terms analogous to “little people”, considered politically correct in the Occident, are considered inappropriate in Kiravia, as they more commonly refer to færies and other beings common in Kiravian folklore by infusions from its Celtic analogue.