The Colloq People lived a peaceable and happy existence in what would later become the United States, until the advent of the white settlers challenged their simple way of living and communicating. They not only had no written language (they were pre-scriptivists, in this sense), but they had no rules of grammar nor syntax, as well. Everyone was allowed to use words any way they liked and to mean anything they liked, so long as one other person agreed that she or he understood the speaker's intent. When missionaries attempted to teach them English, they developed the notion that their own language was primitive and required rules but were so confused by the effort that their language and eventually their culture died out.