I was reading about salt mining today and I thought it would be interesting if there were a civilization whose fortunes were so tied to whatever mineral they mined that it seeped into their language and culture.
Divine right expressed through ownership of the mine. Sayings like "that's salt right there" (this is a genuine article, I am not trying to fool you), when a vein is exhausted and no longer producing, creating a shrine of some sort to thank the mine for providing for their families so faithfully. That sort of thing.
I imagine that would be really interesting to look at with an outsider protagonist trying to untangle the 30 different colloquial uses of the word "salt"
