Thursday 15 February 2018

Anglic, Planha And Eriau

In Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization, English becomes Anglic and interacts with extra-solar languages, including Ythrian Planha and Merseian Eriau. Avalonian human beings speak:

"...the Planha-influenced Anglic of Avalon - pure vowels, r's trilled, m's and n's and ng's almost hummed, speech deepened and slowed and strongly cadenced..."
-Poul Anderson, The People Of The Wind IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2011), pp. 437-662 AT Chapter I, p. 437.

Presumably Avalonian Ythrians speak Anglic-influenced Planha? Every educated Avalonian is bilingual.

When Arinnian says that maybe the border question can be settled peacefully and adds, "'Let's hope,'" (Chapter I, p. 446), the last two words have to be Anglic. Ythrians accept. They do not hope. Philosophy affects language. An Ythrian could not possibly say, "God willing." God the Hunter stoops on all. When Hloch advises his fellow Ythrians to look forward at the shadow of God across the future, I agree with him - although I interpret "God" mythologically and metaphorically, not metaphysically.

When Tachwyr asks Flandry whether he is still a bachelor, he must speak Anglic. The Eriau equivalent is an insult. Kossara's mother sang her an Eriau lullaby. See Kossara Vymezal.

2 comments:

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Kaor, Paul!

And Kossara remembered how her mother laughed and said that humans, unlike Merseians, don't have tails!

Sean

David Birr said...

There's a passage toward the end of Watership Down in which a rabbit who's become close friends with a seagull exclaims, "Oh, my wings and beak, that won't do!" He'd earlier mentioned that hearing the gull's tales of flight made him feel as if he could fly, too.