Languages can differ but be mutually comprehensible. When Everard says in English:
"'We are weary... May we not rest awhile?'" (6, p. 210)
- Boierik replies in Cimbric:
"'Ja deedly... Ok wir skallen gode gefreonds bin, ni?'" (ibid.)
Simply by talking, Everard gains:
"...some proficiency in the Cimbrian language..." (ibid.)
He can communicate.
Nantucket has a history in two divergent timelines. The island is transported from 1998 AD to 1250 BC in SM Stirling's Nantucket Trilogy. In the Carthaginian timeline of Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series, Nantucket is called Ynys Llangollen and is the location of the summer retreat of the Littornian embassy to Afallon. Thus, it is where Everard, Van Sarawak and their timecycle are taken when they are captured by agents of the secret Littornian-Cimbrian alliance.
4 comments:
It's a logical place for a summer resort -- the weather is much better there at that season than most places on the mainland, and it rarely gets very hot.
(The winters are milder than the mainland too, due to the oceanic effect, but there are a lot of storms and long periods of rain.)
Languages can be mutually comprehensible -for short statements-. That doesn't mean you can really talk to each other.
For example:
"The man sat in the house with his son, eating bread and cheese and drinking beer."
In German:
Der Mann saß mit seinem Sohn im Haus, aß Brot und Käse und trank Bier.
In Netherlndish/Dutch:
De man zat met zijn zoon in huis brood en kaas te eten en bier te drinken.
In Frisian:
De man siet mei syn soan yn 'e hûs, bôle en tsiis iet en bier dronken.
I think that Poul's point is that Everard knows a -lot- of Germanic languages and uses that to quickly get his point across in broken, but comprehensible Cimbric.
That is indeed the point. And Van Sarawak listens intently with his knowledge of Dutch.
Everard would probably work a lot in Germanic milieux because he looks right; he can pass for a convincing Celt too, of course as in IVORY APES AND PEACOCKS.
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