Saturday 20 January 2024

Planha

Nat Falkayn has learned the Ythrian language, Planha, which means that he has learned not only how to understand and utter certain sounds but also how to understand signs and symbols communicated by ripples across entire feathered bodies. At least, he has learned some of the conventional expressions although he comes to feel like a deaf-mute when he has spent days among Ythrians who converse like this all the time.

We find this aspect of Ythrian communication elsewhere, e.g.:

"'You had something to tell me,' she said with two words and her body."
-Poul Anderson, The People Of The Wind (Riverdale, NY, March 2011), pp. 437-662 AT XIX, p. 653.

Six words in Anglic, at least in our ancient Anglic: two words and some ripples in Planha.

"You are troubled, Thuriak said, not with his voice."
-"Wingless," p. 297.

Three words in Anglic. None in Planha.

Judith Lundgren describes "Yhtrian plumage" as "Infinitely variable..." (ibid.)

Perhaps like Poul Anderson's texts.
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2 comments:

S.M. Stirling said...

That's a good comparison. Some authors have only one 'voice', but Poul contained multitudes, as the saying goes.

21 January 2024 at 01:33
Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Mr. Stirling!

I agree, some writers, like Andy Weir, seem to have only one "voice" that comes naturally to them. That does not mean whatever they write will be bad or lacking interest--but it is a limitation. Anderson's works, like the Scriptures, contains many voices!

I suspect as well that contact with humans and many other races forced Ythrians to become more verbose, as we understand that word.

Ad astra! Sean

21 January 2024 at 07:45

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