"The language was musical, descended from Malayan but influenced by many others in the past. The ancestors of these people had left Terra to colonize New Djawa a long time ago. After the disastrous war with Gorrazan, three centuries back and a bit, some of those colonists had gone on to Unan Besar, and had been isolated from the rest of the human race ever since. Their speech had evolved along its own track."
-Poul Anderson, "The Plague of Masters" IN Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra (Riverdale, NY, 2012), pp. 1-147 AT I, pp. 5-6.
(This work has had three titles.)
Sandra Miesel's Chronology of Technic Civilization informs us that "The Plague of Masters" is set in 3038 and that Unan Besar was colonized in the 28th century but does not mention the colonization of New Djawa. However, this could have occurred during the Breakup in the 22nd century when human beings left the Solar System to preserve cultural identities or to try social experiments. Hermes was colonized then.
For an alternative view of the Chronology, see "Sandra Miesel's Technic Civilization Chronology" by Sean M. Brooks, here.
4 comments:
Though since the Besarans seem to be some variety of Hindu/Buddhist types, it would have made more sense for them to be descended from Balinese, rather than Malayans (who are almost all Muslim). Balinese is closely related to Malayan.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
I'm glad the language spoken on Bali is so closely related to that used in Malaysia. It means we don't have to conclude Poul Anderson made a mistake here. I've also suggested in another combox that some of the settlers of New Djawa and then Unan Besar descended from Indonesians who resented the imposition of Islam on them and took the opportunity given by the Breakup to cast it off.
Sean
Sean: that's quite plausible. Indonesia is more religiously diverse than the Malaysian part of the Malay peninsula. I'd still bet on Balinese, though. Bali is essentially a survival of what Indonesia was like before Islam began spreading there -- basically an underlayer of indigenous animism, then an overlay of Hinduism, then Buddhism on top of that, all three coexisting in various mixtures.
Sir, I agree with you. I was trying to think of a way rationalize a possible mistake in one of Anderson's stories. I have read of how some Balinese are restless under the Muslim veneer. I think later generations who used the word "Malayan" could have meant the Balinese version of the language.
Sean
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