"- no planet named, nicknamed, or translated as Jean-Baptiste, assuredly not in any language or dialect of the Empire, nor in any exterior space for which records are available. Saint John, Hagios Ioannes, and the continent of San Juan on Nuevo Mexico were all named after a co-author of the basic Christian canon, a person distinct from the one who figures as active in events described therein and is termed in Fransai Jean-Baptiste, in Anglic John the Baptist..."
-Poul Anderson, The Day Of Their Return IN Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 74-238 AT 9, p. 143.
Notes:
(i) Do not confuse John the Baptist with John the Evangelist.
(ii) Notice the Latin translation of the opening verses of John's Gospel, shown in English here.
(iii) Does the reply from Terra mean that "Saint John," "Hagios Ioannes" and "San Juan" are the names of three places on Nuevo Mexico, the first and second places not described although the third is identified as a continent - or does "on Nuevo Mexico" refer only to "San Juan"?
(iv) Whereas English has become Anglic, French has become Fransai.
(v) When the reply goes on to identify Aycharaych's home planet as Chereion, one of the Intelligence sources quoted is "Cmdr. Dominic Flandry." (p. 144) We know that Flandry gathers intelligence. Here we see how some of it is used. We want to be shown different aspects of future society.
4 comments:
Paul:
Based on the phrasing, I took it that "Saint John" and "Hagios Ioannis" were planets. It struck me as improbable that all the places named after Saint John would be on one planet in an Empire that held so many habitable worlds.
David,
Improbable indeed. That they are planets makes sense.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
David beat me to making very similar remarks about the places listed in the reply Desai got from Terra. I hope you noticed the air of alarm in that letter where Aycharaych and Chereion were mentioned, and how Desai was strongly urged to arrest Aycharaych, if possible.
I never really paid much mind to it before, but it seems FRENCH may have survived into Imperial times, becoming "Fransai." We do see mention of how Dominic Flandry made use of the city of Paris when he was disguised as a story teller in THE PLAGUE OF MASTERS.
Sean
"Fransai" is a phonetic spelling of how "Francais" is actually pronounced, pretty much -- the "s" is largely silent, though it influences how the previous syllable is stressed.
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