"...in eighteen languages and Old Martian phonoglyphs."
-Poul Anderson, "A Message in Secret" IN Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 341-397 AT XII, p. 385.
How did he manage that? Phonoglyphs are not sounds. Because it is no longer customary in sf to image that Mars is inhabited, the phrase, "Old Martian," suggests extinct Martians. There are "Martians" in the Technic History. However, they are not natives but historically recent extra-solar colonists so that, when they were "Old," they would not have been "Martians."
2 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
In other words, this bit about "Old Martian phonoglyphs" is one of those inconsistencies which can be in the older Technic Civilization stories. Unless we are to assume this was simply a bit of poetic license or exaggeration on Flandry's part (did he really know EIGHTEEN languages?).
Sean
Sean,
I think it is exaggeration. In England, people sometimes say a guy spoke French as a euphemism for, "He swore."
Paul.
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