All educated Avalonians are bilingual but "'Let's hope...'" (p. 446) can only be said in Anglic.
When Tachwyr asks Flandry whether he is still a bachelor, he must ask this question in Anglic because the Eriau equivalent would be an insult.
We watch the Italian TV detective series, Montalbano, with subtitles but Salvo once said, "Cover me," in English, presumably an Americanism. Stieg Larsson's Swedish characters intone some phrases, like "A man's got to do what a man's got to do," in English. Maybe this is a mild anticipation of future communication with equivalents of Ythrians and Merseians? I doubt it. I expect that, if we do meet extraterrestrial intelligences, they will be unlike anything imagined.
2 comments:
Paul:
"A man's got to do what a man's got to do" in particular is a quote from the Western movie High Noon. Early in a French movie based on the novel Le Bossu, the Duc de Nevers, in 1699 France, can clearly be heard saying, "I-yi-yi" — an interjection that may have originated from Mexican Spanish. I also watch a fair bit of Japanese anime, in which I hear plenty of English words and phrases — other languages, too — tucked into the original Japanese.
Popular culture spreads across linguistic borders.
Kaor, DAVID!
While I agree popular culture can and does spread across linguistic barriers, I don't think everyone, including enthusiasts for pop culture will always understand such bits and pieces of other languages.
Sean
Post a Comment