Kathryn McCormac spoke pidgin to Didonians whereas her nephew's fiancee, Tatiana Thane, is constructing:
"...a semantic model of the language spoken around Mount Hamilcar on Dido, which would enable humans to converse with the natives on a more basic level than pidgin allowed." (p. 170)
The human scientific base on Dido, named "Port Frederiksen" after one of Kathryn's ancestors, is located on the continent of Barca. Dido was a mythical Queen of Carthage. Hamilcar Barca was a historical Carthaginian general and father of Hannibal Barca.
Tatiana's former tutor is described as:
"...retired to his estate in Heraclea and too old to care about politics." (ibid.)
Retiring to his estate sounds like a grand old Roman tradition. Indifference to the minutiae of politics sounds good but surely the basic issues retain their significance?
Tatiana is visited by Gabriel Stewart and we have previously discussed the symbolism of his name.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I agree trying to communicate with a tri-bodied "race" like the Didonians would very likely be ESP. difficult! It would probably take centuries of hard work to go beyond pidgin to a mutually comprehensible language more basic and deeper than that.
Aw, drat! That bit about Tatiana Thane's old teacher is yet another detail I have no memory of. I am chagrined! And, given antisenescence, I assume this gentleman to be at least in his nineties, Terran reckoning.
Ad astra! Sean
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