"Like almost every intelligent species, the Merseians had in their past evolved thousands of languages and cultures." (p. 104)
Yes. It would be wrong for an sf writer just to assume the opposite, i.e., that there was an intelligent species that had evolved just one language and culture! But there might be a reason why some species was more mono-linguistic and mono-cultural than we would expect. But it would have to be a good reason.
ERB's Barsoomians have only one spoken language, purely for auctorial convenience. CS Lewis's Ransom discovers that there is a single Solar language, for implausible reasons.
See also Names Of Planets.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I agree, it would be most IMPLAUSIBLE for an intelligent race to have only one language and culture in its history.
I can think of at least one meany by which an intelligent race can become mono-linguistic and mono-cultural: conquest. Before they lost their intelligence, the Zolotoyans of Anderson's "The High Ones" must have LONG been ruled by a Total State which imposed a single language and culture on the entire planet. And we see Stirling's monstrous Draka doing the same in his Draka books: wiping out all other languages and cultures in the lands they conquered.
Ad astra! Sean
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