Wednesday, 15 February 2023

POVs And Erulani

The Peregrine has no single central character. Trevelyan Micah is the Coordination Service field agent but he remains in the orbiting Peregrine during the action on the surface of Erulan where the groundside detective work is done by Peregrine Joachim Henry in the castle and by Peregrine Thorkild Sean in the city. Thus, povs change with chapters.

"Erulani" is both the collective and the singular noun for Erulanian natives:

"The Erulani were quite manlike..." (CHAPTER IX, p. 76)

"...an Erulani brought a scribbled note..." (CHAPTER X, p. 85)

"-i" is a plural ending in Latin which is maybe why it becomes a word ending in other contexts?

In Larry Niven's Known Space future history:

"Kzin" is a planet;
a "kzin" is an inhabitant of Kzin;
"kzinti" is both the plural of "kzin" and the adjective derived from "kzin."

Unexpectedly, "djinni" is not the plural of "djinn" but a synonym. The plural is djinns.

3 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

And "Ythri" was used as the singular for members of that race, the plural being "Ythrians." It all depends on which singular/plural forms would seem natural or workable for the names of intelligent races.

Ad astra! Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,

I think it is Gregory Benford, not PA, who uses "an Ythri" to mean "an Ythrian."

Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Dang! "Ythrian.Ythrians" seemed natural to me.

Ad astra! Sean