Flandry refers to "...the Merseian Empire..." (p. 8), not to the Roidhunate. Ruethen refers to his "'...tribe...'" (ibid.), not to his Vach. The Eriau terms have been translated into Anglic for us or the author had not invented the Eriau terms yet, whichever way we prefer to put it. Both statements are valid. The text is an artefact in our world while its content is a narrative set in a fictional world.
"Roidhun" is an Eriau title. "-ate" is an Anglic affix as in "directorate" or "Khanate." We imagine loan words and other linguistic interactions. "Admiral" is derived from Arabic "amir al," "commander of."
Ideally, every sf author would be able to do a Tolkien job on his alien languages but that is impossible. CS Lewis gives us a very few Solar words. His Narnians speak English because their first king was a London cab driver. I did not expect to begin with Flandry and Ruethen and wind up in Narnia.
11 comments:
Authors use "translation convention". You indicate a different language by a few words from it, and then by subtle differences, rather like the ones you use to show different dialects of English.
Kaor, Paul!
Besides what you and Stirling wrote, we should remember HUNTERS OF THE SKY CAVE was first pub. in 1959, before Anderson coined "roidhun/roidhunate" for ENSIGN FLANDRY (1966).
Also, colloquially, many people inside the Empire might say "Merseian Empire" because "empire" would be in more familiar use.
Ad astra! Sean
Using "Empire" as English shorthand for a large polity was pretty common when Anderson was writing, even when said state didn't have an emperor (or empress), though.
Of the European imperial states that held overseas territory by force (essentially) in the 20th Century (which seems like the definition of empire), only the British, Germans, and Italians actually gave their (mostly) figurehead monarchs an imperial title - and "the Soviet Empire" was fairly common, as well, despite the USSR's heads of state (de facto and de jure) not having any sort of "monarchial" title.
Kaor, Dave!
But "empire" can have wider meanings and include one nation ruling other nations without having a monarchical head of state. A classic example being the Empire of the French Republic.
Ad astra! Sean
Well, yes, that's the point. Of the European states that maintained overseas territories by force in the 20th Century, the French (and at times, the Spanish and Portuguese) were not monarchies, and their heads of state did not claim "imperial" titles ...
Kaor, Dave!
And the thugocracy in Iran also has grandiose ambitions, aspiring to rule Iraq and Syria, ad dominating the Near East.
Ad astra! Sean
The term of art these days is "Southwest Asia," which has the added benefit of being accurate. "Near East" raises the immediate question: "Near" what? "East" of what?
Kaor, Dave!
"Near East" refers to the Mediterranean and Europe. That too is accurate.
Ad astra! Sean
East of me, of course.
Note that in one of his asides about the YS series, Poul mentioned that he has characters referring to the "Roman Empire", when actually if they were being formal they'd say "res publica Romana".
But by the time of the YS stories, they -meant- Empire, so Empire was what he had them say.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I remember that, from the notes the Andersons added to THE KING OF YS.
One thing I thought odd: we see Gratillonius referring to the Emperor Honorius as "his Imperial Majesty," I thought at first that was an error, from thinking the honorific "Majesty" only came into use much later. But when I looked it up, I found I was mistaken, "Majesty" was being used by the late fourth century.
Ad astra! Sean
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