Oceanest

The Man Who Counts, V.

Some Diomedeans call their planet "Oceanest." We have mentioned this name twice before. See here. (Scroll down.)

Does "Oceanest" mean "Most Oceanic" or "Ocean-Nest"? I suppose not the latter. If Poul Anderson had intended such a meaning, then he would have expressed it more clearly.

The sound that the Diomedean utters is "'...Ikt'hanis...'" (p. 160) Unlike some other planetary names, it does not mean "earth" but instead refers to the water covering the earth.

We want to know much more about Anderson's extraterrestrial languages and apparently some Trekkies have expanded on Vulcan and Klingon but Tolkien was unique. No one can do everything and Tolkien's project of creating languages, then imagining people who spoke them, then writing stories about those people was unprecedented and unparalleled.

The Man Who Counts: Grammar And Engineering

"'What's so unusual about the motion of Ikt'hanis?' It was his name for this planet, and did not mean 'earth' but - in a language where nouns were compared - could be translated 'Oceanest,' and was feminine."
-Poul Anderson, The Man Who Counts IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, 2009), pp. 337-515 AT V, p. 366.

I had some problems with nouns being "compared," but Sheila, a Modern Languages graduate, helped:

"big," "bigger" and "biggest" are the positive, comparative and superlative forms of the adjective, "big";

"ocean," "oceaner" and "oceanest" would be the positive, comparative and superlative forms of the noun, "ocean," if such forms were to exist in English.

Nicholas van Rijn says:

"'I am not an engineer. Engineers I hire. My job is not to do what is impossible, it is to make others do it for me.'"
-op. cit., VI, p. 371.

Thus, early in the story, its title character states the entire point of the story. "The Man Who Counts" is the one who motivates others. He hires, bribes, threatens, pleads, acts, does not mind if he comes over as stupid or pathetic - whatever it takes. The job gets done. Van Rijn is Anderson's equivalent of Harriman, "The Man Who Sold The Moon." Harriman is neither a rocket engineer nor an astrogator - but he makes sure those guys do their stuff.

Because van Rijn - and not just because of his physical bulk - is like a planet with the others as his satellites, we see him from their points of view. Only (I think) in "Margin of Profit" are there a couple of passages narrated from van Rijn's pov.

The Man Who Counts, Chapter V

The Flock know that the world is round because they fly long distances. The Fleet know it because astronomy is necessary for navigation. The Drak'honai of the Fleet are neolithic, with stone, glass, ceramics and some artificial resins, telescopes, astrolabes and navigational tables but no iron, therefore no chronometers or compasses. They will be a good market for the League. Already, more primitive Diomedeans exchange furs, gems and juices for metal tools and weapons.

Like Dominic Flandry, an Intelligence officer in the later Terran Empire, Eric Wace, a factor of the Polesotechnic League, has been trained to learn any language quickly:

"When properly focused, a trained mind need only be told something once."
-Poul Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (New York, 2009), p. 364.

Diomedes, "Oceanest" to the Drak'honai, is intermediate between terrestroid and Jovoid planetary types, with greater mass but lower density than Earth. This chapter has an infodump about Diomedean planetography. I have summarized some of its contents in previous posts although I realize that I had also missed some of the details. The low density is caused by the absence of any elements heavier than calcium. Although this is explained, it remains a mystery why pressure has not collapsed the core, as in Jovoids. So far, scientists have found only a most plausible answer... Anderson knows that knowledge is never complete.

The chapter ends with the realization that there is no way to transport the three stranded human beings across the planet to the trading base at Thursday Landing before their stored food runs out - a practical problem for Nicholas van Rijn to solve. Or, rather, as "The Man who Counts," he will motivate the Diomedean and human beings around him to implement a solution.