Rostrum:
I assume that, just as Wolfe explained that /terminus est/ is not really
Latin but a language as archaic to speakers of Severian's language as
Latin is to English, just so the languages in Long Sun are not really
English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, etc. but languages that have an
analogous relationship to each other.
Hmm, it seems this was discussed way back in Whorl volume 2 starting with my #67:
http://www.moonmilk.com/whorl/archives/v2.html#67
It still worries me that French and Latin are mentioned by name, though. If Wolfe mentioned a
historical person by name (say, Neil Armstrong), it would be hard to argue that he really meant someone
else, analogous to our Neil Armstrong.
*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.