Language (was: Time) and the New Sun

C.E. Thompson · 13 Oct 1992, 21:57 · from sf-lovers.1992.mbox

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From: cet1 at cus.cam.ac.uk (C.E. Thompson)
Subject: Language (was: Time) and the New Sun
Date: 13 Oct 92 21:57:28 GMT
Message-ID: <sflovers-v17-540-1 at digest.sf-lovers>
X-Digest-Issue: SF-LOVERS Digest V17 #540
X-Urthmirror-Source: https://archive.org/details/sf-lovers-digest-vol-17b

dani at netcom.com (Dani Zweig) writes, apropos of TBOTNS:
> We also note that it was reasonable to expect a coin from Ymar's time to
> survive, badly corroded, in Severian's: There is reason to suspect that
> common words such as 'copper', 'stone', 'wood', often refer to far more
> durable materials than we associate with them.

Which gives me a peg to hang the following question on: what relationship
does the language spoken by Severian bear to English?

I offer the following two contrasting passages for your delectation:

1. In TSOTT, in Thecla's story, as retold by Severian to Agia in the
   Botanic Gardens, Father Inire is made to say to Domnina: "Yet even
   though light is so weightless we have given its name to that
   condition...". This pun only makes sense in English or *very* closely
   related languages, as far as I can trace the derivation of the words
   light (opposite of heavy) vs. light (opposite of dark).

2. In TCOTC, Thea says to Severian: "The dawn-men ... renamed it [Mars]
   Present. That was a jest in their tongue for the same word meant both
   _Now_ and _The Gift_. Or so one of my tutors once explained the matter
   to my sister and me, though I do not see how any language could endure
   such a confusion."

So how is one to reconcile the two passages? With any other SF author than
Gene Wolfe, I would attribute one or other to a momentary carelessness, but
I would be quite reluctant to assume that here.

Chris Thompson
cet1 at phx.cam.ac.uk

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