Ouen's Catherine

Jeff Wilson · 14 Oct 2006, 22:33 · from 2006-October.txt.gz

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From: jwilson at io.com (Jeff Wilson)
Date: Sat, 14 Oct 2006 17:33:07 -0500
Subject: (urth) Ouen's Catherine
In-Reply-To: <10610141623.AA03567 at slack.com>
References: <10610141623.AA03567 at slack.com>
Message-ID: <453165A3.4000907 at io.com>

David DiGiacomo wrote:
>> Only after being questioned did Ouen say that her name had been Catherine.
>> Can you hear the difference in spelling between the spoken "Catherine" and
>> "Katharine"? I can't, and I don't think Severian could either.
> 
> What language are they speaking?
> 
> I always thought of it as future Spanish, in which case there might be
> more of a difference between, say, Caterina and Katarina (the latter being
> a foreign name).

Possible; what is "G.W."'s reasoning for using Latin in the text, again?
The passage where the ambiguity of English is ridiculed indicates they 
aren't speaking English, nor the similarly ambiguous Hebrew, nor 
Chinese-descended logograms to write with.

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
< http://www.io.com/~jwilson >

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