Mamelta

Alice Turner · 31 Mar 1997, 09:38 · from whorl-v0004.mbox · original

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From: "Alice Turner" <al at interport.net>
Subject: (whorl) Mamelta
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 1997 09:38:16
Message-ID: <whorl-v0004-0287 at digest.urth.net>
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[Posted from Whorl, the mailing list for Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun]

Scouting around to see if Mamelta's name could possibly be Vironese, I came
up with two weak candidates:

mammole: edible fruit of Opuntia Tuna (sounds just right for a
casserole--actually it's a flat-leafed cactus).

mamaliga: cornmeal mush; the national dish of Romania.

The second could be considered a fit through pronunciation elision---but
Romania uses the Western alphabet, so the spelling is all off. So, unless
there's a misprint throughout, which seems unlikely, it looks as though her
name comes from elsewhere, and that the sleeping bio name of "Olive" is a
red herring.=20

-alga-

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