Re: Languages in fiction: The Triune Monarchy

Thomas Leigh scripsit:

> I re-read Avram Davidson's "The Enquiries of Doctor Eszterhazy" this
> week; as those familiar with the work know, the tales take place in the
> early 20th century in the fictional nation (which has become one of my
> all-time favorites!) of the Triune Monarchy of
> Scythia-Pannonia-Transbalkania.
My conlang Piat is spoken there too.

> Gothic: would this be an East Germanic language descended from Wulfila's
> Gothic?
Surely it would.  The official language of Piatland is still Court-Gothic,
it being far too expensive to translate all the records into Piat.

> Avar: would this be the North Caucasian language we know as Avar? Or
> could it refer to something else? Were there, historically, any other
> people also referred to by the name Avar, whose language (or one related
> to it) this could mean?
I've always assumed that the Avars referred to are the Turkic-speakers
who were part of the Voelkerwanderung that destroyed the Roman Empire,
rather than the Caucasians.  AFAWK these two groups are unrelated, and
have different names in Russian: Avary, Avartsy.

> Romanou: Some variety of Balkan Romance? Romania also exists in this
> world <97> Romania is the Triune Monarchy's eastern neighbor <97> so it's not
> another name for Romanian. A sister language? Or, given that modern
> Greek used to be known as R(h)omaic, could it be something related to Greek?
The proper names show that it's a variety of Romance, and clearly related
to Romanian.  The name "Romaic" reflects the fact that for a thousand
years a Greek-speaking state called itself the Roman Empire.

> Vlox: Romany/Gypsy? (Given the contempt in which it was obviously held.)
The Vlox-speakers call themselves the Veloshchii, but the name must
be connected with Vlach (unless we have another coincidence here).
So we have a Romance language heavily overlaid with Slavic, or perhaps
vice versa.  In any case, it's not so much contempt as the fact that
most Veloshchii are illiterate in their own language -- not the Princes
of the Mud, to be sure.

> Also, there are two countries in this world which do/did not exist in
> ours: a nation on the Black Sea coast called Ruritania (capital:
> Strelsau), and a tiny nation sandwiched between the Triune Monarchy,
> Serbia, and Bulgaria called Graustark (capital: Grauheim). What
> languages would be spoken there?
Davidson borrowed Ruritania from Anthony Hope's famous romances _The Prisoner
of Zenda_ and its lesser-known sequel _Rupert of Hentzau_.  They speak
German, though their onomastics show that they have not always done so.
Graustark is from another romance, also called _Graustark_, by George
Barr McCutcheon, which I have not read.  All three books are available
at Project Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.net).

--
John Cowan           http://www.ccil.org/~cowan              cowan@ccil.org
To say that Bilbo's breath was taken away is no description at all.  There
are no words left to express his staggerment, since Men changed the language
that they learned of elves in the days when all the world was wonderful.
        --_The Hobbit_

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