Re: fallire (was: a King's proverb)

Raymond Brown wrote:


> I wonder at times whether, if the Pantagenets

Wonderful typo!

> AngloNorman might
> not have survived and given rise to the common language of the 'united
> kingdoms of England & France'.  There's an idea for a conlang & an
> alt-history  :)

That is the althistory of Randall Garrett's Lord Darcy stories.  Lord
Darcy of Rouen is a sort of alt-Sherlock in the Anglo-French Empire.
The departure point is the siege of Chaluz: in OTL Richard the Lionheart
died, but *there* he recovered and went on to rule England for another
ten years, more or less cured of wandering.  The cadet line descending
from his brother went extinct: the current Plantagenet monarch is John
IV.

Anglo-French is the language of the Empire, which encompasses Great
Britain, France, Ireland, and the New World (North America is called
"New England" and South America "New France").  Local civilizations
were incorporated into the Empire: for example, the Moqtessumids are
now Dukes of Mechicoe, and we also hear of Couban cigars.  Ireland
is apparently still Gaelic-speaking, judging by the names of persons,
or perhaps bilingual.

We get occasional characters speaking patois, rendered as English
using French syntax, which suggests that Anglo-French follows English
syntax.

The Electors of the Holy Roman Empire have consistently chosen the

A-F Emperor as their Emperor as well for the last few centuries, so

the Italies and the Germanies are effectively part of the Empire, though
they don't pay Imperial taxes and maintain a separate customs union.
The Scandinavian countries are firm Imperial allies.

The Empire's chief opponent is the Kingdom of Poland.  The Russias
are not unified, and the thought that they may become so is the main
force preventing Poland from moving further east than Kiev.  The
A-F Empire and Poland fought their analogue of WW II and have been
in a cold war ever since.


Lord Darcy's world also has magic, discovered in the 14th century;
his Watson is a Master Sorcerer named Sean O Lochlainn.  Magic
cannot be used in war, though, and therefore doesn't affect
political history that much.

Replies set to conculture.

--
There is / one art             || John Cowan <jcowan@...>
no more / no less              || http://www.reutershealth.com
to do / all things             || http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
with art- / lessness           \\ -- Piet Hein