Re: new relay
| From: | Padraic Brown <pbrown@...> |
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| Date: | Wednesday, May 30, 2001, 19:23 |
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On Wed, 30 May 2001, Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
>> A technical treatise on the energy levels of electrons in
>> hydrogen should be approximately the same in any human or
>> alien language. A treatise on how to capture a mate can
>> get tricky.
>
>Er--and maybe not even then. Chevraqis in its not-yet-developed future
>is spoken by people who *do* develop "modern" technology, but on a world
>that also has magic; and I'm not sure every language would depict
>electrons as being voluntary actors or actees. =^) (OTOH it wouldn't
>make a *huge* difference to the translator, just maybe sound weird.)
Perhaps they'd write a treatise on the thaum and its elementary
effects on liberated electrons; or the behaviour of d-orbital
electrons in a wave-static magical field as focussed through a ruby
lense placed in a negatively charged mouse skull? Perhaps there are
classes full of chemistry students learning the proper Chants that
must be chanted while applying a minim of Marcost Waters to the red
touch paper?
Padraic.
>YHL