From: Christian Thalmann (cinga@gmx.net)
Date: Wed Nov 06 2002 - 04:07:14 EST
--- In romanceconlang@y..., Jan van Steenbergen <ijzeren_jan@y...> wrote:
> Well, that question is basically for Christian to answer. All I know
is that
> Jovian is spoken on one of Jupiter's moons, but I don't remember how
a bunch of
> Classical Latin speaking Romans got there and in what company they were.
Actually, the original story was about an interstellar colony that
was launched from a Jupiter moon base and later cut off from the
wormhole network by accident or war. The colonists were not Romans,
but comprised a majority of German-speakers. The Classical Latin
was then later reintroduced by the colony's AI which used it as the
"secret language" in which to speak to its technicians, which had
assumed a priest-like status amongs the technologically regressed
rest of the population. A bit along the lines of Asimov's
Foundation during the Interregnum.
With time, Latin progressed from secret language of the initiates
to language of the High Society (at which stage it degenerated
into Jovian) and eventually to official language of the planet.
Anyway, I realize the story is both (1) far-fetched and implausible
and (2) isolationist, precluding any contact with other cultures,
which isn't too interesting.
I've been trying to come up with better explanations, but so far
I haven't succeeded. Any ideas? =P
BTW, does Ill Bethisad already have a culture in the region of
Germany? Maybe some weird happenstance (a fundamentalist Kaiser
des Heiligen Römischen Reichs Deutscher Nation?) installed Classical
Latin as the High Society language at some point? AFAIK, the crown
of the Roman emperor resided in Germany for many centuries even in
the real world...
-- Christian Thalmann
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