FOREIGNER: Discussion Post #2, Spoiler Edition

[krait]

If you have discussion points for Chapters 1-2 you wish to bring up but which include spoilers, please post them here. Then link your comment in the general post, so those who want to avoid being spoiled can do so!

Comments

[cheyinka]

pebblerocker commented on the non-spoiler post that "trained linguists listening to [Ian Bretano's] first conversations would have had a better starting point than a biologist, assuming the ship had anyone interested in languages, which isn't a given."

Taylor's Children knew about the atevi, right? I know they were trained to be super-polyglots because of linguistic drift between the ship-humans and the Mospheirans, and I know in Book 2 we find out that at least part of the reason for the Guild opposing the landings was the existence of an intelligent indigenous species, but I don't know whether there were already linguists. ISTM there might not have been, meaning Ian might really have been the best suited for the job!

[krait]

That's very interesting! Given the Guild's official position was "You can't go to the planet, we don't want you on the planet, and we'll throw every excuse in the book at you to keep you from reaching the planet" -- they well may not have had dedicated linguists!

In which case, well, a botanist probably knows enough Latin to name his new discoveries, and Bretano did have the widest experience with atevi, so why not throw him at the problem? He has the oldest associations, and he's managed to get along despite language barriers once before, so he's probably no worse and likely better than anyone else they could find. :D

Even after the stationers went down to the planet - the shipfolk wouldn't have known that (they come back expecting their station to still be up and running!), and if they didn't have linguists before they left again, they might not have re-introduced the concept afterward. (Out of sight, out of mind; and they wouldn't be intending to talk to any other aliens they happened across in their explorations, so they wouldn't see a need.)

Jase sort of made it sound like it was something Taylor had invented, if my memory helps -- sort of, "he knew there were atevi, so he made us study a bunch of old Earth languages, despite the whole ship speaking one language"?

[cheyinka]

That matches what I remember, yes - that it was Taylor's idea, and that Jase and the other one whose name eludes me were unusual for learning so many languages. That suggests to me that Ian was the best choice, even if it wasn't the case that he was the only one willing to take the job.