Leif: Are these famous Iulska people? Like leaders, or warriors, or Kolpovision winners?
Thorn: Those are the moons!
In the old traditions, they created the world together. They’re sisters.
Leif: In ancient Sønheim they were the ghostly ravens of Dómari, judge of the dead.
Thorn: The Iulska word for “moon” is the same as “sister.” But I know the Sønska word isn’t the same as “raven.”
Leif: Nope. It’s the same as . . . um, something else.
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“the sonska word for moon is the same as the word for… moon?”
“No, it’s [word]”
“I’m sorry, it just sounds like ‘moon’.”
“Well, yeah, it’s the same word.”
“This would be so much easier if you also spoke my language.”
Now I’m wondering what that word is. I can think of 3 or 4 possibilites off the top of my head.
…”kolpovision winners”? Who cares about those?
Not Leif, but he’s heard that foreigners regard them with great admiration.
Oh i see.
Knowing how frequently one or the other of the languages happens to have the same vulgar meanings of words as English, I’m guessing that Erin just didn’t want to mention any terms for people’s backsides, especially not the specific part of the backside in question.
So in Sonheim, people get mooned a lot?
More like Leif didn’t want to explain to Thorn how “flashing someone with your bare butt” is such a common practice in his country that they have a single verb for it….
Raise your hands if you’re in the comments trying to guess which naughty bit of anatomy Leif means!
I’m thinking this could go several ways…
my first thoughts was it was something else that was awkward to mention, e.g. the moons are the Ravens of the Judge of the Dead, perhaps it’s an insulting word implying someone is being too strict.
Or, as Asimov above suggests, perhaps Leif realized he was going to hit a linguistic barrier, as Sønska only has that one word, and the meaning is changed contextually, leaving Thorn confused, so he just terminated the sentence…
I DO like Someones_Ed’s idea, too, though.
Did you know English has the same word for “set” and “set”? It can also mean “set.”
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