A Letter To The Times Of Kingstown

This was the patron reward for February 2019, now let out from it's paywall prison for 2020. It is a piece of recovered flotsam, pendant from my 2019 Age of Sail Fantasy serial Tapping The Admiral. Does it have any relevance to current affairs you ask? Why sir, surely such a thing would be mere coincidence.

****

LETTER TO THE EDITOR of THE TIMES of KINGSTOWN

SIR

I am a loyal Whitlander, who loves this country and her traditions and institutions, and have nothing but contempt for the foul usurper who illegitimately rules our neighbour across the water. However I must take issue with your correspondent of the 13th inst who suggested that we must remove all trace of Cosmopolitaine language and culture from our polity to oppose him.

Others have stated the undesirability of shunning wine and oil (already interdicted so any in the country must have a source outside the usurpers domains) and the lack of pragmatism and charity in casting out refugees from his regime. As a historian of language I must make an alternative complaint. Namely that Cosmopolitaine has been one of the tongues of this country since its founding.

The Charter of Hightown Abbey, one of the oldest manuscripts in this country, is written in three languages. Old Whitland of course, and Ferrin, the common tongue across the continent, the language of scholars and of the Iron Empire. And finally in Old Cosmopolitaine, the language of many of the monks and nobles who put their names to the document.

This is but one prominent example of the ancient use of the tongue, that has been in use on both sides of The Sleeve for as long as there have been nations on each shore, as a lingua franca.

Your Obedient Servant,

J. Angus Peasbody
Scholar and Fellow of the Royal Society of Natural and Unnatural Philosophy

Comments

Popular Posts