>From: "Mark A. Mandel" <thnidu at yahoo.com> >To: Martin Wohlert <martin_wohlert at hotmail.com> >Subject: Re: Elvtarsok >Date: Fri, 24 Dec 2004 15:34:31 -0800 (PST) > >--- Martin Wohlert <martin_wohlert at hotmail.com> wrote: > > > To steal the context from Cracks and Shards: > > > "elvtarsok": Noish-pa cannot think of the Dragaeran word he wants to > > describe Kelly's people, in relation to the murdered Franz [Tek52]: > > [Noish-pa:] "Well, his people, his -- what is the word? Elvtarsok?" > > [Vlad:] "Friends? Associates?" > > Noish-pa is never at a loss for words, in any sense. Is Brust doing > > something with the first syllable's resemblance to "elves"? > > > > > > I checked an online Hungarian-English dictionary, and found these two > > suspects: > > elvtárs comrade > > and > > társak companions > >Thanks. I'm sure "elvtársok" (+/- the accent mark) means 'comrades'. But I >was >wondering there why Brust had Noish-pa bring in this particular word, since >he >refers to Dragaerans as elfs. It seemed like a joke by Brust, whether or >not we >are to suppose that the Fenarian word (represented by?) "elvtárs" and the >Dragaeran word translated as "elf" resemble each other at all. > >-- Mark A. Mandel > http://cracksandshards.com > a Steven Brust Dragaera fan website > [This text prepared with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.] _________________________________________________________________ FREE pop-up blocking with the new MSN Toolbar - get it now! http://toolbar.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200415ave/direct/01/