Re: Ill Dragun Rhys, Kemr in the age of AIDS

[Padraic Brown <pbrown@nova.umuc.edu>]

On Mon, 13 Apr 1998, John Cowan wrote:

> Padrig Bryn yscrifef:
> 
> > I think such clearly modern history will have to wait until we a) figure
> > out where these phonomena came from, why and when; b) figure out what the
> > impetus were for those events; and c) figure out how they are arrived at
> > from our 5th cen. POD.  That's a lot of figuring.
> 
> All evidence is that HIV originated in Africa, and while the political
> history of Africa may be different *There*, its virology probably is not.
> We already know that the E.U. exists *There*, and that's a whole lot more

Napoleon's grand empire, or someone else's?

> dependent on political details than the existence and spread of HIV.

I understand that the biology should be the same; but the how it got from
Africa to the rest of the world is another matter, and that matter may or
may not be the same *There*.  Thus the political/social/technical/etc.
history of Africa/Europe/America is quite important to the prevalence of
the disease, if not the very existence.

Basically, different world --> different circumstances.

> 
> What I really want to know about, and what *will* take a lot of figuring,
> is the British Empire (same name *Here* and *There*, I think).
> Either the U.S. expelled its Brithenig-speakers as Loyalists (improbable,
> I think, since the F.K. was not yet in being), or they just happened
> to settle only in Canada (improbable), or only in tiny numbers (possible),
> or the U.S. was bilingual/bicultural from the beginning (most likely,
> but *very* different from what happened *Here*).

I would argue that there _is_ no USA (as it exists *Here*, at any rate); 
for the simple fact that England *There* just isn't what it was *Here*!  A
different England must lead to different circumstances in North America. 
If there are NA colonies, then we would have to add Brithenig to the
French/Dutch/English mix already there *Here* ;-) .  So many little things
from the sixth century to the 18th must be added _in just the right
amounts_ in order for anything like what happened in Philidelphia, etc. to
happen again.  I just don't think it's likely.  Something will get botched
somewhere.  Some other kind of NA federation -- that may be possible; just
_not_ the USA.

Besides, why _must_ the Brithenig and Scottish colonists rebel, if the
Saxon colonists rebel?  Also remember that much of what the US (and indeed
Canada) is now is derived from certain events that occurred *Here* in
those days gone by.  Scotland *There* can not be cleared the way it was
*Here*, therefore so many wouldbe Canadians and Merkins remain Scottish. 
If Kemr has such a "hands-off" approach to Ireland, there is no reason to
presume the Starving Time, and therefore no mass emmigration. [I wouldn't
be here if that had been different!] That would leave the "mix" radically
different in North America.  Even if the US comes about at all, it must
therefore be about as different from the one *Here* as the Brittish Isles
are *There*. 

> 
> We know that there are Brithenig speakers in the Southern Hemisphere,
> probably both in Oz and N.Z.  Did Kemr participate in the punishment-by-
> transportation model that made Australia what it is?  Probably; we know there
> were plenty of Irish transportees *Here*, and presumably *There* as well.
> So Australia might tend to be bilingual too, in something like Paraguyan
> fashion (everybody speaks both languages), rather than regionally.
> In N.Z. I think it would be regional, with different areas being settled
> by Scots, English, and Cambrians.

Bog clearance.  ;^)  I think Peter once mentioned a Brithenig colony of
some sort in the vicinity of the Malvin...uh, Falklands.  I suspect they
would count as southern hemispherians.

> 
> > I'm sure Andrew had in mind a world not too dissimilar from ours for the
> > Comro to inhabit; but there must indeed be certain canyon sized
> > differences all the same.
> 
> Absolutely, and the present situation of the Empire would have to be one
> of those.

Who gets India?  If anyone.

I think most of those canyons will be right in the middle of whatever
England had touched *Here*; meaning that it probably will not exist
*There* or will exist in a radically different way.

> 
> > > 			ACH I FI!
> > 
> > I would suggest VID and SIDA:
> 
> Sure, sure, spoil my joke, the only Welsh/Brithenig pun I'm ever
> likely to devise.

fal mag; ffew yn mellt?  ffageth a ysplicharlla.

> 
> -- 
> John Cowan					cowan@ccil.org
> 		e'osai ko sarji la lojban.
> 
Padraic.

My 1/2d. worth, after inflation and VAT.