Posted by D. G. Wilson on April 16, 1998 at 20:52:47:
The names of the continents of Cadwal are named after the numbers 1, 2, 3 in "the language of Ancient Etruria" (noted early in "Araminta Station"). This language is not Etruscan, the language of Etruria in ancient Italy on Old Earth (as noted in an earlier thread which apparently has died). Note however that Etruria is one of the continents of Alphanor (early part of "Star King") and perhaps it was settled 1000 years or so before Cadwal -- long enough to be "ancient"? As for the language I suppose it to be related to (perhaps a divergent form of) French: 'deucas' and 'throy' clearly are reminiscent of 'deux' and 'trois' at least orthographically. 'Ecce' might be related to Latin 'ecce' but I like the similarity to Sanskrit 'eka' ('one'), which was once used for naming chemical elements. According to the citation in "Star King" the settlers of Alphanor were grossly of European racial type (fair and brown-haired).