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Re:

From: Alex Kirstukas <infernalnonsense~at~yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:27:10 +0000
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~gilead.org.il>

Hi Michael,

The bad news is that the Wikipedia entry is a little misleading; the good news is that, being Wikipedia, it can and (no doubt will) be changed. Although it's true that we never learn any "Nautilese," Arronax DOES eventually figure out that "Nautron respoc lorni virch" must mean something like "the sea is clear" or "no ships in sight."

As for the construction of the words, the Wikipedia editor has clearly been dipping into one of the splendid modern translations of 20K (Miller & Walter for the Naval Institute, or Butcher for OUP). Both contain annotations with useful linguistic analysis of the phrase.

Cheers,

Alex


On Jan 12, 2012, at 9:19 PM, "Michael T. Bee" <michael.t.bee~at~gmail.com> wrote:

> Any new info on the language spoken on board the Nautilus? I found this on wikipedia:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_constructed_languages
>
>
> The "Nautilus Language", spoken on board Jules Verne's famous fictional submarine, in token of crew members having completely renounced their former homelands and backgrounds. Every morning, after scanning the horizon with his binoculars, Nemo's second-in-command says: "Nautron respoc lorni virch". The meaning of these words is never clarified, but their construction seems to indicate that the "Nautilus Language" (its actual name is not given) is based on European languages.
>
> -Thank you ~ best regards
>
> Michael T. Bee
>
> michael.t.bee~at~gmail.com
>
Received on Fri 13 Jan 2012 - 13:27:18 IST

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