"Philip Jose Farmer - Tongues of the Moon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Farmer Phillip Jose)

chosen at this meeting. Let me remind you what I told you in the document. That is, that the voting on various issues
will not be a farce. I have not, as they say in English, packed the house. For every American or West European at this
meeting, there is a Russian and a Chinese."
Broward smiled. It was true that the Russian and Chinese bases had a number of delegates to equal those of
Clavius. But they had sent only those specifically invited by Scone. And he had included among the Russian
nationals various Turkish speakers, Armenians, Georgians, Lithuanians, Estonians. And among the Chinese were
several Japanese, Indonesians, Indians, Thai, and Filipinos, none of whom had any reason to love the Chinese.
Panchurin said, "Then I understand correctly that the universal language will be chosen by popular vote?
That the particular one will not be rammed down our throats?"
"Of course not. I am only requiring that we vote on one now because, after the Axis have been dealt with, we
may not be able to agree so easily or quickly on an issue like this."
"I would speak of the Russian language," said Panchurin, "its glory, its beauty, the ease of learning it, its
antiquity, its universality, the fact that the two greatest novelists of all ages, Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, wrote in it,
and that the immortal Lenin used it to expound Marxism. But I am sure that other speakers will use much the same
arguments for their own tongues, so I will refrain. You may rest assured, however, that we Russians will uphold our
own glorious speech. And we are confident that many among you non-Russians also appreciate its superiority."
Scone then recognized Emile Lorilleux, the geochemist. He spoke passionately and poetically for two minutes
on the beauty, the conciseness and exactness, the great adaptability, the long recognized distinction of French as a
diplomatic tool, and the greatness of its literature, second to none.
There were others. Kreooson, the only Greek on the Moon, spoke even more eloquently of the unbroken
continuity of his native speech, of the richness and beauty, the tongue of Homer, Euripides, Plato, Aristotle, and
Kazantzakis, of the many contributions it had made and was still making to scientific and poetic discourse. Near the
end, he began to look desperate, and tears appeared in his eyes.
It was then that Old Man Dahlquist asked for the floor. When he rose, there was a respectful silence and
concentrated attention. Arne Dahlquist was a legend, loved by many and honored even by the Chinese. He was 90
years old, though, he looked no more than sixty. He was reputed to be the greatest linguist that had ever lived; he
could speak fluently every major Indo-European and Ural-Altaic language and many of the lesser. He was conversant
in the Kadai-Malayo-Polynesian tongues. He talked well in Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Malayalam, and Burmese,
and he could talk at ease with any speaker of Navaho, Apache, Dakota, Ojibway, Cherokee, Nahuatl, Maya, or
Quechua.
"As you know," he said, smiling at them. "I have been on the Moon for six years. My project was concerned
with the Earth, not this satellite, and its intention was to demonstrate the single source of most of the American Indian
tongues and to illustrate the relationship of the Amerindian Ursprache to Ainu. Perhaps, even to other tongues of the
Old World. I came here because my project was to take a long time, and there was a greater chance of extending my life
span if I lived in the less taxing gravity of the Moon.
"I brought several thousands of microfilms of my research material. This has been fortunate for future
Lunarian research. Without these records, our descendants might not know anything of the great variety of tongues
used on Earth, since the majority of their speakers have died. And it is probable that the bomb attack itself, plus the
havoc necessarily created by Nature during the next two hundred years, will destroy most of mankind's books and
records.
'"Well, that is neither here nor there, so where could it be, then?" He paused to smile at his little joke, then
continued, "You have more important things to think about than linguistic scholarship, and most of you care little
about such things as the structure of Nahuatl or the beauty of its literature.
"Just as your sons and daughters and their children will care little that their parents' speech is not the one
they are using. All, Russian, English, Chinese, and the other nationalities represented here, will be speaking one
tongue. For begin to deviate into dialects. And, after Moonman has moved back to earth and established various
colonies there, the dialects will evolve into separate languages. This is inevitable, but it has no bearing on the
immediate future.
"What I am trying to point out to youтАФforgive the ramblings of an old man speaking on the subject dearest
to his heartтАФis that there is no necessity of voting at this time on what language should be universal after peace