Smijj sighed. The history teacher, whose name was Grena, was nice enough in an interactive hologram sort of way. He knew that the real teacher named Grena had long ago recorded all the basic facts he was learning, but this wasn't just a recording: the hologram programming had made this artificial teacher capable of noticing if he stopped paying attention for too long. So as dull as he was finding this section of Telmaj history, he didn't let his mind wander-not too much anyway.
From preview of A Smijj of Adventure
http://www.amazon.com/Smijj-Adventure-Tales-Telmaja-Book-ebook/dp/B00K5L153K/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
Now, the alphabet seems curiously like the hologram programming!
The history teacher, whose name was Grena, was nice enough in an interactive hologram sort of way.
OK, when we read an author, he or she is usually "nice enough in an interactive hologram sort of way". If he isn't, we put the book down. And it sometimes happens as with Homer or Saxo, that the author is teaching history.
He knew that the real teacher named Grena had long ago recorded all the basic facts he was learning
As is the case with Homer, Virgil or Saxo.
BUT, if their pronunciation, or one of them, of Latin or Greek, was unfamiliar, the recording automatically updates the pronunciation to whatever one you are familiar with - the technicality being that orthographies may remain fixed while pronunciations differ. So, if Virgil wrote "caelum" and pronounced "KIE-loo~" and Saxo wrote "coelum" and pronounced "TSAY-loom" (or "lum" in Yorkshire, short, still same quality as "oo"), whenever you start listening to either, you hear the pronunciation you are used to.
I wonder if a recorded hologram was up to that effect!
but this wasn't just a recording: the hologram programming had made this artificial teacher capable of noticing if he stopped paying attention for too long.
So does the book : it ceases to turn the pages. If you keep page you were reading open while your mind wanders, you will find it again, if you notice the number before mind wanders, you need not even keep your fingers in the book. Unlike a tape recording, you will find the spot again, unless you are very out of luck, when you attend to the book again.
So, as dull as he was finding this section of Telmaj history, he didn't let his mind wander-not too much anyway.
Wait, does this mean the hologram is programmed to interrupt your daydreams?
Books are not made that way!
And, I found the novel through the blog of Erin Manning:
And Sometimes Tea
redcardigan.blogspot.com
Hans Georg Lundahl
Nanterre UL
Tuesday of Holy Week
31-III-2015
Wait a minute, you might say, why didn't Virgil spell it kieloo and Saxo tsayloom? Well, because to the one the the way to write tsayloom was coelum and to the other the way to write kieloo was caelum. The way I showed it to people used to modern English interplay of orthography and phonetics depends on this Modern English interplay, which was other than the one for Modern English. Even in Modern High German the interplay is different. Kailu/zeelum would be their way of showing how Virgil and Saxo pronounced things. Portuguese would even end the first in -um, since it is a nasal -u and -m just adds a nasal twinge in Portuguese, and then be at loss how to show the pronunciation of Saxo, where the -m is pronounced as a separate letter (caelum/tçelumum?).
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