Talk:Borogravia

Language

Borogravian to High Borogravian: the Roundworld analogy might be the difference between all the various local German dialects, and the "High German" that was used as a kind of common language? I know enough to know that the "Plattdeutsch" of Northern Germany (Dutch and Danish borders)is only just intelligible to the Swiss and Austrians, and vice-versa... perhaps Borogravia has as many dialects and local peculiarities?

To be honest, any "language community" consists of a group of dialects that all share enough common features for them to be thought of as belonging to the same language: English, for instance, has got Scots and Geordie accents at one end of the country, which shade through many different variants to Cornwall and Kentish at the other end. What we call "BBC English", or "Standard English", performs the same uniting function in the English-speaking world.

Even in a minority language like Welsh, a tuned ear can detect differences of vocabulary, idiom and even grammar between Flintshire (top right-hand corner) Caernarfon/Ynys Mon (top left-hand corner) Ceredigion (west coast) and the south. There is a "pure" High Language that gets trotted out at Eisteiddfods and which is used in the Beibl. (Religion tends to be the other usage of High Languages: think of the High English" of the Book of Common Prayer and the King James Bible. This ties in well with The Colour of Magic's description of "High Borogravian" as a language of magic and religion.) --AgProv 11:29, 10 October 2007 (CEST)

Pun

You're all way better at etymology than me - I just read the nation's name as "Borrow Gravy Ah" (possibly a pun in the same class as Djelibeybi). JaffaCakeLover 18:14, 13 June 2010 (UTC)

I think the assumption was that it came from Lewis Carrol's "Borogoves" welded onto the German form "...gravia", a region ruled by a Graf. --Old Dickens 20:01, 13 June 2010 (UTC)

There was a brand of gravy powder called Boro = Boro Gravy (unsigned comment by 222.155.204.88, 24 February 2011)

Interesting if true, but it can't be Googled, Yahooed or Binged. Bistogravia, now...--Old Dickens 17:37, 30 May 2011 (CEST)

Dark Empire

The "Dark Empire" seems to me a reference to Ronald Reagans' Term: "Evil Empire". --EinFritz (talk) 23:36, 6 October 2013 (GMT)

Very well could be. Unfortunately not much has been written about the Dark Empire yet. --Zdm (talk) 04:49, 7 October 2013 (GMT)

Modern parallel?

Hmm. Bellicosity: check. Overbearing religion: check. Absurd propaganda: check. There are ways it's unlike, of course. --Old Dickens 22:57, 29 May 2011 (CEST)

Small?

"small, backward country,..." About half way through the book we find it's not so small, in fact it's larger than Zlobenia. Or is it that Zlobenia is also small, and even smaller than Borogravia? --that's wot I sed ... (talk) 20:00, 10 June 2018 (UTC)

It's larger than many countries according to The Compleat Discworld Atlas map, but then Genua has also grown from a small city-state to a large country as well. I have trouble considering the atlas as canon; I'd need to scour the book for clues. --Old Dickens (talk) 20:38, 10 June 2018 (UTC)

Doubleday hardback p.178: 'And I have to add, for my part," said Blouse, in his talking-to-a-meeting voice, 'that Borogravia is in fact larger than Zlobenia, although most of the country is little more than barren mountainside--' --that's wot I sed ... (talk) 21:51, 11 June 2018 (UTC)

Yea; so neither of them sounds very large. The great areas shown on the Atlas mapp could hardly be all barren mountainside. Their insignificance in the rest of the chronicles and their narrative similarity to the pre-and-post-Yugoslavian Balkans don't support very large countries. Keep digging. --Old Dickens (talk) 23:20, 11 June 2018 (UTC)