"Kerr,.Katharine.-.Deverry.01.-.Daggerspell" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dragon Stories)

Daggerspell
GRAFTON BOOKS
A Division of the Collins Publishing Group
LONDON GLASGOW TORONTO SYDNEY AUCKLAND
Grafton Books
A Division of the Collins Publishing Group 8 Grafton Street, London W1X 3LA
Published by Grafton Books 1987 Reprinted 1987
Copyright © Katharine Kerr 1986
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Kerr, Katharine Daggerspell.
I. Title 813’.54[F] PS3561.E642
ISBN 0-246-13161-6 ISBN 0-246-13168-3 Pbk
Printed in Great Britain by Billing & Sons Limited, Worcester
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.
For my husband, Howard, who helped me even more than he can know. Without his support and loving loyalty, I never would have finished this book.


Acknowledgments

I owe many thanks to the following friends:
Barbara Jenkins in particular, who gave me a whole career in a box when she gave me my first fantasy role-playing game many Christmases past.
Alice Brahtin, my mother, who gave me moral support, constant encouragement, and best of all, an excellent typewriter.
Elizabeth Pomada, my agent, who took on an admittedly eccentric project and then actually sold it.
Greg Stafford, whose trust in my opinions about his writing helped me trust my opinions about my own.
Conrad Bulos, the fastest typewriter repairman in the West.
And especially, Jon Jacobsen, the best gaming buddy a girl ever had.


A Note on the Pronunciation of Deverry Words

The language spoken in Deverry is a P-Celtic language. Although closely related to Welsh, Breton, and Cornish, it is by no means identical to any of these actual languages and should never be taken as such.
Vowels are divided by Deverry scribes into two classes: noble and common. Nobles have two pronunciations; commons, one.
A as in father when long; a shorter version of the same sound, as in far, when short.
O as in bone when long; as in pot when short.
W as the oo in spook when long; as in roof when short.
Y as the i in machine when long; as the e in butter when short.
E as in pen.
I as in pin.
U as in pun.
Vowels are generally long in stressed syllables; short in unstressed. Y is the primary exception to this rule. When it appears as the last letter of a word, it is always long, whether that syllable is stressed or not.
Diphthongs have one consistent pronunciation.
AE as the a in mane.
AI as in aisle.
AU as the ow in how.
EO as a combination of eh and oh.
EW as in Welsh, a combination of eh and oo.
IE as in pier.
OE as the oy in boy.
UI as the North Welsh wy, a combination of oo and ee.