(urth) This week in Google alerts; story with Gaiman:

[Andrew Mason]

Gerry Quinn wrote:

. As you say, Latin and English would be nearly indistinguishable in
> Severian's day. What I think is that the language represented as Latin in
> BotNS is to the contemporary language of Severian's day as Latin is to the
> English of today.  And I don't think the language Thea speaks of (which is
> actually the English we speak)  holds that position.  It seems more distant.
>
> I other words I think:
>
> <Terminus Est> : <Sev's language> :: Latin : English
> <language Thea mentions> : <Sev's language> :: <really ancient language> :
> English
>

I agree with all this. But another question is whether real Latin is
being used in _Long Sun_ (in 'vox populi. vox Dei', for instance). It
might be, because I take it that the Whorl cultures are deliberate
reconstructions, inspired by memories of 'our' time (which, as Cyriaca
explains, were restored to humans by computers at the end of the First
Empire). On the other hand, one might wonder whether actual languages
were among what was restored; the books in Ultan's library would seem
not to be books handed down from 'our' time, but books written at the
end of the First Empire, presumably in current languages, enshrining
knowledge from an earlier time.