Babel

by R.F. Kuang

Right now I’m playing with a pair I think might be useful in bakeries. Flour and flower.’ ‘Aren’t those just entirely different words?’ asked Letty. ‘You would think,’ said Anthony. ‘But if you go back to the Anglo-French original of the thirteenth century, you’ll find they were originally the same word – flower simply referred to the finest part of grain meal. Over time, flower and flour diverged to represent different objects. But if this bar works right, then I should be able to install it in milling machines to refine flour with more efficiency.’ He sighed. ‘I’m not sure it will work. But I expect a lifetime of free scones from Vaults if it does.’ ‘Do you get royalties?’ asked Victoire. ‘Every time they make a copy of your bars, I mean?’ ‘Oh, no. I get a modest sum, but all proceeding profits go to the tower. They do add my name to the ledger of match-pairs, though. I’ve got six in there so far. And there are only about twelve hundred active match-pairs currently in use throughout the Empire, so that’s about the highest academic laurel you can claim. Better than publishing a paper anywhere else.’ ‘Hold on,’ said Ramy. ‘Isn’t twelve hundred quite low? I mean, match-pairs have been in use since the Roman Empire, so how—’ ‘How is it that we haven’t covered the country in silver expressing every match-pair possible?’ ‘Right,’ said Ramy. ‘Or at least, come up with more than twelve hundred.’ ‘Well, think about it,’ said Anthony. ‘The problem should be obvious. Languages affe...