Ines asked Genevieve Cogman:

Hi! I love the Library series (just finished Book 5) and it got me thinking about multiple worlds and language. Even though fashions vary slightly between worlds, languages never seem to do so, or at least not noticably. I'd love to see a world where people use words Irene has never heard before, or use them in a different way, or have "an accent" that's unusual to her ears. Or just hear your thoughts on this?

Genevieve Cogman Absolutely this happens - Librarians do learn to speak and read/write multiple languages, but different worlds may have different vocabularies, accents, etcetera, or the languages may spread in different ways across the world. One of the main criteria for a Librarian mission is "can the Librarian in question speak/read the appropriate language?"

I think in book 2, in Venice, Irene does get queried about having a non-local accent in Italian, and has to come up with a quick excuse about being from elsewhere in Italy. No doubt that sort of thing happens quite often to Librarians.

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