The Prophecy

‘Gentlemen,’ Ulster explained, ‘I was able to translate the individual words in your letter in a short period of time. Unfortunately, I struggled tremendously with the word order.’

‘Why is that?’ Jones asked.

‘As you’re probably aware, every language has grammatical tendencies that define its basic sentence structure. In English, nouns usually fall before verbs, adjectives typically fall before nouns, and so on. For example, the red ball bounces. Obviously there are many exceptions to these rules, but over time most people recognize the

Payne nodded. ‘We’re with you so far.’

‘Occasionally, these patterns are distorted by topography and distance. In America, for instance, people who live in the north talk differently to people from the south.’

‘You mean, accents?’

‘Although accents are quite noticeable, they are merely tonal. I was actually referring to regional dialects. Simply put, the location of your home influences the words you use and the way you structure sentences.’

Jones smiled. ‘Down south, they say y’all. In Pittsburgh, they say yinz.’

‘Yinz,’ Ulster repeated. ‘I’ve never heard such a word. How bizarre!’

‘For the record,’ Payne said defensively, ‘I grew up here, but I don’t say yinz.’

‘And since you are highly educated,’ Ulster explained, ‘I wouldn’t expect you to. Typically, the more education a person receives, the less likely they are to use regional dialects. Unless, of course, a colloquial term has been absorbed by all levels of society.’

‘Can you give me an example?’ Jones asked.

Ulster nodded. ‘Of course I can. In fact, I’ll

‘In Pittsburgh, we’d call it pop.’

‘In other parts of America, it would be called cola, a soft drink, or simply Coke. Now tell me, if you heard any of those being ordered, would you look down upon the person?’

Jones shook his head no.

‘That’s because those terms have been accepted by all levels of society. On the other hand, if someone ordered soda water or soda pop, what would you think?’

‘I’d think they grew up on a farm. Or live in the 1950s.’

‘That’s because those expressions have been phased out of high society.’

‘Very interesting,’ Jones said. ‘I never thought of that.’

Payne cleared his throat in frustration. He knew if he didn’t interrupt them soon, they would talk about regional dialects all day. And considering the recent shootings, he realized they didn’t have time to waste. ‘Sorry to cut in, Petr, but what’s your point?’

Ulster smiled sheepishly. ‘Ah, yes, my point. When I translated your letter, I didn’t detect any

‘Go on,’ Payne urged, trying to stop Ulster’s rambling.

‘As I mentioned earlier, all languages have a wide variety of nuances that make them unique. And because of this, I ran into all sorts of problems with your letter.’

‘Such as?’

‘First of all, Greek uses one alphabet, Hebrew uses another, and so on. Secondly, Hebrew is written right to left, not left to right, which hindered my initial efforts until I got comfortable with the flow. Thirdly, a few of these languages have conflicting sentence structures. Some of them require their articles and prepositions to be placed here, and others require them to be placed there. Not to mention adjectives and verb tenses, which were particularly troublesome.’

Payne grimaced, suddenly understanding the challenges that Ulster had faced. He knew the letter had been written in six languages, but he

‘The first thing I did was toss away the minor words in the letter. Since I didn’t know where to place them, I pushed them aside and concentrated on the major words.’

‘By major words, do you mean nouns and verbs?’ Jones asked.

‘Precisely!’

With a burst of excitement, Ulster grabbed the black marker from the tray and made a simple chart — two columns with eleven rows — on the board behind him. Then he picked up an orange marker and started filling in the left column with the English translation of all the major words. After that, he used a purple marker to identify the original language that the author had used in the letter. Amazingly, Ulster did the entire chart from memory, never turning round or glancing at his notes. When he was done, he exhaled loudly and collapsed into his chair, as if it had drained every ounce of energy from his body.

WORDS

LANGUAGE

city

French

brother

Greek

lover

Italian

Hebrew

line

Latin

mare

Provencal

mother

French

choice

Hebrew

place

Provencal

time

Italian

Both Payne and Jones wrote the chart underneath their copies of the letter while Ulster caught his breath. Thirty seconds passed before he spoke again.

‘As you can see,’ Ulster said, ‘the author varied his language throughout the message, never using the same language consecutively. Obviously this added to the complexity of the letter because his grammar rules were constantly changing.’

‘Did you learn anything by his choice of language?’ Jones wondered.

‘Hypothetically, yes. Conclusively, no.’

‘Theories are fine, Petr. This isn’t a court of law.’

Ulster smiled. ‘In that case, I would surmise that the author was a French Jew.’

‘Really?’ Jones said, surprised by the precision. ‘Why do you think that?’

‘Simple maths, my boy. Simple maths.’ Ulster