（外文电子版资料）1959 - James Blish - A Case Of Conscience (RTF).docVIP

 A Case of Conscience,by James Blish[online version, v1.0]I schal declare the disposcioun of rome fro hysfirst makyng . . . and the seconde part schaldeclar ye holynesse of ye same place fro hisfirst crystendom; I schal not write but that ifynde in auctores or ellis that I sey with eye.- John Capgrave: The Solace of Pilgrims The beginning of this novel first appeared in abridged form as A Case of Conscience, in IF Worlds of Science Fiction, in which form it is copyright 1953 by Quinn Publishing Co., Inc. First Printing: April, 1958Second Printing: January, 1966Third Printing: July, 1972Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 58-8569to LARRY SHAW Pronunciation KeyFor any reader who cares, the Lithian words and names he will encounter here and there in this story are to be pronounced as follows: Xoredeshch: X as English K or Greek chi, hard; shch contains two separate sounds, as in Russian, or in English fish-church. Sfath: As in English, with a broad a. Gton: Guttural G, against the hard palate, like hawking. Chtexa: Like German Stuka, but with the flat e. gchteht: Guttural g followed by the soft sh sound, a flat e, and the h serving as equivalent of the Old Russian mute sign; thus, a four-syllable word, with a palatal tick at the end, but sounded as one syllable. Gleshchtehk: As indicated, with the guttural G, the fish-church middle consonants, and the mute h throwing the k back against the soft palate. THE RULE is that ch is always English sh in the initial position, always English ch as in chip elsewhere in the word; and h in isolation is an accented rest which always precedes, never follows, a consonant. As Agronski somewhere remarks, anybody who can spit can speak Lithian. Book One The stone door slammed. It was Cleavers trade-mark: there had never been a door too heavy, complex, or cleverly tracked to prevent him from closing it with a sound like a clap of doom. And no planet in the universe could possess an air sufficiently thick and