AW: Duckburg

[Cord Wiljes]

Matthew Williams wrote:
> I sympathize with Mr. Rosa's comments.  As an American, I
> want to claim the Ducks and insist that they're speaking English!

But then we need to explain why English is spoken in every country in
every Barks' Duck story. Even in Unsteadystan and on Mars the ducks have
no problem communicating with the local population. Or do they have some
sort of universal translator built into their brains?

Olaf Solstrand wrote:
> So, Duckburg uses the language of Fantasy. They use all different
languages
> at once, depending on who's listening.

I like this idea very much. But what sounds would a tape recorder get
from a speaking duck? Would the record match a record of someone
speaking English? Or would those be completely different sounds? Spoken
language is after all just a movement of the air's molecules, so there
is a physical property which can be measured intersubjectively.

Don Rosa wrote:
> No, it just means that the stories must appear in the language
> of the country where they appear or they will not make any sense
> to very many people. It's "artistic license". Or it's a translation.
> And of course you can guess what my firm opinion is on this. Duckburg
is in
> the United states because that's where it was in the original version
which
> is imitated in many countries.

I don't remember the duck's ever speaking about themselves as
"Americans" in Barks' stories. Especially there does not seem to exist
anything called "United States of America". I rather picture their
society like ancient Greece: There are a lot of different autonomous
city-states, each with its own political system, traditions, laws and
languages.

And if artistic license allows us to have Spartacus talk in English so
he can be understood by modern moviegoers: Couldn't the same artistic
license be the reason why Duckburg is located in North-America in
stories written in the U.S.? And located in Italy in stories written in
Italy?

Cord