Why have the Andermani ships the IANS prefix?

So, this was bothering me quite a while now as a native German speaker, and I understand that the prefix is totally understandable for English speakers and doesn't create any confusion in regards to whose ship it is,
But:
as the Andermani are styling themselves after Prussia/Imperial Germany, why do they not use, for example SMS Seydlitz, instead of IANS Seydlitz?
SMS in this case, meaning "Seiner Majestäts Schiff", translating to His Majesty's Ship in German.

OfSMSKarlsbad wrote:So, this was bothering me quite a while now as a native German speaker, and I understand that the prefix is totally understandable for English speakers and doesn't create any confusion in regards to whose ship it is,
But:
as the Andermani are styling themselves after Prussia/Imperial Germany, why do they not use, for example SMS Seydlitz, instead of IANS Seydlitz?
SMS in this case, meaning "Seiner Majestäts Schiff", translating to His Majesty's Ship in German.

What's interesting is that they ARE the SMS (ship name) in _A Call to Vengeance_. I have to check, but IIRC, all other references to Andermani ship identifications were done by RMN ships and perhaps they imposed their own prefix.

Robert_A_Woodward wrote:

OfSMSKarlsbad wrote:So, this was bothering me quite a while now as a native German speaker, and I understand that the prefix is totally understandable for English speakers and doesn't create any confusion in regards to whose ship it is,
But:
as the Andermani are styling themselves after Prussia/Imperial Germany, why do they not use, for example SMS Seydlitz, instead of IANS Seydlitz?
SMS in this case, meaning "Seiner Majestäts Schiff", translating to His Majesty's Ship in German.

What's interesting is that they ARE the SMS (ship name) in _A Call to Vengeance_. I have to check, but IIRC, all other references to Andermani ship identifications were done by RMN ships and perhaps they imposed their own prefix.

Gustav Anderman was not only insane, he was crazy. His megalomania was not unlike certain verge dictators we've seen with their name smeared on every football pitch on the planet.

Being the Successful mercenary, his ships were his marketing tool so they needed his name on them. I guess some traditions are harder to break than others?

pappilon wrote:

Gustav Anderman was not only insane, he was crazy. His megalomania was not unlike certain verge dictators we've seen with their name smeared on every football pitch on the planet.

Being the Successful mercenary, his ships were his marketing tool so they needed his name on them. I guess some traditions are harder to break than others?

I am not sure that insane, megalomania and crazy are words the fit Gustav very well. Whatever his oddities, he was also a very capable man who gathered an empire that has been stable for centuries along with a dynasty that has ruled that empire since the begining.

Crazy? Like a fox, perhaps.

Don

-

Robert_A_Woodward wrote:

OfSMSKarlsbad wrote:So, this was bothering me quite a while now as a native German speaker, and I understand that the prefix is totally understandable for English speakers and doesn't create any confusion in regards to whose ship it is,
But:
as the Andermani are styling themselves after Prussia/Imperial Germany, why do they not use, for example SMS Seydlitz, instead of IANS Seydlitz?
SMS in this case, meaning "Seiner Majestäts Schiff", translating to His Majesty's Ship in German.

What's interesting is that they ARE the SMS (ship name) in _A Call to Vengeance_. I have to check, but IIRC, all other references to Andermani ship identifications were done by RMN ships and perhaps they imposed their own prefix.

Which begs the question as to whether or not it does the same for the RHN - which in turn begs the question as to whether or not Haven uses a French or an English prefix for its ships in the first place. Properly speaking, if they did use French, it would be something along the lines of "NRH" - Navire de République de Haven - as opposed to "RHNS". Obviously it makes sense to use only one consistent prefix here throughout the books, rather than flip-flopping prefixes depending on who the point-of-view characters are at any given time and therefore confusing the hell out of readers, but....

.....this is relevant to my Interests.

roseandheather wrote:Which begs the question as to whether or not it does the same for the RHN - which in turn begs the question as to whether or not Haven uses a French or an English prefix for its ships in the first place. Properly speaking, if they did use French, it would be something along the lines of "NRH" - Navire de République de Haven - as opposed to "RHNS". Obviously it makes sense to use only one consistent prefix here throughout the books, rather than flip-flopping prefixes depending on who the point-of-view characters are at any given time and therefore confusing the hell out of readers, but....

.....this is relevant to my Interests.

I think it was writ somewhere in the Canon that the official language of The 'Verse is English, however there are bilingual planets?

Like all commercial airline flights communications are in english, or at least international ones, so would naming conventions for ships be in English qua the Official Language.

Not that I'm ever right...

pappilon wrote:

roseandheather wrote:Which begs the question as to whether or not it does the same for the RHN - which in turn begs the question as to whether or not Haven uses a French or an English prefix for its ships in the first place. Properly speaking, if they did use French, it would be something along the lines of "NRH" - Navire de République de Haven - as opposed to "RHNS". Obviously it makes sense to use only one consistent prefix here throughout the books, rather than flip-flopping prefixes depending on who the point-of-view characters are at any given time and therefore confusing the hell out of readers, but....

.....this is relevant to my Interests.

I think it was writ somewhere in the Canon that the official language of The 'Verse is English, however there are bilingual planets?

Like all commercial airline flights communications are in english, or at least international ones, so would naming conventions for ships be in English qua the Official Language.

Not that I'm ever right...

That'd make sense. I stand very firmly on the "the common language of Haven is some form of French" side of the debate because.... well, because "Nouveau Paris", frankly. Though I could see it sort of being a Canadian situation where both French and English are equally common, or became so over the centuries. (And I believe "Let's Go to Prague" confirms this?)

But it would make total sense for Humanity to have decided en masse to have one common lingua franca for interstellar trade/communications/diplomacy etc and for that language to be English, for obvious reasons.

But GEE. IT WOULD BE REALLY NICE FOR SOMEONE WHO MIGHT KNOW THE ACTUAL ANSWER TO WEIGH IN ON THIS QUESTION. WOULDN'T IT, FELLOW FORUMITES? ::slants pointed look in His Celeryness' direction::

Let's just hope the Honorverse has moved past the Canadian language question.

pappilon wrote:

roseandheather wrote:Which begs the question as to whether or not it does the same for the RHN - which in turn begs the question as to whether or not Haven uses a French or an English prefix for its ships in the first place. Properly speaking, if they did use French, it would be something along the lines of "NRH" - Navire de République de Haven - as opposed to "RHNS". Obviously it makes sense to use only one consistent prefix here throughout the books, rather than flip-flopping prefixes depending on who the point-of-view characters are at any given time and therefore confusing the hell out of readers, but....

.....this is relevant to my Interests.

I think it was writ somewhere in the Canon that the official language of The 'Verse is English, however there are bilingual planets?

Like all commercial airline flights communications are in english, or at least international ones, so would naming conventions for ships be in English qua the Official Language.

Not that I'm ever right...

After reading the wikipedia article on ship prefixes, it could also be that only the RMN (which I think is unlikely) has actually bothered with assigning a prefix to it's ships and the other prefixes are assigned by it, although most navies do have a prefix they use. Also the prefix could contain the role the ship had.

For example:
1. German naval ships do not use a prefix internally, but have the prefix FGS assigned to it by NATO.
2. Another one would be, surprise, surprise, the US navy, which does use the prefix USS.
3. The UKs use of the prefix RFA, meaning Royal Fleet Auxiliary.
4. The use of the prefix RMMS by the SEM for its merchant vessels.


In regards to aircraft, they sometimes get a name assigned by the company which maintains them, for example the Lufthansa's Landshut, but always have an identifier with a prefix and its registration number. For example, the Landshut which was hijacked in 1977, had the identifier D-ABCE.

OfSMSKarlsbad wrote:
In regards to aircraft, they sometimes get a name assigned by the company which maintains them, for example the Lufthansa's Landshut, but always have an identifier with a prefix and its registration number. For example, the Landshut which was hijacked in 1977, had the identifier D-ABCE.

What if, Like Nato identifiers of Warsaw pact weapons, the identifiers were Nato supplied and nothing like the actual country used? We westerners called them Whiskeys and Novembers, instead of their actual, Russian names or even translations thereof. The RMN might simply translate the Fleet names into something "standard" cannot mangle and live with it.

Alternately, it's a big universe, perhaps such names and acronyms must be registered in the modern era to avoid confusion, and the direct translation was already taken by an old, core world - so the next best thing was applied.