hyrkanian demi-vowels
So this is how I spend my days off?
I've a tendency to assume simple answers are correct so I'm inclined to say, despite the linguist musings, that hyrkanian demi-vowels are the ya (backwards r) in Russian, and nothing more. Sure, you can argue dipthong as hamfisted (hammouthed?) vs. Sonia, but I'm inclined to believe the conversation is the writer's trick for pronunciation rather than anything else. As far as the demi-vowel goes, keep in mind that in addition to the 70s being the cold war era, we were all taught there were five vowels plus sometimes y. Sometimes y means sometimes vowel and sometimes demi-vowel, because demi is a cool prefix in comics (think demigods). Oversimplified yes, but these were comics. Now, there are clearly some pretty well thought out elements of the stories, but most of these center on place and mythology, not linguistics.
That said, there are some pretty interesting place specific aspects to the story that make Sonya Russian (aside from the gut reaction to the name). She's from the steppes, which are in Russia, at least as much as you could have red hair and be from the steppes (i.e. not mongolian). Furthermore, Hyberian is isn't far off of Hyperborian or Siberian (in fact, it's a conjunction of the two). Both hyperboria and siberia are mysterious cold northern places and potentially steppe-ish.
I've a tendency to assume simple answers are correct so I'm inclined to say, despite the linguist musings, that hyrkanian demi-vowels are the ya (backwards r) in Russian, and nothing more. Sure, you can argue dipthong as hamfisted (hammouthed?) vs. Sonia, but I'm inclined to believe the conversation is the writer's trick for pronunciation rather than anything else. As far as the demi-vowel goes, keep in mind that in addition to the 70s being the cold war era, we were all taught there were five vowels plus sometimes y. Sometimes y means sometimes vowel and sometimes demi-vowel, because demi is a cool prefix in comics (think demigods). Oversimplified yes, but these were comics. Now, there are clearly some pretty well thought out elements of the stories, but most of these center on place and mythology, not linguistics.
That said, there are some pretty interesting place specific aspects to the story that make Sonya Russian (aside from the gut reaction to the name). She's from the steppes, which are in Russia, at least as much as you could have red hair and be from the steppes (i.e. not mongolian). Furthermore, Hyberian is isn't far off of Hyperborian or Siberian (in fact, it's a conjunction of the two). Both hyperboria and siberia are mysterious cold northern places and potentially steppe-ish.
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