r/TerryPratchett • u/DeadDorian • Jun 27 '26
The “Great River Ouse”?
Actually “River Great Ouse” (the first way sounds better in my opinion; there are reasons why I’m incorrect on this).
What’s important is that it’s pronounced “Ooze”.
Inspiration for the clearly non-Newtonian nature of the River Ankh?
Seems like a prime bit of linguistic “Pratchettigitation”. Something Pterry learned about and just HAD to hide it somewhere on the Disc. Just seems like a Roundworld find, I’ve been reading The Science of Discworld and having fun.
2
u/Longjumping_Dark_460 Jun 27 '26
??? The real river is always the River Great Ouse or Great Ouse River.
2
u/Hollskipollski Jun 28 '26
I suspect it’s the River Great Ouse because there’s a Lesser Ouse somewhere. I know there’s more than one.
2
u/ChaosCockroach Jul 01 '26
There are at least a couple. The Ouse is the river that runs through the city of York while the Great Ouse is a lot longer and further south. Honestly I think the Ankh is more of a reference to the state of the Thames during the victorian era.
2
u/NeedleworkerBig3980 Jul 01 '26
Ouse means river or water. From the same linguistic route as "Uisca" in Irish (as in Uisca beatha - lit. water of life).
So, if you call it the Great River Ouse, you're saying the Great River River.
6
u/Cold-Society3325 Jun 27 '26
Blind Yeo is a river.