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Language most shows a man, speak that I may see thee.
—Ben Jonson
Language is the dress of thought.
—Samuel Johnson
A different language is a different vision of life.
—Federico Fellini |
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One of the most fun parts, at least to me, of writing fantasy (and science fiction) is coming up with different species and cultures, each with their own way of life, traditions, religions, customs, and language.
Some fictional cultures have their own developed language, such as Klingon or Tolkien's Elvish. Putting together a fully-realized language is an enormous effort, though, more than a single writer can usually spare because they're busy with other things like plot and characterization.
Klingon was largely a team effort, and Tolkien was a linguist to start with. So chances are, you're not going to want (or need) to develop a complete grammar and vocabulary for your stories.
There are a few things to keep in mind, though. For the following, I'm assuming that your working language is English and you're primarily writing for an English-reading audience.
 You probably have a main character who is a product of a certain culture. It's perfectly okay to use English words and idioms for them. You want the audience to relate, so they can use language we understand. Do you really think the Jedi are actually speaking English? Even Yoda's twisted speech patterns are based on English words.
When you need a character to seem like they're from outside the main culture of your story, that's when you can introduce things like accents or nonstandard constructions, to lend an air of "different" to them. Again, Yoda is a well-known example.
Unless the whole point of your plot revolves around the difficulties of communication with characters who speak an unknown language, I'd suggest not taking a lot of time dealing with the language barrier. Things like Star Trek's Universal Translator work fine as a plot device, as long as you don't stop and think about it too long.
If you do introduce words in made-up languages, remember that even here on Earth in the present, people use different sounds and tones, more than are commonly found in English. The hard "ch" sound, for instance, or the clicks of certain African languages. The more nonhuman a culture is, the less likely they'll even use the same sounds we do.
Along those lines, remember that language is almost never a word-for-word translation. A simple sentence in English like "The dog chased the boy" might in another language be rendered literally as "The dog boy chased" or "Chased the boy the dog." With or without punctuation. Subject and object might be inflectional rather than positional, such as in Latin.
Some things English speakers take for granted wouldn't work in other languages. For example, in English (and in French, incidentally), the sentence "I'm going to go to the store" is roughly equivalent to "I will go to the store." The word "go" does double duty there. I get the impression (I'm no linguist) that not all languages can use that construction.
And that's not even getting into differences in alphabet, or those languages that don't use a phonetic alphabet at all.
Language differences can be difficult to integrate into writing. But even small examples can serve to communicate some differences in culture. Used sparingly, they can increase reader interest. Use them too much, and you risk losing your audience.
There are certainly some techniques I'm leaving out. How do you deal with different languages? |
A few Fantasies for February...
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Last time, in "Pain" , I talked about how to describe pain.
Nobody’s Home  : I found an error(?) in your conclusion: "...if writing isn't painful, you're might be doing it wrong."  Great newsletter! Thanks for your hard work! 
Ah, well, yes. Fair enough.
oldgreywolf on wheels  : Joe wasn't in pain.
He washed his hands after cutting up the chicken, saw the water turn red.
Pouring hydrogen peroxide into the newest cuts, watching it foam, he thought, "I either need to buy kevlar gloves or stop buying whole chicken."
If most people would be hurt by something, and someone in your story isn't, that's certainly worth noting.
S.V Nyathi : AN INTRESTING TAKE ON PAIN
Thanks!
bob county  : I did not feel pain as much as I have with five extractions of broken teeth.
Last week I went to the dentist to extract five teeth that were broken.
They had broken over three years of agony.
On August 22, 2021, I had a stroke.
That didn't hurt as much as extracting my teeth and getting dentures.
But, it probably was one of the causes of the stroke.
Thanks for the article...
Bob County
None of that sounds like a pleasant experience. Hope all's better now and you have something to write about.
And that's it for me for February - see you next month! Until then,
DREAM ON!!!
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Fantasy: February 09, 2022 Issue [#11203]
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