Replacing Words in Fantasy

Dec 17, 2009 15:15

This isn't sparked by or in reference to any book in particular, but just a general genre-specific question ( Read more... )

languages, writing

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swankivy December 19 2009, 03:09:09 UTC
I tend to find it very irritating if everything but the money, time/distance measurements, and curse words are the same. It seems like a very silly way to make it look like it comes from a different world or a different time, but it is not at all realistic given the context.

I have written one book that is an alternate medieval period fantasy, and since it's not a REAL medieval setting I get away with a few glitches in the system, but in general I just try to avoid very obviously modern expressions or words that obviously appeared in modern times. If people use money they pay in coins, but I don't name a unit--in my case it just isn't important. I think I mentioned feet at one point for a distance, but that could have been generic. My insults are usually delivered in smart little stingers rather than single-word insults (think "you're almost sixteen and you still need a diaper . . . for your face?"), but I've had characters refer to each other as a "dog" or a "stupid sow" or something like that. But what's interesting is I do make a reference to the fact that the words being used to relay the story are NOT the words the characters actually would have spoken because of its being a long time ago. That's why it kind of "reads" modern despite being in a medieval setting. If you actually succeeded in being ACCURATE with regards to relaying medieval language, your audience would not understand you, so why do it halfway?

In my webcomic I have an alternate dimension where a different language is spoken, though the main character mainly speaks English (and it is supposed to actually be English). She is bilingual, though, and has a native language that she occasionally uses . . . while I rarely have a reason to use it, occasionally there will be a reasonable situation to pull it out. Like the culture has a different take on what "technology" is, and their phrase for it translates into something like "science of adding to knowledge" (laseshien fi anana), and they don't really have photography--they have simi elashi, which is a very pale imitation that uses an artist/colorist to complete the images. I don't really have a reason to substitute the made-up words unless the characters are actually referring to something that doesn't exist to have an English word or is too different from the closest English word for substitution. I also might include a phrase in its foreign form if the context is different than it would be in English. For example, one phrase I use in the foreign language translates to "get your head out of your shoes," but it's quite a bit ruder and insinuates that the person you're talking to is an airhead. (And of course it set me up for a bit of fun when a nearly identical phrase was uttered by someone else without a translation available, but you could understand from context if you did your homework that she was saying "she needs to get her head out of her ass." Hahah.)

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