World-building and language

[varkat]

Thought for the Day:

When authors think world-building, they often go straight to working out government, geography, religion(s) and commerce, which is all well and good, necessary and obvious.  But a world really comes to life on a much, much deeper level.

I was an anthropology as well as an English/writing major, and what I want to talk about

Comments

[dawn_metcalf]

I, as an English and Cultural Anthropology major as well, give this post two thumbs up and enthusiastic nods!

[klingonguy]

I'll second that, with a couple more thumbs and a bucket full of nods.

This is why, at almost every convention I attend, I end up on a panel on language in science fiction.

*my bona fides: PhD and 10 years as a professor of psycholinguistics, and going on 20 years promoting a fictional language around the world (Klingon, of course!).

[burger_eater]

And this is the hardest thing to get right, too. Unrealistic monarchies and Libertarian utopias will make me roll my eyes and skim, but fakey language like "TAANSTAAFL" will turn me right off, even if it turns out to be somewhat prescient.

[dina_james]

It's probably bad that my mind went immediately to shazbot.

[blistermyeye]

There's a big difference between "grok" and "frak," at least to my mind. The first one filled a need, whereas the second one is a euphemism that pulls me out of the story each time it's used.

Re:

[jryson]

Correct, they only said "frak" because they couldn't say the English word on TV. (back then)

They said "grok" because there was no English (or human) equivalent.

"Flubberjucky" comes up in my WIP. It's explained that it came from a long-extinct species, and that its meaning has been lost.

Children get admonished for saying it, though.

[varkat]

See, I like "frak." Partly, because cursing will change over time. We don't still go around saying "Zounds" or any number of things that have dropped out of common use. And partly because a lot of cursing makes me cringe, but I don't mind hearing "frak." It doesn't grate on me like the other f word.

[blistermyeye]

But remember, Battlestar G isn't happening in our future. We're the lost colony, and we have common ancestors with those characters. For all we know the events on BSG are happening today, or centuries ago, or in our future.

In any case, they're not future Earthlings, and they're not speaking English; it's all being translated for our convenience. Well, except for their equivalent of our f word, which is being translated incorrectly. Maybe it's a machine translation. They do seem to have somewhat clunky computers on that ship.

[tom_gallier]

I love world building. I never feel more like God than when I'm creating a new world.