Translation on fictive languages

[Orilindë]

For those of you who use a fictitious language you've created as part of your worldbuilding, do you translate it in dialogues? For example, if you have a dialogue in English, but a phrase that a character says in that dialogue is in a fictitious native tongue, do you leave the translation to the reader's imagination?

 

[Gallio]

Depends on how obvious the meaning is from context.

 

[Queshire]

It hasn't really come up, but I prefer playing around with the font or quotation marks to indicate foreign languages. <I might write something meant to be in another language like this,> or use italics to indicate telepathic communication. If you're focusing on publishing online instead of on paper than you can even add in coloring the words for, say, angelic speech.

 

[Ban]

So far when such a situation presented itself I've either had main characters who were able to understand the language and could translate it, or I used an omniscient POV who informed the audience. That said, there are instances where I think it would benefit the narrative if the fictitious words/sentences are not translated. Let's say your characters are walking through a bazaar in a foreign country where none of them know the local languages. In a scene like that, I would write the dialogue without providing translations.

 

[CupofJoe]

I’m not a conlang guy – it take way too much hard work to do well.
So I usually assume there is some form of “common” or that Babel fish are available.
But to add colour I will lift idioms and phrases I like from other languages and translate them into their literal English equivalent.
A Mexican friend taught me “Hincar los codos” which is literally “Nail the elbows” but means “Get down to studying”.
I had a mage say “Got to nail the elbows if we’re ever going to find that map” [and then everyone looked at him...]
And I love the Italian phrase “Tutto fa Brodo” – “Everything make broth” which means “Every little helps…”
Haven’t worked that one in yet!
I tried including Polari words and phrases but I couldn’t make it work.

 

[pmmg]

When I was first starting to write things, I did start to make a Conlang, which I tried to piece together from root words. I had a small spread sheet with it. But....I dropped it pretty quickly, as it just slowed me down.

Later, I used words meant to sound like a different language, but I came to decide that what they added, immersion, was lost because people would just skip over them and not sound them out.

Later still, I tried using different fonts for different languages....Um...no...don't do that.

And after that, I tried putting all foreign bits in italics as a way of showing it was being translated. I lived with that for a long time and thought it was effective enough, but I dropped it as, it made a lot of the story show up in italics, which some found distracting.

So....Where I am at now is just attaching the language spoken to the sentence, assuming someone can understand it.


"Halt, and speak your name," a command came in jargoish.

"I am Tom, let me in," Tom shouted back in his own tongue.

"State your business," the voice came back, its language shifting to Tom's own.


If no one can understand I usually write something like, words were spoken, but Tom could not understand them.

 

[Finchbearer]

I recently read that a favoured fantasy author of mine kept an 9000 word etymology file for their novels. This is making me rethink the words I am currently using. So far, I am using the ones I have chosen after a basic research into their etymology, but I will need to go back and research them more carefully if I ever want to go down the route of publishing.

I’ve also taken different approaches to the question laid out in the OP. I think sometimes readers would get the references I have made and others won’t, but I don’t make too many allowances for readers to understand everything because I feel there has to be a suspension of reality where fantasy is concerned.

 

[Orilindë]

I thought that it could be an interesting part of my worldbuilding. But I can really see how it both can slow down the writing, and be a thing needing a book on its own.

Great to hear about how other writers feel about this topic.

 

[Gallio]

Tolkien gives translations of many of his Elvish names and phrases. Some phrases are left to the reader to work out, though he provides clues (among many other things, LOTR is a linguistic puzzle). Some things are left untranslated, e.g. the orc's curse in TT -- the reader can work out the general intent of it, but the specifics are left to the imagination. Tolkien actually gave two different translations of this curse in his later writings (see 'Orkish and the Black Speech' on the website Ardalambion.net).

 

[Finchbearer]

I was going to mention Tolkien, considering he was a linguist for a job he had a slight advantage. But he too, left room for a great deal of suspension of reality where pronunciation and mystique were concerned, but the again all modern fantasy novels kind of have been inspired by his way of doing things.

 

[LeslieRWaggonerIII]

I spent about 4 months creating grammar, a syllabic script, a font, and a 500+ word lexicon for my first conlang.

My second and third will be less extensive, but will be integrated into the second and third books in the series.

I will probably not create a font for the last two, as the second is much more reminiscent of crafting a scrolling page border and it snakes up the page from left to right, moves up a line, and continues right to left. It is kind of inspired by the Arabic languages. The last one is logographic, similar to Asian scripts, and has another unique structure. For some reason, I just expected that anyone writing high mythic fantasy made conlangs, so it was just something I never considered NOT doing.

 

[xena]

Depends on what’s being said and how much of it there is. If it’s something small or obvious, I might not translate it but if it’s important line, I probably will.

 

[minta]

If it’s really important I might include a sentence in the fictional language and have a third character translate it.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

For those of you who use a fictitious language you've created as part of your worldbuilding, do you translate it in dialogues? For example, if you have a dialogue in English, but a phrase that a character says in that dialogue is in a fictitious native tongue, do you leave the translation to the reader's imagination?

I use wingdings for god language in one of my stories, it's used so little that it rarely needs translated (though I do translate it if it's relevant.) the gag is that the non gods/demigods don't understand it, so the text for the god language comes out as wingdings.

This is similar to what the writers of Ace Attorney investigations did, they created an entirely new font for the borganian language. Though it's not translated in any way, the characters usually translate it for you after. Side note: if the game detects a pirated copy, the entire game's text is switched to this fictional language

 

[A. E. Lowan]

We treat any communication that isn't Modern English with italics. This goes for real languages, for our fictional languages (I don't conlang, yet, married a linguist and all, but I'm pretty good at making readers think I am.), and for less traditional ways to communicate, like American/British Sign Language or telepathy.

Bit long, as always, but this is what it looks like.

From Beneath a Stone Sky: The Third Book of Binding...

~~~

No, that wouldn’t do. They needed a horse. Cian shook his head, grabbed Etienne by the belt to stop him, and his hands flowed into motion like Winter had taught him, combining what signs he knew with finger spelling. “No, this way.”

Etienne shook his head. He either didn’t agree or he didn’t understand. Why the hell did Etienne think he had a monopoly on being right?

Cian’s jaw tensed and he pointed toward the stables. “We need to go there.”

Etienne shook his head and pulled at Cian’s arm.

Cian pulled out of his grasp. “S.T.A.B.L.E.”

Etienne pointed emphatically toward the gate, gave Cian a little shake, and then tapped his wrist with two fingers. They were running out of time.

Cian couldn’t agree more. He stood up, signing as he rose. “Look, idiot—”

“Hey!” The sound was out of Etienne’s mouth before he could catch it, and he cringed with alarm. Finally, a sign he knew. One of Jessie’s favorites.

Cian cringed, too. He joined Etienne in scanning the courtyard from behind the barrels, but nobody seemed to have overheard. Instead, there seemed to be people moving in groups toward one corner of the courtyard, away from the stable. Smoke was rising from a doorway there. Cian turned back to Etienne and gave him a smack on the shoulder. “H.O.R.S.E. D.A.M.M.I.T.” He pointed back at the stable with an emphatic hand.

Etienne frowned and whispered, “We don’t have time to saddle and steal a horse. We need to leave now.”

Cian wanted to throttle him, but they would have to escape for him to get the chance. “No, it’s already saddled. Just get your ass to the stables. Now.”

Etienne looked surprised.

Cian gave him a dirty look, but turned in the direction of the stable, fully expecting Etienne to follow him.