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'Your Language' v.s. English

I prefer names in...

  • Created Lanquage

    Votes: 12 66.7%
  • English

    Votes: 6 33.3%

  • Total voters
    18

Scribe Lord

Minstrel
Naming places and people in a Fantasy world can be a hard boring chore for some while the funnest part of world building for others. My question has to do with these names. Some writers name places using languages of their own creation while others use English names (i.e. 'Minas Tirith' from Lord of the Rings in contrast with 'Kings Landing' from A Song of Ice and Fire)

I know that most writers will use both English and names in their own languages but here I'm asking which you lean more towards.

So tell me, do you prefer naming things in English (or whatever language you are writing in) or in another language? Also I'd love to hear some comments on this.

I'm very interested to see the results.
 
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I'm going to go with created language. Although I do enjoy every so often hearing "John (Snow) Smith" there is only so many times I can hear; Mike, Rob or Samantha, till I start becoming unsure of which character I'm reading about. Which can be bad if I'm reading a high fantasy and I'm thinking this character is one from that teen flick that came out a few years ago or something.
I find characters with a little more creative names a bit more memorable, and I don't mix them up with characters from other books so easily.

Which brings me to preconceptions on characters based on names. Which to me clouds up a bit of my reading experience. I'm a really spatial thinker so when I see names like... Daniel, I see the word and relate it to Daniel from Assassin's Creed, and then to Daniel from Amnesia and then as of recently Daniel from Year Walk . So if I'm provided with the name Daniel first, I'm going to assume he has some sort of mental issue till something tells me other wise. BUT if there is a small change to the name, like maybe change the 'i' to a 'y' so its Danyel, or Dahniel or something I won't relate it to anything. I don't know if changing a letter counts as "your language" instead of English, but I count it as being so I'm going with "your language".


Last thing, I don't really like 'your language' names that are crazy to read like... Xerghalmeherjg or Qu'tninto'sren. where you are left wondering... how is that pronounced? So yes there is a healthy middle on the 'your language' side that makes for good reading.
 
Both. i know that's not an option on the poll but it's the truth. which do i lean towards? hmm...well i guess my own made up names. if i am able to think up a good one i will throw it in. but there are also many "English" names in my WIP.
 

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
Both. Most of the nations of my world, along with their inhabitants and cities, are very rough takeoffs of historical earth nations: one is a bastard descendant of Rome with built in elements of ancient egypt, greece and a couple other places. I also have a crude takeoff from Kievian Russia and late viking age scandinavia, plus an oriental region. Mixed in with these are some original cultures and peoples.

So...I needed several sets of names:

I needed names which corresponded to the cultures I used. My main (but not only) source for these is a set of old AD&D handbooks for a historical fantasy earth campaign. Among other useful, generic bits and pieces, these works contained lists of names common to the various cultures. I also made use of a latin-english dictionary. All names mangled to fit, of course.

Many places, from tiny hamlets to mighty cities, have utterly generic names. My tactic here is to make up parallel lists of common terms: River, Bend, Hill, Point, Ford, ect and then pick out the most appropriate ones for minor villages (and sometimes people). Hence, I get towns like River Bend and Storm Point...along with characters who have names like 'Stick'.

The unique cultures and races were the biggest pain. Here, I had to make some decisions about the culture or race in question, then see if there was anything in my other material even remotely similiar (usually there was not). What I ended up doing was making some ad-hoc rules and more lists of wierd names and parts of names I deemed appropriate for that culture, then pick the best of the bunch...sometimes randomly. Sometimes I'd combine two or more of them.

The biggest thing, though, ESPECIALLY with 'name' characters and places - KEEP THEM SHORT. No more than two syllables, maybe three, if its a natural fit. Or at least use names which are easily shortened. Longer names in my works tend to be attached to aristocratic types or are one off's.
 

Ophiucha

Auror
Well, it really does depend on the story.

'King's Landing' is acceptable in a series like A Song of Ice and Fire because ultimately, Westeros is very much a pseudo-medieval England in terms of its presentation. Many towns in England have literal names, 'Redhill' and 'Petersfield'. But if you were writing a story that takes place in a pseudo-Mali Empire!Morocco, you can't just name the main character 'Elizabeth' without the readers getting some serious dissonance. Yes, it can be assumed that it is all 'translated', but ultimately having English names makes the setting seem, well, English. Which, I think, literally every setting I've ever had was not.

That said, I don't always create my own language, either. For stories that are set in worlds that aren't directly based on something, I will create my own. But if I am just writing my story in pseudo-Mali Empire!Morocco, I'll probably just use Berber names.
 

Nihal

Vala
When the characters speak a certain language but a location should have a literal name, or a conjunction of names I believe it's okay to write it in English. E.g.: King's Landing.

Unless you're writing everything in this fabricated language, why should those literal names be different? They work better in this fictional language when it's not the main language of the world, otherwise it becomes too much.
 

PaulineMRoss

Inkling
As a reader, I really prefer invented names. Plain English names are too prosaic, somehow (unless the character really is from the modern world, ie urban fantasy or a portal story). It's fine in a pseudo-medieval setting, but I think it works best to make the English-type names rank-appropriate, so the nobility are Henry and Catherine and Elizabeth and the peasantry are Bob and Bert and Betty. Slight letter changes are just about OK, although the 'y' thing (Danyel) has been a bit overdone. For invented names, it's nice if there's some indication of gender - if female names end with an 'a', for instance.

Worst possible option - mixing them up randomly. George R R Martin is guilty of this (three siblings called Cersei, Jaime and Tyrion, for instance), but some authors just seem to put in their favourite names, regardless of how wildly inappropriate they are. Or they mix up names of different cultural origins. Not eveyone is as precise as Tolkien, unfortunately.
 

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
For invented names, it's nice if there's some indication of gender - if female names end with an 'a', for instance.

Sounds very latin.

Jules - Male; Julia - Female

Lucas - Male; Lucia - Female

Marcus - Male; Marcia - Female
 
I use German names (and names that sound German but don't exist) for the Reich. For most other countries, I pick an existing language as well as the basis for their language. Timuvium uses Slavic names, Denskeland Scandinavian ones. The Ottomul Sultanate uses Turkish/Ottoman names and so on. It makes it a lot more simple and the names fit better together because they're based on the the same sounds and compositions.

@ThinkerX: Actually, in Poland, all girl names end with an -a.
 

Chilari

Staff
Moderator
I tend towards using invented names for characters and locations, but I do occasionally use descriptive names that are "translated" into English.
 

CupofJoe

Myth Weaver
I like invented words and names.
If used properly it can give a real depth of history to a place and to a story and create a rich mise-en-scene.
But if used or constructed badly they can really clunk.
 

Mindfire

Istar
I would say I lean towards created language, but that's not technically accurate because I don't create the languages. I invent the names, but they're generally derived from real-world languages like Latin, Russian, Japanese, and Hebrew. But I mix these invented names in with English to make things feel a bit more grounded. E.g., a temple called Beora's Vigil.
 
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Scribe Lord

Minstrel
So the way I see it, is that Created Language names are normally more realistic and more, well, 'from-a-different-world' sounding. On the other hand English names seem to be more interesting and easier to manage (as in they already hint about the place and you don't have to translate every single word from your Created Language into English for the reader). Having everything in your fantasy to be in your Created Language would of course be ideal but problematic for your readers.

I'm still debating which way to go and having a really tough time of it...
 

ThomasCardin

Minstrel
I use a combination of real and created. I possibly lean more heavily on created. I try to keep them easy to pronounce... but then there's my dwarven words which are distinctively heavy with hard consonants. Smash some rocks and metal together and it makes a similar sound to many dwarven words. I wanted my dwarves to stand out. Part of how I attempted that was to flavor the story with a few distinctive words in their tongue--hopefully not so many to cause tongue siezures, but enough for depth and color.

Character names are distinct as well --sorry no Daniel, Richard, nor Chan, or Abdul. I am asking the reader not to have any preconcieved notions based on familiar names, though I think I made them more easily pronounced some many created language names I have seen.

Language is a tough factor in fantasy. I try to use it to help bring the reader into the world of the story, but I don't want to throw words in his/her path that will be stumbling blocks.
 

Nobby

Sage
Language is a bugger, but you have to admit that English is so spongy that it gets ridiculous, if you think about it. I mean that names are absorbed into the lingua-franca - meaning they belong to Latin French, Normandy french, Saxon, Viking- basically anyone who has ever had anything to trade. But when you look at it historically the English language has evolved just because of this, probably this explains why apostrophe ridden names just feel wrong.
 
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