Creating your own terminology

[Yora]

One thing where I notice settings having a distinguishing identity that sets it apart from the more generic masses is when you need to use the specific terms of the setting to talk about what's going on in meaningful ways. This can go overboard when a book insists on using new made up terms for things that could just as well be called by their normal English names. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, ...
In some cases the common term has strong specific cultural associations that don't match the tone of the setting. I think noble titles are a good examples. Even when you read old historic accounts that talk of the dukes and counts at the Japanese court, it feels really weird. Though at the same time I also find it weird when you read historical fiction that insist of describing Japanese soldiers carrying yari instead of spears. "Spear" is a perfectly appropriate term in that context.
But when you come up with new concepts that don't have a common everyday term in contemporary English, you don't really have a choice and have to make up new terms.

I have a very well worked out magic system, but I created it methodically at a drawing board, and with a background in Cultural Studies, I am used to using modern scientific terms. But it feels really wrong to have reclusive shamans in a Bronze Age wilderness refer to their own abilities as "precognition" or "psychic powers". That's not a way of talking that people living in this world would use. So now I find myself in the situation that I have a complete magic system and have to come up with a terminology for everything. I'm sure I'll be fighting with this for a good time to come.

What are your approaches to coming up with technical terms that reflect the culture of the characters that will be using them? Coming up with names for places and people is already hard enough, but with concepts I think there's a really narrow line between sounding too abstract and removed and totally overdoing it with the fictional language.

 

[Malik]

The trope for this is "Calling a Rabbit a Smeerp."

I'm working on a pair of portal fantasy trilogies, so I try to keep things as consistent between worlds as possible. A horse is a horse. A castle is a castle. Swords, shields, and armor all developed more or less the same between there and here because biomechanics is a thing.

What I do, though, is introduce idioms.

"He's all spark and no tinder."

"Raining like a god throwing knives."

"Don't **** me in the dark and tell me I'm pretty."

"Eat mail and shit nails."

And so on. I've had many readers tell me that the idioms and local expressions are their favorite part of my worldbuilding.

 

[Yora]

The Planescape setting for D&D had a lot urban slang for the city at the center of the universe. Some people think it's a bit much, but mostly it's considered one of the big charms of the setting.

 

[Gurkhal]

I think it can work well. For example GRRM has several new words and stuff to replace French loanwords in the English language because there's no French language to influence English.

But before you jump on this I would think that you'll need to think about if you think you've got an idea for what words should be changed, will be able to work through this with good alternative terms and also if you think the immersion will be improved by it. If either is a no or a maybe/perhaps, then I would think that it might end up being extra work that don't end up adding to the story.

Those are my ignorant thoughts on the matter.

 

[Night Gardener]

I think one way to come up with terms is to stop overthinking/over analyzing and just try to avoid the dreaded Smerp trope. If your bronze age shamans didn't have or use contemporary scientific or parapsychological vocabulary, they certainly had endemic and universal descriptive words. So, what would they call it? And then, would it actually merit or benefit to have a reader translation?

Maybe you completely fabricate an honorary title: Grand Mo'haikul. As a reader, I'm going to ask "ok...WTF is a Grand Mo'haikul"? and "Does this imply there also exist Lesser Mo'haikul? How about just meh so-so Mediocre Mo'haikul?" I'm going to continue reading for context.

If an author calls a character a Grand Mo'haikul and describes his abilities as 'men and women would tell the Grand Mo'haikul their dreams; and through the Sacred Smoke Speaking ritual, the Grand Mo'haikul could see into their future days, past days and even the very deep secrets held in men's hearts.'

Do you, the author, truly need to tell me the reader explicitly this is a ritualistic form of proported psychic clairvoyant prowess and some Jungian dream analysis? No. No you do not. Allow me to extrapolate and make my own deductions. Making up words can lead to a very immersive experience, and is worth exploring. I'm not immediately turned off by it at all**

Even describing bizarre divination techniques or rituals that are completely fabricated for your WIP, you'll probably end up using words like "vision" or "seeing" or "predict", etc. But, you don't even have to tread that close to the obvious descriptors: If the Grand Mo'haikul plucks hair from the warrior's head, sets the strands on fire, and comments "This smoke is not the color of good intentions. Go make right all that which you have wronged before you journey, to bring honor back to your name"...I'm going to deduce this was some sort of scrying ritual, with both character insights and predictions. You, the author, would have communicated the implications to modern interpretations of this act and I would go "Oh! The Grand Mo'haikul is a psychic shaman character or something."

As for guidelines: if there is a word or phrase, etc. that would be truly endemic and not universal to multiple cultures through cultural exchanges (like trade or war) in the WIP, use the fabricated endemic term if you really feel like it. Tribe A has a Grand Mo'haikul, Tribe B is adverse to all forms of divination. They would simply not have a Grand Mo'haikul or the equivalent of a Grand Mo'haikul. But, I bet Tribes A and B would know what a spear is the same way I, the reader, would know what a spear is. So, just call it a spear. Is the spear some weird 5 piece configuration totally unlike normal spears? It is? Fine, give it a specific name to distinguish it from "normal" spears.

Not unlike the Klingon batliff situation: there is nothing else really like it, and so it truly merits a fabricated name ...unless they want to address the weapon in the series as "that awkwardly unbalanced spiked pointy recurved bladed weapon that somehow isn't actually a semetar sword and has a serious weight distribution problem that doesn't effectively offer either offensive or defensive weapons strategy." That is a mouthful, so "batliff" it is. And I'm really ok with reading and accepting the word "batliff" so long as you, the author, manage to clue me in to some mental visuals. It's no different than using the term "light saber" instead of 'fancy energy arming sword'. And wtf is "Darth"? That is a totally made-up word, and I'm also totally ok with just rolling with it.

Even on our own RL planet, some terms and phrases simply do not translate well into other languages. This is still a modern occurance. So, as a non-native speaker or visitor, you're probably only going to manage a very rough translation and would be better off adopting and utilizing the native term/phrase even without totally grasping it. I see no reason why this would not also happen in fiction. So, if your analytical side needs permission to invent words that also resist direct translation, there is countless precedent.

** It's no different than making up a character, or planet or whatever names. As long as it doesn't look like a cat went vaudeville tapdancing on your keyboard (and now you're asking me to sound it out phonetically in my head), make up whatever words or terms you want with just enough context so it isn't dismissed as stroked-out gibberish because DughtfnjfdswjkYocxdgthnkiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii =^..^= will bring out my exasperated eyerolling facepalm.

 

[Miles Lacey]

Much of my writing is in New Zealand English where Maori words are often used as a replacement for English words because some English words just don't seem to do justice to the concept being described. As such, New Zealand English can be very hard to understand for people who come here from overseas. However, it quickly becomes obvious what various words mean through the context of whatever is being spoken or written.

My approach to terminology that is made up or borrowed from another language is not to waste time with explanations, translations or anything like that. I let the context do the explaining.

 

[Maker of Things Not Kings]

With every story, I usually create a number of words that never end up in the final drafts. If I have one rule of thumb it's to try and keep it clear what the word refers to in its usage and context. There's no need to call a rabbit anything else that confuses people but you can use hare or coney. . . or replace them with a similar animal like a pika or a hyrax. . . if your character hunts a pika or a hyrax and eventually loses it down a small burrow hole, do we need to know anything more?

In a story I'm writing now, I use the term Oxfur for a large plow/pack animal. They're somewhere between oxen or yaks (in size) and wooly mammoths (in look). Obviously, the word came about from the idea of the animal being a very wooly ox with some variation. I could have gone with Yak, I suppose, but I didn't like the repetition of the word Yak in the story to my ears.

What's also important to me is that the word is easy to say and it's composition and appearance are somewhat familiar to the reader. Often that means short, concise words. No strange combinations of consonants or silent letters. That said, if your rabbit is a main part of your story, a sacred animal or somehow integral to the main plot of the story and we are going to become familiar with it through a few hundred pages? Yes, go ahead and call it something new. I'd still keep to the simple and familiar sounding if possible though. Maybe it's an Obsidian Hare, with jet black fur that seems like a polished stone. . .

As an example, how many made up berries and cheeses have we read of? As long as the word berry or cheese is at the back end of the word, we can all conjure an image of it.

I might throw in a term for an article of clothing if, in my head, I envision it being something no culture in our world has worn. But even there, I keep a collection of historical clothing/fabric making books around to pull from. Clothing, ceremonial garb aside to some degree, needs to be practical to the wearer/climate and there are only so many ways to put fabric together that is functional.

Slang I LOVE. I do try to work a word or two of it into most stories.

I wonder if writers tend to want to go with something completely new and foreign to a readers ears and eyes because it seems easier than doing the historical research and extrapolating something in the same way our own words and usage have changed over time.

We don't have to venture far to find interesting and fairly fresh terms for many common things. I like to think of them like adding salt on food though: A little sprinkling is all you want really. Something to enhance flavor but not so much that it shoots the reader's blood pressure through the roof.

 

[Yora]

English has one of the most messed orthographies of any languages. Just because you know how to pronounce a word does not mean you know how to spell it, and seeing a word written does not automatically tell you how to pronounce it. (Looking at you "Glostershir".)

When you create your own words, you have the luxury to only create words where the pronunciation is obvious. I very much suggest to do so.

 

[Yora]

I've been fighting for some days with finding some good terms that people in a Bronze Age style setting would use to talk about the basic magical powers and practices. Modern pseudo-science terminology just doesn't seem fitting for the setting.

- Telepathic communication: The ability to go into a meditative state and mentally communicate with a faraway person or spirit.

- Divination: Listening to all the voices of the spirits to find one that tells of the information that you are seeking.

I could make up strings of letters and have readers just get used to them, but I feel like having actual words from the English language would feel more fitting. Any ideas how I could approach this?

 

[Gurkhal]

I've been fighting for some days with finding some good terms that people in a Bronze Age style setting would use to talk about the basic magical powers and practices. Modern pseudo-science terminology just doesn't seem fitting for the setting.

- Telepathic communication: The ability to go into a meditative state and mentally communicate with a faraway person or spirit.

- Divination: Listening to all the voices of the spirits to find one that tells of the information that you are seeking.

I could make up strings of letters and have readers just get used to them, but I feel like having actual words from the English language would feel more fitting. Any ideas how I could approach this?

Well, for "telepathy" I would think that perhaps you could use the term "Soul-speak" or "Soul-speech" as it would be that two souls talk directly without physical media.

For "divination" I'm not sure that term would feel wrong in a Bronze Age setting, at least to me. But perhaps "spirit audience" if you're courting a special spirit or perhaps to "listen beyond" could work as a term to listen to the chatter of spirits.

 

[Yora]

Using a speech based terminology seems likee a good idea for this magic system. Farspeech might be a working term for telepathic communication.

I had once been thinking about how our language of divination always seems to revolve around sight. Going full speech could be an interesting direction. Vision is concrete, while speech is inherently an abstraction.
I kind of like the idea of priests calling the recieving of getting any information from higher beings simply to "listen". All you want to know is already out there. You just have to silence your thoughts and listen, and when you manage to ignore all the noise, it will simply come to you. Which does have interesting metapysical implications.

 

[Miles Lacey]

I've been fighting for some days with finding some good terms that people in a Bronze Age style setting would use to talk about the basic magical powers and practices. Modern pseudo-science terminology just doesn't seem fitting for the setting.

- Telepathic communication: The ability to go into a meditative state and mentally communicate with a faraway person or spirit.

- Divination: Listening to all the voices of the spirits to find one that tells of the information that you are seeking.

I could make up strings of letters and have readers just get used to them, but I feel like having actual words from the English language would feel more fitting. Any ideas how I could approach this?

For telepathic communication I would go for something basic like mind speak.

For divination as you've described it spirit seek may be more appropriate.

 

[Yora]

I think one way to come up with terms is to stop overthinking/over analyzing and just try to avoid the dreaded Smerp trope. If your bronze age shamans didn't have or use contemporary scientific or parapsychological vocabulary, they certainly had endemic and universal descriptive words. So, what would they call it? And then, would it actually merit or benefit to have a reader translation?

Maybe you completely fabricate an honorary title: Grand Mo'haikul. As a reader, I'm going to ask "ok...WTF is a Grand Mo'haikul"? and "Does this imply there also exist Lesser Mo'haikul? How about just meh so-so Mediocre Mo'haikul?" I'm going to continue reading for context.

If an author calls a character a Grand Mo'haikul and describes his abilities as 'men and women would tell the Grand Mo'haikul their dreams; and through the Sacred Smoke Speaking ritual, the Grand Mo'haikul could see into their future days, past days and even the very deep secrets held in men's hearts.'

Do you, the author, truly need to tell me the reader explicitly this is a ritualistic form of proported psychic clairvoyant prowess and some Jungian dream analysis? No. No you do not. Allow me to extrapolate and make my own deductions. Making up words can lead to a very immersive experience, and is worth exploring. I'm not immediately turned off by it at all**

I have noticed that I often make decisions about what I want to have in my worldbuilding and narratives and then later only remember my choice not to do certain things, but not the reasons I had for that decision. And I still think that when in doubt, do not come up with made up words when you have a perfectly serviceable term already.

At some point I did make the choice to avoid using made up words (because they are often terrible), but I think when it comes to the supernatural elements this might actually be the better choice. Dune and Wheel of Time have plenty of near gibberish terminology that looks weird at first, but when you get used to them they eventually provide a lot to the settings full character.

Though I think it's probably a good idea to keep the amount of terms as low as possible. I think new noble titles would serve my setting very well, but in that case it will be better if the system of noble titles is very simple. Right now I think I can completely get away with "sovereign lord", "vassal lord" and "palace official". That should be good enough.
However, the world does have five very different cultures with different languages. Logically it would make sense that they all have different words, which would raise the total number to 15, which is just way too much. With a generic English title of "king", I think I can get away to use it in all cultures, since the readers will know that it's a translation of the native term to English. But I feel like having the kings of all five cultures go by the title of "Jed" would seem a bit weird. Any thoughts on this issue?