Dealing with language barriers

[Ireth]

Another question about my merfolk WIP -- how to overcome a language barrier?

The MC of the novel is a deaf mermaid who communicates via sign language, which would be exclusive to merfolk (and possibly even exclusive to her pod). Another important character is a deaf human-turned-merman, who also uses sign language, but one native to humans. The whole story comprises only a couple of weeks' time at best, owing to the "race against the clock" type of quest which forms the plot. Thing is though, these characters still need to find a way of communicating. I do have them improvise a lot with pantomime, which helps.

But the merman's name is something that's really sticking me, especially since the book is told solely from the MC's POV. Merfolk names are all things like Rain-on-Waves and Wind-over-Water, fairly easy to show with pantomime. The merman will be given such a name in time, but he initially uses his human name, or tries to. How can I show it, though, when all the MC sees are hand-signs that look like nothing in her own language?

 

[Trick]

What is his human name? I think I could help better with that information.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

First thought... All names mean something, even if we don't think like that in modern times. However, your Merman may still know what his human name means and be able to communicate that through pantomime. It may not translate well, but that could be a good thing because it highlights differences between the cultures. Or, it could be a humorous situation if you wanted it to be.

Second thought... Unless there is a story need for sign language only (and there may be), this all sounds needlessly complicated and I wonder if it will be difficult to follow, without dialogue, as a reader. Only you know the answer to that, but I wouldn't want to impose communication restrictions on characters unless it was a crucial component to the story. Otherwise, it may actually muddle the story by making readers notice things other than the story itself. The great thing about using common language is that reader don't take notice and language barriers do not distract them from the story.

 

[stephenspower]

A few things come to mind that you probably have already considered, so forgive me the intellectual exercise:

Human sign language seems to be designed for someone facing the viewer, the hand gestures all eye level and in roughly the same two-dimensional plane. Mermen, however, would communicate in a three-dimensional space, so they might utilize much more than their hands, especially because you can't really set something down to talk underwater. They might dance, for instance, like honeybees. In addition, human sign language is built for good visibility; umps and refs sign to entire stadiums (indeed baseball signs supposedly developed to tell a deaf outfielder what the call was). Mermen would have to deal with various levels of light, particulates in the water, and proximity. Sound travels a long way underwater, although it's very difficult to detect a source. A deaf mermaid would be at a very great disadvantage when it comes to social gatherings. Finally, what grammars are each languages built on?

I think there's a lot of potential in a story about learning each other's languages (it was the subject of at least three ST:NG episodes), and while making it sign language is a challenge, that could make it even more fascinating. A story I'm working on has a mute as its protagonist, and now I'm feeling like a piker in comparison.

 

[Penpilot]

I agree with T.A.S.

As for the name, if the mermaid can't figure out what the heck the human is signing, she might just give him an arbitrary name.

"Hello, my name is Evgeni."

"Ev-Ev-jeeni? To hell with this. I'm calling you Gino."

As for the overall language barrier, you can make it as difficult or as easy as you want. Just be consistent about it. If you need it to be easier, then you can just say they have some sort of deep connection from the moment they meet and even though they sign different, it doesn't take each of them long to figure out what each is saying. And even though the story time is short, that connection allows them to develop a hybrid of their languages that only they can fully understand. To others it may seem nonsensical, like speaking two languages at once where every other word is from a different language.

 

[Ireth]

What is his human name? I think I could help better with that information.

I haven't decided on that yet. The setting is post-apocalyptic and far in the future, so I'm still working out stuff like human culture in relation to merfolk culture. Doesn't help that even though it's set on Earth, the world looks completely different due to the apocalypse.

First thought... All names mean something, even if we don't think like that in modern times. However, your Merman may still know what his human name means and be able to communicate that through pantomime. It may not translate well, but that could be a good thing because it highlights differences between the cultures. Or, it could be a humorous situation if you wanted it to be.

I like that idea. I'll think about it. Though, as I said above, I still need to choose an actual name for the guy.

Second thought... Unless there is a story need for sign language only (and there may be), this all sounds needlessly complicated and I wonder if it will be difficult to follow, without dialogue, as a reader. Only you know the answer to that, but I wouldn't want to impose communication restrictions on characters unless it was a crucial component to the story. Otherwise, it may actually muddle the story by making readers notice things other than the story itself. The great thing about using common language is that reader don't take notice and language barriers do not distract them from the story.

The "dialogue" is indeed all in sign language due to POV restrictions. The MC is the only deaf mermaid in the story; her pod uses sign language around her, but speech when communicating with everyone else. The MC usually has a translator around so she can understand spoken dialogue without lip-reading or similar (since I don't think my merfolk will end up having lips). I simplify things by writing out what is signed (at least when the MC understands it) inside <pointy brackets> rather than quotation marks to show it's not spoken aloud.

A few things come to mind that you probably have already considered, so forgive me the intellectual exercise:

Human sign language seems to be designed for someone facing the viewer, the hand gestures all eye level and in roughly the same two-dimensional plane. Mermen, however, would communicate in a three-dimensional space, so they might utilize much more than their hands, especially because you can't really set something down to talk underwater. They might dance, for instance, like honeybees. In addition, human sign language is built for good visibility; umps and refs sign to entire stadiums (indeed baseball signs supposedly developed to tell a deaf outfielder what the call was). Mermen would have to deal with various levels of light, particulates in the water, and proximity. Sound travels a long way underwater, although it's very difficult to detect a source. A deaf mermaid would be at a very great disadvantage when it comes to social gatherings. Finally, what grammars are each languages built on?

I think there's a lot of potential in a story about learning each other's languages (it was the subject of at least three ST:NG episodes), and while making it sign language is a challenge, that could make it even more fascinating. A story I'm working on has a mute as its protagonist, and now I'm feeling like a piker in comparison.

I hadn't thought about that at all, but it would be a fascinating thing to explore. I have brought up in-story some issues with deafness in merfolk culture -- singing is a huge part of their religious and social customs, particularly the coming-of-age ceremony: young merfolk go to the surface for the first time to drown human sailors, singing a song of enchantment to lure them to their deaths. Afterward the priestesses of the sea goddess transform the human men into living mermen (which I've discussed somewhat in another thread). But the MC, having never learned vocal speech, plays a conch-shell flute instead.

Whether or not the shell has any effect on the humans is moot, story-wise -- she gains her kill only when she throws aside the flute and tackles the aforesaid deaf human into the water herself, to avenge her cousin whom he had injured with a harpoon. The other humans brought the deaf one on their fishing trip specifically because he's deaf and immune to the enchanting song, and gave him a harpoon to ward off the merfolk who would try to drown them.

As for the languages/grammar question, see my answers above re: human names and language.

I agree with T.A.S.

As for the name, if the mermaid can't figure out what the heck the human is signing, she might just give him an arbitrary name.

"Hello, my name is Evgeni."

"Ev-Ev-jeeni? To hell with this. I'm calling you Gino."

As for the overall language barrier, you can make it as difficult or as easy as you want. Just be consistent about it. If you need it to be easier, then you can just say they have some sort of deep connection from the moment they meet and even though they sign different, it doesn't take each of them long to figure out what each is saying. And even though the story time is short, that connection allows them to develop a hybrid of their languages that only they can fully understand. To others it may seem nonsensical, like speaking two languages at once where every other word is from a different language.

True, true. Not sure a "deep connection" between the two would work, as their relationship is built entirely on terror and hatred, and they're only in close proximity for the majority of the plot because she almost literally drags him with her on a quest to help her wounded cousin. Forgiveness and friendship are a long time in coming, even when the deaf merman does his part to help the one he initially tried to kill. The MC calls him "muck-sucking scrod" when ranting to him about what he did to her cousin, but I'm not sure I want to use that as his name for half the book. XD

 

[Ireth]

As I thought more about the language issue last night, and drafted a post in my head this morning, a name attached itself to the deaf merman and won't let him go. XD He's now named Ariel, which is a unisex Hebrew name meaning "lion of God". The mermaid MC, however, misinterprets his attempts to pantomime a lion and indicate God by pointing upward. His miming of a beast with a big toothy mouth gets mistaken for a shark, and since the scene in question takes place at the bottom of the ocean, "up" could mean either sky or land. She settles for calling him Shark-on-Land.

Looking at his real name, I now have the beginnings of a history and a culture for him. He's described as having brown skin, hair and eyes when the MC first sees him, and with a Hebrew name it may be he's from Israel himself or has Jewish ancestors. Given that the world is drastically changed due to global cataclysms (both man-made and otherwise), Israel may or may not exist anymore, so it's also likely his family are emigrants who escaped the cataclysms in generations past by being far from the sea* and also far from where Her power would have reached inland.** I'll have to work out more details on their location as it relates to the start of the novel later, since at some point they would have to have moved to be closer to the sea. Otherwise there'd be no plot.

*The sea goddess worshipped by the merfolk is responsible for the latter of the cataclysms, in response to the man-made one.

**That entailed mainly breaking up the world to bring all earth metals and crude oils and such back below the surface, since earth metals are toxic to merfolk, and oil spills were part and parcel of the man-made cataclysm. The story begins centuries after the cataclysms, when humans have regained the tech level to mine for metal and work it into tools.