One of the interesting aspects of creating fantasy characters is the language they speak.

[Azul-din]

I did a novel once about a brother and sister, fraternal twins, whose mother was Macedonian and whose father was a werewolf. Since they were the narrators, they could translate their mother's lapses into her native language (Google Translate is a boon for short phases in another language) into English, as well as their private speech, which, having an animal nature, they expressed with gestures and attitudes. These private communications were written in italics to differentiate them from normal speech.

 

[pmmg]

In my current WIP, there are many languages, and many characters who know some, but not all, of them.

In my first drafts, I would write stuff that was meant to be translated in Italics, which was an effective way to signal that the language was different, but the text became too bogged down with italics everywhere. So...I nixed it. Now I just label the language used.

I also removed as many of actual foreign and made words that I could. I think I would not want to rely on google translate for creating text in my work. It might be right on, but maybe not, and I would not know.

 

[Joe McM]

In my novel, the countries are fictional and so are the languages. When a character speaks in a language other than the main character, I noted it. I do include a curse word from the other country.

 

[BearBear]

Just mannerisms and colloquialisms for me mostly, but in one novel series, a slave girl from another continent escaped captures and was living in a remote rural area in an abandoned cabin when the mains found her. She was naturally a beast master so she managed to become the master of a pack of wolves to survive.

She couldn't speak the language of the rest of the characters of the book but somehow through pictographs in the sand my main characters managed to communicate with her.

One of my characters was a beastkin, so unbeknownst to the others, she was naturally falling under the spell of this unassuming girl. Through that connection she was able to partially understand her intent, basic wants and emotions etc. Shipping ensued, but not in a wholesome way for everyone involved.

 

[Jason]

Awkward matters of translation are usually brushed over in fantasy and sci-fi. In my debut, I took a contrary approach and put two bands of soldiers in a spot where they have to communicate through individuals who speak a common second tongue. Later, they develop a limited new vocabulary.

 

[Finchbearer]

I think that you can create that suspension of belief in many different and creative ways, not just in fantasy writing but in all fiction. If I’m reading a book by an international author, I am going to assume that the characters are speaking in that native language, although the book is translated into English so I can understand it it’s nice to read the odd word or phrase from that language, street or place names, types of professions, colloquialisms etc.

In fantasy settings you can be extra creative. I’ve set my stories in either time periods or worlds where they don’t speak modern English, or English at all, but obviously I need to write in that language because it’s the only one I know. If there needs to be a translation between two characters that speak different languages, that can be conveyed through the storytelling without the need to completely make up an entire language…unless of course you’re J R R Tolkien and are literally an expert in linguistics.

 

[pmmg]

I think Tolkien spoiled us with that a little. It would be nice if I could just use the languages he invented, but...no.

I find that languages in the story is one area where I must afford a greater suspension of disbelief, because too much accuracy there and the story is unreadable. All fantasy writing (and some others) gets from me the understanding that the language is not really English. I only start to balk when the story illusion is broken, such as understanding without explanation, or too quickly picking the language up. If character moves to a different world, and they also speak English...I'll be like....Really??? (But I give forgiveness to early SciFi, cause Flash Gordon would have been a mess if the languages were an issue.). For the most part, I will accept any explanation that could make sense, such as a universal translator in star trek. Or just that Luke could understand all the little noises Artoo made. But really...I don't think that would work. Heck, I even accept the babel fish, for Hitch Hikers.

I suspect a day is coming when it does work for Earth languages though. Not hard to imagine a universal translator feature when we are all cyborgs with chips in our brains

 

[Prince of Spires]

I suspect a day is coming when it does work for Earth languages though. Not hard to imagine a universal translator feature when we are all cyborgs with chips in our brains

It's getting decently close. I think Skype launched a feature a few years ago which would translate people speaking on the fly. Though it might have died a silent death, since the trouble is in the details. You can get 95% of a conversation correct and still accidentally declare war on another country with the remaining 5%...

In general it matters which type of point of view you're writing in. In third limited or first person, you're deep in someone's head. In those cases you can simply note stuff the character doesn't understand. "The Werecat across the room said something, which came out as a series of unintelligible hisses. It had to be important if all the arm-waving he did was any indication." That sort of thing. Or you can just note it in the text and 'translate' it to the reader. "Charles switched to Feldarian to make sure the rest of the group didn't understand what he said. 'we should kill them all and take the treasure for ourselves'."

I did something similar in a novel once. I had a character wake up after sleeping for 1000 years. Obviously the language changed. However, writing everything in old english was tedious, got annoying to read, and made it hard to understand what was actually happening. So instead I simply kept remarking that he was hard to understand, and that he spoke with a strange accent etc.

 

[CupofJoe]

It's getting decently close. I think Skype launched a feature a few years ago which would translate people speaking on the fly. Though it might have died a silent death, since the trouble is in the details. You can get 95% of a conversation correct and still accidentally declare war on another country with the remaining 5%...

Recently I got to play with a real-time translator [Spanish to English]. They were premade videos but the translations was done "live" by the AI. It was amazing to see the AI go to work. For much [even most] of the videos, the translations was spot on [we had a human made and reviewed translations to compare with], but sooner or later it got something wrong and was spouting gibberish.

 

[Azul-din]

In my current WIP, there are many languages, and many characters who know some, but not all, of them.

In my first drafts, I would write stuff that was meant to be translated in Italics, which was an effective way to signal that the language was different, but the text became too bogged down with italics everywhere. So...I nixed it. Now I just label the language used.

I also removed as many of actual foreign and made words that I could. I think I would not want to rely on google translate for creating text in my work. It might be right on, but maybe not, and I would not know.

In defense of Google translate, we are creating a totally fictional world, ne? Spoken language is a flexible and creative tool, as anyone trying to learn foreign language in the vernacular can testify. I wouldn't use GT for long passages or important info- only if it sets the tone of a particular character. In such cases I let the chips of grammatical rigor fall where they may.

 

[Azul-din]

In defense of Google translate, we are creating a totally fictional world, ne? Spoken language is a flexible and creative tool, as anyone trying to learn foreign language in the vernacular can testify. I wouldn't use GT for long passages or important info- only if it sets the tone of a particular character. In such cases I let the chips of grammatical rigor fall where they may.

 

[Azul-din]

I think Tolkien spoiled us with that a little. It would be nice if I could just use the languages he invented, but...no.

I find that languages in the story is one area where I must afford a greater suspension of disbelief, because too much accuracy there and the story is unreadable. All fantasy writing (and some others) gets from me the understanding that the language is not really English. I only start to balk when the story illusion is broken, such as understanding without explanation, or too quickly picking the language up. If character moves to a different world, and they also speak English...I'll be like....Really??? (But I give forgiveness to early SciFi, cause Flash Gordon would have been a mess if the languages were an issue.). For the most part, I will accept any explanation that could make sense, such as a universal translator in star trek. Or just that Luke could understand all the little noises Artoo made. But really...I don't think that would work. Heck, I even accept the babel fish, for Hitch Hikers.

I suspect a day is coming when it does work for Earth languages though. Not hard to imagine a universal translator feature when we are all cyborgs with chips in our brains

 

[Azul-din]

For my part Neil Gaiman used one of the cleverest devices in 'Neverworld'- all the birds, rats etc had their own language expressed in what would be their natural sound- chittering for the rats, cooing for the pigeons, etc.- to which the human residents of Neverworld responded as if they understood, and in a way that provided an ad hoc translation for the reader.

 

[pmmg]

In defense of Google translate, we are creating a totally fictional world, ne?

Is this asking if my story world is totally fictional?

Yes, totally fictional. It would be very unlikely any spoken language there would be similar to an actual earth language.

But...it is also true that to some people in the world, the Jawa's in Star Wars are not speaking jibberish.