Yep, that’s some French. I always feel that my WIPpet Wednesday intros can get a bit stale so I’m mixing it up a tad. Anyway, onto business! Today is the 16th and also happens to be dictionary day according to my calendar so in honour of that, the following excerpt has some Farilien, a language very much still in its developmental stages, and an accompanying translation. 🙂
Before Tasyn was fully through the door, cheers loud enough to wake the dead thundered through the packed confines of the hall.
‘Halé kielen! Halé regen!’ (Hail the Leader! Hail the King!)
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What the hail?!!? That’s it? (In case you missed it, that was hell with a southern accent. *snork* Hey, give me a break, it’s early.)
Your use of a foreign language in the context of the story brings up an interesting debate: to include or not to include. And, if you include sentences spoken in a different language, do you include the translation? Or, instead of messing with all that, do you merely let the reader know someone spoke in a language other than that commonly used? No right or wrong answer, I think. Just food for thought. And maybe a blog post . . .
Hehe that’s all for this week. And as for the language debate, well, there are so many sides to it. Personally, I don’t mind a few bits here and there and I tend to include some language in my initial drafts (which I usually edit out later). I would never normally add in a translation but thought it necessary in this case because it was out of context. Mostly, though, I just enjoy creating languages for the sake of it. 🙂
A great question indeed. I have another old WIP that takes place in Japan and I’m not sure if some parts should be translated or not or how to work it. I’d like a blog post on this as well.
I read a book recently set in Japan where words were sometimes translated and sometimes not and it became a) confusing and b) annoying to flick to the pages long glossary at the end to work out what things meant but I suppose as long as you are consistent, that’s the main thing. 🙂
Yeah, definitely not that long (to require a glossary). I tried to write it in a way that the context tells you the meaning as the person hearing the Japanese doesn’t necessarily understand it that well. I’m sure it’s a complicated mess that I’ll have to have beta readers tell me if they “get” whenever I have time to rework it seriously. Thanks for your tips. 🙂
Nice! I do like a created language scattered into a story, as long as it doesn’t become overwhelming or feel like a chore because there’s so much of it. And I like when the grammar corresponds (at least roughly) to English, so I can feel like I’m learning it as I read. 🙂
I like it too when I feel that I’m picking up a few words of another language, even if its just greetings and obscenities. 🙂
I’ve never used another language in my work, though characters have spoken it. Generally, I just explain it in exposition. The one time a character used a Latin exorcism spell, I had dialogue that explained what was happening and that addressed my issue there. Nice job on your way! I liked it a lot.
Thanks 🙂
Wow you’re creating your own language! I’m impressed. Great new site BTW. 🙂
Thank you muchly. 🙂 Yes, the language creation took up a lot of my time but I really enjoy making it even if the scattered bits of it throughout my manuscripts may not make it to the final draft. 🙂
Developing your own language. 😀 Cool.
I’ve done a few posts in the past about language creation and my own forays into it. 🙂 They’ll be under the language tag if you want to check them out. 🙂
Kudos to you for trying to create another language, or at least as much as you need for what the story warrants. Personally, I really try not to include another language in my story that I have to spell out because I don’t like doing the research required for it 😛 On the other hand, in Spellbound, I have gone to Latin for inspiration on magical terms or places that I want to sound cooler, and Latin seems to be helping with that. Or, at least, I hope so.
Nicely done creating your own language. Are you making yourself a dictionary/grammar guide/something? I’m betting you’ll need it to keep things straight. I do with English, despite it being my native tongue. 😉
I have both a small dictionary and a grammar guide that I work from but its quite basic at the moment. 🙂
I love creating (and sometimes using) a language (or two) for a story I’m writing, so yeah…. I certainly like what you did here. I can’t speak for your reasons, but I find that the very act of developing a language adds to the culture and depth of the fictional world–like what things matter most to the people involved, how things might sound… A send of music and rhythm in their actions and lives.
So, yeah… I love it.
Thanks 🙂 I really enjoy creating languages way beyond the complexity I’d ever be able to incorporate into a manuscript but all the same, it can give a real sense of the people you’re writing about.
I’ve been creating language since I was a teen. It was a handy way to write stories in class without teachers knowing what I was up to (umm, usually. There was that unfortunate math teacher who picked up my wildly imaginative and even more wildly inaccurate erotica, once…).
These days, I tend to sprinkle in language at the single word or phrase level. Context usually works, or description. I don’t make a big deal of it; I just drop it in. I agree with Eden – it adds something, another textural element, and a chance to breathe sound into the world…
I love the snippet above. As I imagine it pronounced, it flows like music, soaring and grand.
And I read this at 7am after a night spent writing character bios for NaNo. I squinted and stared until my sleepy and rusty French skills could translate. Seulement, c’est vendredi ici aujourd’hui. Bon matin!
I love your description of the sound of the language, it is just as I imagined it so its great to know that that feeling/sense is being conveyed. 🙂