I was checking out the site and starting to move my paper notes to here, and I had the idea that my fantasy universe should include some type of language barrier. It made sense considering my world is split into continents and a couple islands that have all been separated for a good thousand-ish years. My main issue stems from actually trying to put this concept into writing. With characters who speak mostly different languages, it's pretty hard to keep the conversation going! …or interesting.
Any suggestions, strategies, and solutions are appreciated! :)
I think incorporating a language barrier in your fantasy universe is a fantastic idea, and it can certainly make your story more engaging and realistic. I have a few suggestions and strategies to help you manage the language differences and maintain interesting interactions between characters:
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Language learning: Have one or more characters learn the language of the other culture as part of the story. This can create an engaging sub-plot and give you a reason to explain the differences between the languages. You can also explore the challenges and humor that arise from misunderstandings and miscommunications.
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Common language or trade language: You could introduce a common language or trade language spoken by many characters across the continents. This can be a simplified or creole language that has developed over time due to trade, diplomacy, or other interactions. This allows your characters to communicate while still acknowledging the existence of the language barrier, but also serves as a great way to show differences between languages in a sort of commonly-understood way.
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Interpreters: You could incorporate characters who can act as interpreters between the different language groups. These kinds of experts are perfect for explaining nuanced differences between languages to others (and your reader) who aren't familiar with them while simultaneously progressing the plot.
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Non-verbal communication: Not so much a way to explore language barriers, but more a result of them; you can explore ways in which your characters try to communicate non-verbally, such as through gestures, facial expressions, or body language, when they can't understand each other. This can lead to some interesting and engaging scenes if you write action well, as characters try to decipher each other's intentions and emotions without speaking the same language.
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Limited understanding: Similarly, you could have characters who understand only some words or phrases in another language, which can lead to partial communication, misunderstandings, or comical situations.
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Multilingual characters: Include multilingual characters in your story who can bridge the gap between different language groups. This can be a useful plot device and a way to showcase your characters' skills and backgrounds.
Just a few tips from me, but I'm definitely interested in what anyone else has to say. Good luck!
There is a couple of thing that you can apply to your characters and the way they express themselves.
- Language we speak shape our thoughts.
For exemple the word bridge in german is feminine, and german will say the it's beautiful, elegant, but in french a bridge is masculine and will be describe as robust, strong… The way the speaker refers to something is often a quick tell for their mothertongue. French is my main language but i,ve been learning english since i was 6. I'm considered billingual, but i still make silly mistake or i do have tells when speaking and writting by my choice of word and syntax ( nevermind the spelling and conjugason mistakes).
- Word and idioms uniqueness:
If you are developping bi-tri-quadralingual people, you can establish a list of expressions, idioms and terms that those individual would use and cannot be translated properly. I.e raining cats and dogs… doesn't translate to french, we tend to say '' it rains ropes" or " it rains {enough} to drink standing up" If your characters tries to translate their saying straight away, it's a quick and simple trick, espescially if it makes no sens to their interlocutor.
Polyglot people will also loose their words, use another language word to fill whole in their phrase or a word they find better suited for their emotion and opinion. I.E. the noun "dépaysement" and verbe "dépayser" in french doesn't really translate out of french. It means being out of our confort zone in another country, city or environment like a workplace. Litterally translate to ''out of country-ness''. If your languages have those word that do not translate, the character gonna scramble to say and express their feels.
- Memory blanks and identity
Sometimes people will loose their words and blank out while speaking second language or when reverting to their own after a while. Its often on dumb and petty words, like a spatula or a cloud. Its not forgotten, it`s just blocked. A lot of people will just laugh it out, but some take it pretty seriously a sign of loosing your mothertongues…. It's a simple way to include some fear and conflict in a story, externally or internally for your characters.
- Learning and range of knowledge
You developp your language base on your field of interest and via the people with whom you communicate. A merchant will know his trade and his number pretty well, he will be able to trade and close deal with a limited vocabulary. A bard will know some songs maybe in another language and how to order food and drinks in a tavern. Royalty will be able to converse on higher levels and would have had teachers since childhood, they would not know slang and peasants idioms.
- Standardisation and international agreements.
Some languages are standardized in certain industry. If you have some spaceship for exemple, maybe all the languages share the same name for the same part as they streamlined it in the universe for everybody being able to use the same terms. A bit like we often revert to latin names in indo-european languages when scientific or biologic notions comes up even if we all have our own term for it.
- Sister languages can be usefull.
French, Spanish, portuguese and italien for exemple are sister languages, their mother being Latin. A lot of the word and syntax will be similar, but not enough to be considered a simple dialect. This way you can have similar languages, that share the same syntaxe more or less and the word only being changed. I.e The number fifty is spelled fünftig in german, vijfitg in dutch, vyftig in afrikaans, cinquante (french), Cinquanta (italient), cincuenta (spanish), senkant ( haitian creole). The afrikaans and creole being language based on mix of languages. ( less for afrikaans more for creole). Thus, your character may found that the foreing language they are confronted with is less foreign and alien as they previously thought.
