McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
A writer's question about lingual shift
Blaze:
--- Quote from: Kali on December 16, 2009, 05:36:37 PM ---Well, the shift wasn't going to be a main premise, it was just a problem that sprang immediately to mind when I was envisioning some of the smaller scenes. If I were reading it and the two people involved had no difficulties understanding each other, I'd be the first to pipe up with "If it's been 200 years, why hasn't the language drifted?" Which started me thinking about how to convey it as a writer, without resorting to fake Olde Englishe.
I have a feeling I'll end up doing it, as someone suggested, mostly through idiom. I'm not enough of a linguist to do it up right for something that's really more of a speed bump than a major plot point (since the Rip Van Winklesque character is going to use a bit of magic, enter the handwavium!), and I've never been one for huge amounts of prep work. The more I do prior to writing, the less I want to write. I don't even outline for that reason.
--- End quote ---
Then, what exactly are you expecting to get out of this posting? Because we can help... if you have something you want suggestions and help with... or if all you are looking for is an "Oh! Cool thought." We can say that.
You have to understand that some of the folks in here make a living out of language, or like Shecky, TWO languages.
Some of us do it as a hobby. We are passionate, and if you are looking to make lingual drift a part of your story, we are ready, willing and able to froth heavily from the mouth.
Shecky:
Something you may want to consider is the rise of a particular dialect of the language. Say, for example, you've set it in the future U.S. but the predominant North American English is now Canadian. Or it's become something like Gullah (and if you pay attention to the tendencies within street English, this doesn't seem farfetched). Again, this last one recalls a part of Joe Haldeman's The Forever War.
Blaze:
Yeah, see, and I was thinking something like a profusion of a sub dialect into predominance due to a shift in social status, or survival of a specific pandemic... suddenly proper language might be full of cringers, like all the double negatives and stuff like acrossed , don't got none, masonary.
Kali:
I have no problem with people defending the things they're passionate about. :) I'm just not the sort of person who writes books in order to write a story. I don't outline, I don't pre-plot, I don't draw maps, I don't do character sketches, I don't do chapter summaries. If I'm gonna do all that, why on earth would I then go on to write the story? It's already written, albeit in a non-linear form. I understand for some people "all that" is part of the fun of the craft. For me, it's the kiss of death, and will satisfy any desire I have to tell the story so it would never get written in a narrative format.
I asked because I was wondering how other people would convey the difference. What bits of grammatical finesse I might employ that would get across that there's a gap between the way he speaks and the way she does, and best case do so in a way that the dialogue itself tells you he's speaking an older form of the same language she is. Sprinkling his speech with "thee" and "thou" and throwing in random "-eth" suffixes isn't the answer. I like the use of idiom, though that'll require a deft touch. Pulling it off for the first twenty or so pages should be fun. And I might use more formal English when he speaks.
The use of magic to solve the problem will, however, be a major plot point. He uses magic (of a sort). No one else does, could, or would. It's why he's being chased, and will be the central conflict of the story. He wants to restore the world to what it was. And the world-that-is took a lot of effort to create; it's not going to want to change and possibly it shouldn't. Change is rarely peaceful.
I'm sorry you're peeved I declined the advice to do a lot of research and map out the geopolitical history of the fantasy world in order to answer this question. Or maybe you're peeved at the way I declined it. I wasn't clear enough in the question, I suppose, or my amusement at the answer might be more understandable. It's akin to being asked, "So, in this very first bit, my characters are on horseback though they're mainly going to be in one place through the rest of the book. Still, even though it's a momentary hiccup, I was wondering how you'd convey that they're riding at a fast pace while talking?" and then getting an answer back telling you to first decide how the past 3,000 years have shaped the horse breeds in your fantasy world. It made me smile.
I'd never look for validation about whether an idea is cool or not. Story ideas are like Schrodinger's Cat: they're both at the same time as long as they're just sitting in a box. You have to open the box, write them down, before they'll find a fate.
Shecky:
Who's peeved? Not I. All I'm saying here is that if you're wanting to do a lingual shift and you don't have a background as a linguist, you're going to end up pretty much having to do a fair amount of research and pre-organizational stuff. Sort of like if you were planning to base a story in a certain place that you've never visited and never before studied - if the story hinges even somewhat on the particulars of that place, research is inescapable.
Oh, and about Schroedinger's Cat: did anyone think to ask the cat? :D
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