McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
A writer's question about lingual shift
Kali:
Some great options here, and really good questions.
In this case, there's actually been a technological shift backwards. The person in question was "frozen" in the middle of a vast war that destroyed the better part of a couple of kingdoms. Two hundred years on, the population has recovered in numbers but a lot of knowledge was lost and never passed on. The ability to build the great cities is gone, etc.
It's roughly like ... Picture Alera, if all the furycrafters had been wiped out in the Vord war and no new ones were born. 200 years on, they can't build the road system, have no way to replicate erecting the giant walls of solid stone (tho they would rediscover manual labor to hew big blocks of stone) the cities were decimated along with all the knowledge stored there, etc.
Sebastian:
--- Quote from: svb1972 on December 16, 2009, 01:44:51 PM ---And also take into account cultural idioms.
If someone, say fell asleep in 1809, and woke up today.
Would they have any idea what "OMG, I like, totally googlestalked him." would mean?
Also. What is the rate of technical/magical advancement in your world.
Has the lives of the average person changed, and how drastically in the last 200 years.
Do they still use horse drawn plows? Or Do they have little magical sprites that prepare the fields.
Were there any big battles, any big wars? Cultural events.
For example.
If you went to sleep in 1350 and work up in 1550.
The english spoken would likely not have changed too much, although you might be weirded out by the level of french/english merging. But an amusing thing. A now common physical expression (giving someone the middle finger) would be completely incomprehensible to you. That's because you've never heard of the Battle of Agincourt. From which that particular expression came from. There's just alot of things to consider, and that's during a relatively slow period like the dark ages.
Temporal shift stories are hard to pull off well.
--- End quote ---
You’ve also missed Luther, a significant shift from aristocratic feudalism to monarchy, most of the Black Death and subsequent liberation of english serfs, the discovery of America & the sea route to India, throwing the muslims and jews out of Iberia, the abandonment of Greenland, I also think the prevalence of windmills and waterwheels, reasonably certain Turkey conquered lots of the Balkans…
Starbeam:
--- Quote from: Kali on December 16, 2009, 02:05:33 PM ---Some great options here, and really good questions.
In this case, there's actually been a technological shift backwards. The person in question was "frozen" in the middle of a vast war that destroyed the better part of a couple of kingdoms. Two hundred years on, the population has recovered in numbers but a lot of knowledge was lost and never passed on. The ability to build the great cities is gone, etc.
It's roughly like ... Picture Alera, if all the furycrafters had been wiped out in the Vord war and no new ones were born. 200 years on, they can't build the road system, have no way to replicate erecting the giant walls of solid stone (tho they would rediscover manual labor to hew big blocks of stone) the cities were decimated along with all the knowledge stored there, etc.
--- End quote ---
Sounds like the flashbacks in the Wheel of Time series, when you get a couple viewpoint flashbacks from the Forsaken characters.
comprex:
--- Quote from: Shecky on December 16, 2009, 11:31:59 AM --- the job is HUGE. If I were you, I'd pick some other plot point. :D
--- End quote ---
^This.
I think you're better off having the characters -not- be able to understand each others' words, and emphasizing non-verbal communication on a basis of whatever human condition the characters share.
An example of such a thing might be what Phillip K. Dick does in 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep'. In that novel, we know the humanity of the person through the empathic reaction. Interaction through words is for the unfeeling androids.
I think it would probably help if you mapped out exactly which part of being post-modern-human* was gained or lost during this Armageddon you've got in your backstory.
*And I'm not talking about technology.
Sebastian:
--- Quote from: squeemonster on December 16, 2009, 02:14:51 PM ---^This.
I think you're better off having the characters -not- be able to understand each others' words, and emphasizing non-verbal communication on a basis of whatever human condition the characters share.
An example of such a thing might be what Phillip K. Dick does in 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep'. In that novel, we know the humanity of the person through the empathic reaction. Interaction through words is for the unfeeling androids.
I think it would probably help if you mapped out exactly which part of being post-modern-human* was gained or lost during this Armageddon you've got in your backstory.
*And I'm not talking about technology.
--- End quote ---
Beware ignoring difficulties with non-verbal communications. Like how in Robinson Crusoe they manage advanced theological debate by hand gestures...
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