Language Problems in Fantasy

Generally, the universal translator spell (Witchworld etc).

Many fantasy series have some sort of "common tongue" that is known and spoken by all the races. That's another way out.

Or, one member of one group is mildly fluent in the other group's language, and has to act as a mediator.


Why not make this part of what makes your story unique? Two warriors holed up against some monster, with no way to beat him unless they work together, and no way to know what the other is saying?

dclary said:

Why not make this part of what makes your story unique? Two warriors holed up against some monster, with no way to beat him unless they work together, and no way to know what the other is saying?

Click to expand...

You mean something like this?

What about a common root language? Makes it difficult to understand, but can be done with some trouble (like Olde English?)

Or a near forgotten tongue that is only known by scholars, academics, clergy, or nobility?

You can have someone as proficient as Dory, saying "he wants you to go to the back of the throat, or he wants a rootbeer float."

I personally have that ever-handy "common" tongue, but a nice magical amulet is also pretty handy.

How about having multilingual characters?

Most people in environments without a common language are multilingual, at least to some extent. They could share a language, even if it isn't their preferred one -- by which I mean, even if characters a doesn't speak language B and character b doesn't speak language A, they might both speak language C. Or a mishmash of all the languages.

Otherwise, yeah, Common Tongue is ... common. Though I happen to dislike that notion from a linguistic standpoint; it makes no sense at all at a low tech/communications level. I realize it's often a useful fudge, I do I do. But the linguist in me goes grrrrrr.

As has been pointed out to me, another possibility is a trade language or a pidgin. Which isn't a fully realized language, and lacks expressiveness, but is generally shared across language group.

Just write it in English, and make up names for different languages. Say they are speaking <insert gibberish name here> and just write in English. For instance

asdlksajd said "hello, how are you doing?" in sdkjfdslkfj. as;lksa;lk drew a blank face. He could not understand the words which were being spoken, he being from the west, and asdlksajd being from the north.

jpsorrow said:

In SF, you can introduce some kind of universal translater to solve the language problems of new races meeting each other for the first time . . . but not so in fantasy. I am about to have one race meet another in my fantasy novel, and I'm running into the standard problem of having two new people meet who can't understand each other. In general, this isn't a problem, you just have them start interacting and after a time you can just say that they've learned each others language and just have them get confused over more complicated concepts and/or words.

But what if you don't have that time? My people need to meet, and can't spend tons of time with each other because of the situation after that. The plot doesn't really require that they understand each other much, just enough, so I plan on just having them fumble through their few "conversations". But it did bring up the standard problem of language barriers in fantasy . . . and a question:

What have you guys come up with to solve this language problem? Assuming you have new races meeting each other for the first time.

Click to expand...

I love seeing authors deal with language barriers.

Miscommunication opens a world of cool possibilities in any story line.

ChaosTitan said:

You mean something like this?

Click to expand...

Exactly what I was thinking of. I also like how Antonio Bandaras' learning Norse is handled in Eaters of the Dead... er... The Thirteenth Warrior.

Shweta said:

Otherwise, yeah, Common Tongue is ... common. Though I happen to dislike that notion from a linguistic standpoint; it makes no sense at all at a low tech/communications level. I realize it's often a useful fudge, I do I do. But the linguist in me goes grrrrrr.

Click to expand...

I hate the linguist in me when writing the fantasy novel, and the linguist in me hates my fantasy novel. Nobody in my novel speaks English, but I pretend they do. But I can't help being aware that some of the subtleties I put into dialogue wouldn't work in their real language. Now, generally, it doesn't matter; but when I anglify two languages (I have done that already) it grates.

Luckily, so far I've been able to avoid two languages in one scene. My head would explode. My general solution, more for peace of mind than anything, is: small geographical area is relevant; two big factions dominate culturally, both speaking the same language. So, basically all characters do speak a "common tongue". I can't help being uncomfortable with that, and on top of that all those local (tribal) languages want to have their spot in the sun. But it's too complicated already without linguistic complications. Argh!

One of my characters comes from far away. He's fluent, but makes mistakes now and then. I may have to outline his language to give the mistakes some sort of consistency...

If I want to get things done, I'll have to chain up the linguist. I'll have to. And above all I'll have to gag him!

In Sci-Fi people leap into the supernatural with technology.
In Fantasy people leap to the supernatural with magic.
In Sci-Fi people solve the problem of language barriers with technology.
In Fantasy people solve the problem of language barriers with...

Gesturing. Making physical interpretations of what you are trying to say. Ever played a game of charades? It's a quick, easy, and plausible way to jump this hurdle. Try it out.

dclary said:

Exactly what I was thinking of. I also like how Antonio Bandaras' learning Norse is handled in Eaters of the Dead... er... The Thirteenth Warrior.

Click to expand...

There was also a very well-done episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," where Picard was stranded on a planet with a pig-looking alien that only spoke in metaphor. They had to learn to communicate in order to kill an electrical phantom critter.

You could have a character turn out to be fascinated with the language and very good at picking it up. Within a few chapters he or she could have a good enough grasp of the basics to do translating of simple concepts. That's perfectly realistic, and much more interesting than a spell or something.

Then again, you could always have one of the newly discovered folks turn out to speak a little of the discoverer's language--leading to questions about where he learned it and who from, etc. Might be an interesting subplot if nothing else. And didn't that actually happen with the pilgrims at Plymouth Rock? They got here and practically the first person they met spoke some English because he'd dealt with traders or sailors or something. I can't remember the details, alas.

ChaosTitan said:

There was also a very well-done episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," where Picard was stranded on a planet with a pig-looking alien that only spoke in metaphor. They had to learn to communicate in order to kill an electrical phantom critter.

Click to expand...

Ah, 'Darmok'! It was quite clever how they found a mid-ground by using a common myth as reference.

In Out of the Silent Planet, by C.S. Lewis, a man was kidnapped and dumped uncerimoniously out into the wilds of Mars, where he had to learn how to speak with the local populace--who had no language roots or commonalities whatsoever. However, the man, if I remember correctly, had the good fortune of being a linguist. ^_~ So even knowing nothing about the new language, he already understood how to analyze grammatical structure and how to pick things up quickly.

In my WIP, the members of one race are all bilingual. The members of the other are not. That way, the Elves can have their private conversations (in Latin...I'm so mean) while the humans flounder around and look stupid.

In a multi-lingual world, it's more than possible that one or more or your characters, especially those who travel a lot, speak several different languages. A merchant or a mercenary, for example, would credibly speak the languages that he/she encounters throughout his/her career. So would a priest or a mage. The archetypal farm boy, on the other hand, would not. It all depends on the educational level of your characters and their professions. It's your world so you can make it work any way you want to.

Good luck.

ChaosTitan said:

There was also a very well-done episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," where Picard was stranded on a planet with a pig-looking alien that only spoke in metaphor. They had to learn to communicate in order to kill an electrical phantom critter.

Click to expand...

This is in episode 102: Darmok. Undeniably one of the best STNG episodes ever.

I'm right now reading a series by Harry Turtledove, wherein he recreates World War II in a magical setting it has...the folllowing nationalities.

Forthweg: Poland
Valmeria: France
Jelgar: Spain
Algarve: Germany
Unkerlant: Russia
Zuwayza: I'm not sure
Kussaman: America
Lagoan: Britin
Sibiu: I have no idea.
Kaunian: Jewish.

So we have this huge, complex weave of languages that mirrors the complex weave of languages that exists here on earth, and it adds this amazing texture to the books that I really love...and I think it is because America is a bit self contained and isolated, that we lose this lingual aspect in our writing. Europe is packed really close together and languages blur, and that is reflected by how many people are bi-lingual there. So American authors, myself included, skip over the fact that a fractured place of many kingdoms would have many languages, and they'd have shared languages, and that it creates a really deep well of worldbuilding tools.

So don't cop out with "common tongues" or "magical spells". Run with it!

My world has about a dozen different main languages and several dozen more obscure languages (too lazy to get out my notes and count). Language barriers are simply a part of traveling a realistic world, so they appear fairly regularly in the stories. All the main characters speak multiple languages, and the large port cities typically use one or both of the main trade languages regardless of what the rest of the country may speak.

What's hardest for me is translating the different languages when the POV character speaks multiple languages, keeping both the meaning and speech patterns true to what's being said. I write the dialogue phonetically, and one very noticeable thing is that characters' accents will suddenly change or disappear entirely when they speak a different language. I also have one language which doesn't translate well into English because it has a lot of words for which there are no single word English equivalents. When characters are speaking that language it sounds a little odd because I'm writing the four-word translation of a single word.

My multi-lingual characters also will frequently mix languages into a single sentence. When they do that I usually write out the fantasy word and put a foot note at the bottom of the page with the translation, particularly when the POV character doesn't speak the language they're mixing in.

The idea that an entire world with multiple distinct cultures would speak a single language always struck me as rather absurd, so I just do the best I can with making my world sound realistic.

Hope To The Horizon said:

MThe idea that an entire world with multiple distinct cultures would speak a single language always struck me as rather absurd, so I just do the best I can with making my world sound realistic.

Click to expand...

Depends on how large your world is. Are you talking an entire planet? Or, say, an area of a couple of thousand square miles. I don't think it's absurd to think there'd be a single language available in an area of that size.