Fantasy Terms

It would not distract me or bother me at all if I could tell what the word means without looking in a glossary or some such.

In fact, a lot of the time, I like when authors use words unique to the fiction. It adds to the world to me. However, I can see where it would deter some people.

Personally, I don't like a lot of made-up words that sound like a different language when the rest of the story is in English. It's hard to keep track of what means what, but a few are fine, especially if they mean something for which there's no English equivalent. Your second example is my preference, using shieldmate instead of bodyguard. It still reveals the world's "foreigness."

I'm currently reading SNAKE AGENT by Liz Williams and it's filled with foreign words (I'm fairly sure they're Chinese, but not certain) and English words that mean something similar to objects we're used to. I'm enjoying the story very much. It's a futuristic fantasy and there's a bionet instead of an internet, meaning the energy and network links come through living people. A ghostracker is an animal that looks like a giant lobster.

I use a few words in my urban fantasy that refer to things I've invented, but the word itself makes the thing's meaning obvious. Like an enchanted frog made of precious gems is a living piece of jewelry and is called an animate. A soul-sucker is a cursed doll the sucks the souls out of children. Stuff like that. The only foreign-sounding word I created is a name for a special kind of demon called a Maågan.

I like a few made up words that are used consistently so I won't have to search to find out what it really means.

I like "shieldman" or something like that better than "kurrigo" because I read right over the first term but have to stop and think about how to even pronounce "kurrigo." So one thing I'd say is that if you're going to make up words, keep them short and easy. I don't have my copy here, but as I recall, in "Elantris," Sanderson has one of his characters use a word like "kola" to mean ok. That was easy and created atmosphere.

Tolkien did it fine with words like Pipeweed instead of tobacco since this is how words are actually formed instead of throwing a bunch of scrabble chips to see what you get.


Shieldmate is really good, have you ever thought in using literal translationsa of the term in other languages? like for example "Back watcher" sometimes can do the trick (it was executed really good in His Dark Materials)

Nope. Doesn't bother me in the slightest--as long as half the darn book isn't italicized with words that make no sense. Every language assimilates words into it that a from a completely different one--like burrito, for example, or forte' or flambe' etc. and so forth. In that context, then, it makes sense to me that there are words that harken back to an older, or foreign, language.

I've been reading some sagas in old english and the word once used for a walrus is a whale-horse. And the way they pronounced it, you can hear the derivation. So I'm all for made up words as long as they don't hamper the flow of the writing. And I do like shieldbearer, the "mate" might seem a bit to friendly for a bodyguard.

It just needs to be made certain what it's describing.

A personal favourite from Tanith Lee's Here In Cold Hell (done from memory, so the wording isn't correct but the idea is). It's the second in the series so everyone already knows what it means but I still love how it's done.

"Cutch!"
She had explained the meaning of the word to them before but it was so cutching useless trying to convince the goddess to use more polite language.

It's done better in the book.

I'm generally averse to made-up fantasy languages unless people pay attention to sound systems.

Apart from that, if someone's using a made-up word in a story I'm reading, I try quite hard to figure out this neat new concept. And if it isn't a neat new concept, just an English one dressed up in fantasyese, I am one annoyed snake.

I love it - providing it is done well.

My own series has several languages and plenty of new words. Linguistics is a hobby of mine, so I've been careful to ensure that the language remains culturally appropriate, is grammatically correct and is immediately identifiable as belonging to a certain culture. Nothing worse (IMHO) than reading something where the author has clearly just made up a bunch of words that couldn't possibly have any basis in history (relevant to the story, I mean) and doesn't have any relation to any of the other words their characters use.

I try to be careful how new words are introduced, so the reader isn't blown off the page.

If it works, use it It adds realism to your story.

Gynn said:

When you come across an invented word in a Fantasy novel, does it annoy you or do you not mind?

Click to expand...

Your usage of things like that seems fine to me...

What bothers me is just when made-up words seem fake or pretentious. Fantasy is a genre with a lot of freedom, so authors must be careful not to create any cringe-worthy words/phrases (including names and titles of characters/places).

Example: the word "Furiae" throws me... I don't know what it means or what it could apply to, but wherever I see it, I'm not going to like it, because it's just trying too hard. Almost like the very first time a kid hears "Darth Vader". You think, "That's so stupid... Sounds like Dark Invader or something."

Just as long as there aren't a huge number of them when an easier word would suffice, and if they're defined (whether outright or in clear context), I don't mind much.

For example, the example you yourself gave. If a "kurrigo" is just a bodyguard and nothing more, then perhaps either use the term "bodyguard," or say something like, "His kurrigo, or bodyguard, did such-and-such..." That way the reader won't have to puzzle over what the heck a kurrigo is for the next fifty pages. Is it a pet? A servant? A ghost?? Etc.

Use the fantasy term especially if there isn't an existing word that adequately defines what the object/being/whatever is. (E. g., there's some sort of aspect to a "kurrigo" that differentiates it from the typical bodyguard, hence the word "bodyguard" isn't adequate.)

Using a fantasy term even if there's an adequate existing term can also help bring a fantasy world to life--just by throwing in little foreign terms here and there--it gives it more of a fantasy feel. (I'm obviously someone who uses such terms sometimes!) But it can be overdone, and most annoyingly is when the words aren't defined. Just because a "kurrigo" is doing something a bodyguard might do doesn't mean I will be able to assume that a kurrigo is a bodyguard. There will have to be some sort of clarification in the text of what a kurrigo (or any other fantasy term) actually is or means.

I'm nearly done with the "His Dark Materials" trilogy, and while most of the foreign terms used in the stories are gradually kind of defined in context, it really irked me that so many of them weren't clarified earlier on. For example, "naptha." I assume it's like kerosene or natural gas or something, because of how it's described and used throughout the books. Sure, it's not exactly a fantasy word, but it's not in regular usage, and it niggled at me that I was (and am) never quite sure what it is. Meaning the author was never QUITE clear enough giving a definition. That is irritating.

ETA: And I ditto Dario D.'s post. Some fantasy terms are just so obvious it's pathetic. They should sound natural, not forced. For example, a big ugly beast rears up out of a swamp and of course it's called a "glorknor" or "norglorp" or something. *blargh*

ETA 2: And see?--I spelled "naphtha" wrong. Ugh.

I like it when the terms tie to the fantasy culture. For instance, GRRM uses septron and septra for priest and priestess, and the culture has seven gods.

Gynn said:

dua'chi: the first priestess of the temple of my god
dua'cho: second priestess
dua'cha: third priestess

Click to expand...

These aren't different enough. Either linguistically or for a reader.

Shweta said:

I'm generally averse to made-up fantasy languages unless people pay attention to sound systems.

Apart from that, if someone's using a made-up word in a story I'm reading, I try quite hard to figure out this neat new concept. And if it isn't a neat new concept, just an English one dressed up in fantasyese, I am one annoyed snake.

Click to expand...

La Shweta is spot on.
If your made-up word has a direct synonym in English, don't use it.
Save the made-up words for the concepts that separate your fantasy world from our real one.

I will confess to having cheerfully broken that rule myself, but there were justifications and qualifications: The words I used were real, just not English (French langue d'oiel, Romansh, Latin and Provençal); my setting was historical, if somewhat anachronistic (the so-called Angevin Empire); and my MC was a sixteen-year old polyglot.

Because they were real, the words always sounded familiar, and carried overtones. And their meaning was always clear from the context.

I once read a video game (yes, you can read a video game...at least if it's like this one. 6 million words ^^))

In the game, most of the characters speak in a bizarre slang called the Cant (Yes, it is loosly based off the *real* Cant, used in medevil Britain), which has TONS of made up words.

Like...addlecove, brain-box, cutting, jink, jig, cage-rattled, bub, kip, basher...

Now, the reason why the slang works is A) It rolls off the tongue. "Can I borrow some money" turns into "Can ya spare some jink you cagerattled piker!"

And B) The words all make sense in a context. Most of them actually describe things that aren't used in actual English. Like, say, do we have any words for "city at the center of the mutliverse" (The Cage) or "person who has demonic leniage that has been mixed with human." (Teifling)

Or, my personal favorite, "person who is new to a city at the center of the mutliverse and is also a mornonic rube." (Cagerattled)

Gynn said:

"The kurrigo adjusted his belt, then nodded to Lord Clee'shay."

Click to expand...

Ummm....
Is "Lord Clee'shay" an actual character, or just made up for the example?

Gynn said:

"Hail, friend!" Lord Clee'shay blurted jovially, placing his hand on Err-lagorn's shoulder. "May the gods keep your stomach filled and your bed warm!"

No, I made him up for the example ;-)

Click to expand...

Whew!

I just remembered some from a review of Eragon:

"Brisingr" and "Gjarlz" and such...

Personally, I love odd words if they aren't a bucnh of apostropahes or Eragonisms. But I understand that many people don't work that way.

What if there is a difference, but it's a small one?

In a certain story I'm working on, there's a type of sword similar to a rapier, but there are certain technical differences in the construction which I won't go into here. The story has it's own fully developed conlang, stretching well back into the conhistory and there is a slightly different style of fighting for thsi weapon (with it's own set of terms); but they are often used for duels, and you could probably give a rapier a fair fight with it. Would it be better to use rapier terminology?

This is mainly used as an example, though the situation is real.

I think it would be better to use real words. If its like a rapier, but not, well, there are plenty of other sword names from the real world.

What, precisely, is the difference?

Gynn said:

When you come across an invented word in a Fantasy novel, does it annoy you or do you not mind?

For example, say the author used a made-up word instead of "bodyguard" for one of his characters:

"The kurrigo adjusted his belt, then nodded to Lord Clee'shay."

Would the usage of "kurrigo" be distracting? Would you prefer that the author just use "bodyguard" or, instead used a similar term such as "shieldmate"?

Click to expand...

If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, waddles like a duck, swims like a duck, then it's a duck.

If a kurrigo is something more than a bodyguard, then having a unique term for it is great--but if it just means a bodyguard, then call the guy a bodyguard and keep going.

Every time you introduce a new word into the prose, the reader has to stop on some level (sometimes noticeably) and figure out what this strange new word is, what it refers to, what it means, how to pronounce it, etc. Every time they have to pause to think, it gives them a chance to stop reading your story. Make the pause worth the risk.