Naming/describing races of diminuitive size (that aren't traditional fantasy races)

themindstream · Feb 24, 2019

This thought occurred to me when my first impulse was to describe a nonhuman humanoid from a species of very short stature as "pygmy" and thinking a second later "wait, isn't that a proper name for a human tribe and would it be a faux-pas to use it"?

The next go-to would be 'dwarf' or 'dwarfish' but this being science-fantasy, 'dwarf' has a particular connotation rather than just "small humanoid" (and is also linked to dwarfism the physical disability). They would look a lot like the D&D-style gnome or halfling but don't share any other aspects of those, culture-wise.

This is for an incidental side character in a short story so in this case I'm not going to be diving much into culture and background.

Introversion · Feb 24, 2019

Is their name for themselves, or a name others have slapped on them?

Roxxsmom · Feb 24, 2019

Introversion said:
Is their name for themselves, or a name others have slapped on them?

This is a good point (I think the technical term is exonym vs endonym), because to themselves they won't be tiny. They're "normal" sized, and any larger humanoids they run across will be giants. Cultures name themselves for the land they occupy sometimes (though this can be reversed too, where a land can be named for its people), or even just refer to themselves as "The People" in their own language.

Brightdreamer · Feb 24, 2019

I'd avoid dwarf and pygmy. And halfling (sort of a shorthand sidestep for "hobbit" that used to be rather popular, but really isn't much better than "dwarf" or "pygmy" as it again describes them as lesser compared to "proper" humans.)

Describe them as your POV character would see them/name them. (As noted, this may not be how they name themselves.) Quick bad example: The guide's head was level with Joe's waist, which made him tall for a Littlun. No, wait - they were Woodswalkers, Joe reminded himself; no sense getting off on the wrong foot by thinking of his kind by a common slur like "Littlun," especially not when he was bound for the heart of their lands.

If you want to see how other authors do it, Elizabeth Haydon's works and Tad Williams's Shadowmarch quartet both have nonhuman races that aren't quite traditional gnomes/elves/etc., described in their own terms. (For Haydon, you might try The Lost Journals of Ven Polypheme, a MG/YA spinoff of her larger Symphony of Ages series.)

JMHO...

starrystorm · Feb 24, 2019

I agree. Give them their own unique name. One that's not based on size.

themindstream · Feb 24, 2019

Introversion said:
Is their name for themselves, or a name others have slapped on them?

I'm looking more for a generic descriptor than a proper name; I tend to fall in line with Roxxsmom as to how I understand groups of people name themselves. The proper name isn't super-important to me or to the story other than I want to empathize that this is a mixed-species group of dimensional (human-ish) aliens removed from their normal home setting.

I did have a brainstorm after I posted this though. The group is having a meeting and I described him as having to sit on a cushion on top of the table because he was too small to sit in the chair.

Naming/describing races of diminuitive size (that aren't traditional fantasy races)

themindstream

Introversion

Pie aren't squared, pie are round!

Roxxsmom

Beastly Fido

Brightdreamer

Just Another Lazy Perfectionist

starrystorm

themindstream