Award-winning SFF creator Fonda Lee lately tweeted a couple of ‘linguistic dilemma’ many fantasy writers face when the setting of their novel takes place in a secondary world in contrast to our personal, proper right down to the language that’s spoken.
Her query was this: are you able to confer with one thing as a manila envelope if it exists in a secondary world the place there isn’t any such place as Manila? I don’t assume there’s a particular reply to this query, and the responses to her tweet introduced up comparable points with Champagne, French braids, and German Shepherds.
The issue right here is that the English language is filled with eponyms (phrases derived from names, e.g. pasteurise from Louis Pasteur), toponyms (phrases derived from locations, e.g. fez from Fez, Morocco) and loanwords (phrases derived from different languages, e.g. café from French). So fantasy writers will face a linguistic dilemma most of the time, questioning many phrase decisions that readers of the novel received’t give a second thought to.
The Use Of Idioms In Fantasy Worlds
English can be stuffed with idioms, that are expressions, phrases or phrases with figurative meanings that may solely be understood by native audio system of the language. It’s because they’re able to decode the which means by mapping expressions to culturally particular domains.
As a lover of each language and literature, I can’t assist however query using culturally-specific idiomatic expressions in secondary world fantasy novels. If English isn’t the spoken language, and the tradition is solely faraway from Western influences, would it not make sense to make use of any of the next idioms in fantasy worlds?
Transport Idioms
There are such a lot of idiomatic expressions within the English language which can be derived from the area of transport, and we’re fortunate sufficient to have so many choices accessible in relation to journey. Fictional worlds, nonetheless, hardly embody all these modes of transport. While crusing is pretty frequent – giving rise to numerous idioms like ‘in the identical boat’, ‘studying the ropes’, and ‘exhibiting your true colors’ – I’ve not often examine trains or buses in fantasy worlds. If these modes of transport simply don’t exist, it wouldn’t make sense to make use of idioms like ‘prepare of thought’, ‘finish of the road’ and ‘throw underneath the bus’. Or would it not?
The etymology of many idiomatic expressions within the English language remains to be comparatively unclear. We all know ‘exhibiting your true colors’ originates from a time in historical past when battle ships needed to show the colors of their nation’s flag throughout warfare. Some would trick their opponents by displaying a flag of allyship after which present the true colors of their flag once they have been shut sufficient to assault.
‘Practice of thought’, however, has nothing to do with trains. The time period originates from as early as 1651 and easily refers back to the succession of 1 thought to a different. As a author, it could be completely acceptable to make use of this expression with out having to introduce trains into your narrative.
Animal Idioms
Not like transport, which could be culturally particular, animals are comparatively common throughout cultures. However we actually do want to deal with the elephant within the room right here. The place are all of the animals in fantasy worlds? And in the event that they don’t exist, can I nonetheless describe my broody love curiosity as a ‘darkish horse’ or ‘a wolf in sheep’s clothes’?
While ‘a wolf in sheep’s clothes’ dates all the way in which again to the e book of Matthew within the Bible, ‘darkish horse’ originates from a protracted historical past of horse racing, which is the second largest spectator sport in Britain right this moment. Due to this fact, it doesn’t actually have a spot in your fantasy world until there are horses and playing concerned.
And I’ll let the cat out of the bag right here. It’s nonetheless unclear whether or not the ‘elephant within the room’ refers to an precise elephant. One doable origin is Ivan Krylov’s story of The Inquisitive Man whereby a person visits a museum and notices all of the tiny objects however not the elephant. Regardless, the simplest approach to deal with this dilemma when writing fantasy is to really embody animals in your secondary worlds so you’ll be able to have all of your characters operating round like headless chickens.
Literary Idioms
With out realizing it, many on a regular basis idioms within the English language are literally derived from well-known literary works, from Shakespeare to Joseph Heller’s Catch-22. Specifically, idioms corresponding to ‘mad as a hatter’, ‘down the rabbit gap’ and ‘via the wanting glass’ immediately conjure up photographs of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland. This, after all, raises the query of whether or not these culturally particular idiomatic expressions are acceptable to make use of in fantasy worlds when the literary works themselves are non-existent.
There may be proof to counsel ‘break the ice’ was first utilized by Shakespeare in The Taming Of The Shrew and was later popularised by ice-breaker ships. These have been designed to interrupt via the icy waters surrounding the North and South poles with a view to sail with out issue. Alternatively, though we generally affiliate ‘mad as a hatter’ with Carroll’s novel, it seems that the expression precedes the e book and dates again to a time when mercury, used within the manufacture of hats, was thought to drive hatters loopy.
A ‘Catch-22’ state of affairs, nonetheless, originates from the title of Joseph Heller’s novel and requires our data of how the expression is used inside the narrative to grasp what it means in on a regular basis dialog. It refers to a paradoxical drawback like when you’ll be able to’t get a job as a result of you don’t have any expertise however you don’t have any expertise as a result of you’ll be able to’t get a job. Or, like once you wish to describe a manila envelope in your fantasy novel however you’ll be able to’t say manila envelope as a result of there’s no such place as Manila.
The Verdict
As Fonda Lee notes in her thread, the easiest way to beat the issue is to view your self because the translator of the story relatively than the creator. Regardless that the novel is written in English, “you, the creator, are translating the story from no matter language it was written in.”
This, for my part, means it’s completely advantageous to make use of on a regular basis idioms in fantasy worlds, because it’s the closest translation of how the state of affairs could be expressed within the fictional language. And, because the creator, you wish to make the reader’s expertise as easy as doable, so it doesn’t damage to put in writing what they already know.
Which means doesn’t at all times should get misplaced in translation; generally it may be added, too.
