Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: busy

Using Constructed Languages in Literature

This article talks about how to use conlangs without getting in the way of a story.  This is fine for one cluster of stories that contain conlangs: the ones that use them as local color.  There, you want a small amount, much as you would if you used dabs of French or Russian or whatever in a story aimed at an English-speaking audience.  So the article makes a decent amount of sense, for as far as it goes.

However, there's another cluster of stories that use conlangs: linguistic speculative fiction.  These stories are ABOUT the conlang.  There are lots of variations, but in all of them, your audience is there to watch you trot that thing around the stage and make it do tricks.  If they can't see enough of it, they will be annoyed.  The audience for these stories is smaller but extremely passionate.  These are people who buttonhole linguists and ask about OVS languages.  You're not going to throw them unless you botch the mechanics of linguistic construction and/or basic storytelling skills.  A closely related subcluster is stories that are primarily about something else, but require a lot of conlang support, such as one about alien genders with unique pronouns or one about time travel with unique tenses.  Effectively, these require guidelines more akin to the linguistic speculative fiction set than the local color set.

What this really means: before you start writing a story with a conlang in it, decide which of those types you want to write.  The guidelines for doing it well are almost entirely opposite.  Walk in the middle of the road, get squished like grape.
Tags: fantasy, how to, linguistics, networking, science fiction
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  • 4 comments
rhodielady_47

rhodielady_47

January 22 2018, 14:29:21 UTC 3 years ago

Definitely something writers of fan fiction need to know particularly before they start writing in whatever constructed language has caught their fancy.
:^)
ysabetwordsmith

Well ...

ysabetwordsmith

January 22 2018, 20:43:19 UTC 3 years ago

Writing IN a constructed language is hardcore for writer and reader alike; e.g. Hamlet in the original Klingon. People do it, this is totally a thing, but it's a tiny community.

I've done it, but only short pieces. You can see an example in Polychrome Heroics where I hacked Proto-Indo-European, and I did a futuristic version for the Blueshift Troupers too. I may have done something in Torn Tongue.

Another hardcore threshold: those of us who write dictionary/grammar sized models instead of glossary sized models. :D

Again, the rules are totally different. Flub a declension in local color, no one will notice or even care. Do that in linguistic science fiction, people will catch it and complain. In hardcore, they'll not only catch it but write a diatribe on how and why you made that mistake and what you should've written instead. Unless it's a pattern problem, in which case someone is bound to present you with the rule you didn't know you were following, and someone else will do the diatribe on why it's still a mistake.

<3 xenolinguistics.