Author Topic: Language question  (Read 8491 times)

Offline Spectacular Sameth

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Language question
« on: September 02, 2008, 06:21:01 PM »
Okay, I'm writing a book based on one of my comics and a couple of characters are aliens (space, not illegal.) So my question is: how do I mention they are talking in another language? Due to how the story is told, the other language will be "translated" to English. So they're talking in their language, but you read it as English. When I do it in my comics, I put the words in "<", but I didn't know if I could do that for a book.

Offline the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh

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Re: Language question
« Reply #1 on: September 02, 2008, 07:30:02 PM »
Okay, I'm writing a book based on one of my comics and a couple of characters are aliens (space, not illegal.) So my question is: how do I mention they are talking in another language? Due to how the story is told, the other language will be "translated" to English. So they're talking in their language, but you read it as English. When I do it in my comics, I put the words in "<", but I didn't know if I could do that for a book.

Italicise it ?  I've seen that used to indicate "character speaking in non-English language".
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Offline Soulless Mystic5523

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Re: Language question
« Reply #2 on: September 02, 2008, 08:26:33 PM »
Italicize it, and make mention somewhere the first time it happens that they're speaking their native tongue.
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Offline LizW65

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Re: Language question
« Reply #3 on: September 03, 2008, 01:17:34 PM »
Leaving off the quotation marks can also be effective, indicating as it does that the sounds are produced by some means other than standard vocal cords.
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Offline Shecky

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Re: Language question
« Reply #4 on: September 03, 2008, 01:19:44 PM »
Leaving off the quotation marks can also be effective, indicating as it does that the sounds are produced by some means other than standard vocal cords.

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Re: Language question
« Reply #5 on: September 03, 2008, 01:49:40 PM »

How do you know they're not illegal?

Offline Spectacular Sameth

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Re: Language question
« Reply #6 on: September 03, 2008, 10:53:19 PM »
Leaving off the quotation marks can also be effective, indicating as it does that the sounds are produced by some means other than standard vocal cords.

They are actually using vocal cords, though.

Offline novium

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Re: Language question
« Reply #7 on: September 04, 2008, 08:30:55 PM »
italicize. I think. Depending on what person you're writing in, it could be very hard to sneak in a way to overtly say they're speaking another language. Perhaps have another character react to it. Or have one ask the other how they should put something in english (or whatever).
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Offline meg_evonne

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Re: Language question
« Reply #8 on: September 05, 2008, 12:59:24 AM »
So sometimes italicized is used for personal internal dialog to offset from spoken dialog in 1st POV, what do you do then?

To be honest, I don't see why you don't continue the way you do them in the comics as long as it makes sense to the reader what you are doing.  If you wish to publish it eventually--they'll probably tell you how it should be done and you might need to negotiate that you don't want to change it!  Language and grammar (oh listen to the groans from absolutism grammar rules advocates) are there for communication.  As long as you and the reader understand, then the mission is accomplished.   

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Offline Guardian 452

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Re: Language question
« Reply #9 on: September 05, 2008, 02:06:10 AM »
You know, it probably doesn't matter what you use, so long as you're consistent.

#For example, I've seen something like this to denote an alien language.#

You could equally :put things in colons:

Whatever you want...again, I think the trick is to just be consistent!

Offline Moritz

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Re: Language question
« Reply #10 on: September 05, 2008, 03:12:23 PM »
In some comics, they use different fonts. Might not work in novels though.
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Offline AverageGuy

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Re: Language question
« Reply #11 on: September 06, 2008, 11:06:39 PM »
You don't necessarily have to offset it.  I've seen authors who use other characters, fonts, bold or italicize or capitalize to make it clear, and I've seen other authors who just write one throwaway line, continue writing as usual, and imply they're speaking in another language in future appearances.
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