blogs_blog_1374

Sounds like an interesting project. I'm curious why the desire to construct a new language though, it seems like an odd project to partake in. Is it for some sort of world building or just out of boredom?

 

Also, this is one of the first instances I've seen where "Grammar Nazi" was actually used for grammar and not spelling.

 

~Soran

Sounds like an interesting project. I'm curious why the desire to construct a new language though, it seems like an odd project to partake in. Is it for some sort of world building or just out of boredom?

 

Also, this is one of the first instances I've seen where "Grammar Nazi" was actually used for grammar and not spelling.

 

~Soran

Well I'm glad to be one of the few people you've seen to properly understand the definition of grammar .

 

To answer your question, I'm outlining a science fiction book series.  Conlanging was something I was going to avoid for the longest time because I knew full-well just how many factors went into it, so I created a situation in my series where everyone spoke English as a second language.  Interestingly enough, it's BZPower that got me to change that approach, because enough people thought that I was being anglocentric and xenophobic.  Since that accusation hurt, I've decided that the aliens in my series are going to speak their own languages — although I've decided that if I was going to go in that direction, I was going to go all out.  I'm going to have characters speak them in the books, and I'm going to write poetry for these languages.

 

This is also sort of a reaction to the realization that my books will never be adapted into movies with John Williams scores.  My way of looking at it is that if I can't give my works the universal language (music), then I'll make up for it by creating a universe of languages.

 

24601

 

Sounds like an interesting project. I'm curious why the desire to construct a new language though, it seems like an odd project to partake in. Is it for some sort of world building or just out of boredom?

 

Also, this is one of the first instances I've seen where "Grammar Nazi" was actually used for grammar and not spelling.

 

~Soran

Well I'm glad to be one of the few people you've seen to properly understand the definition of grammar .

 

To answer your question, I'm outlining a science fiction book series.  Conlanging was something I was going to avoid for the longest time because I knew full-well just how many factors went into it, so I created a situation in my series where everyone spoke English as a second language.  Interestingly enough, it's BZPower that got me to change that approach, because enough people thought that I was being anglocentric and xenophobic.  Since that accusation hurt, I've decided that the aliens in my series are going to speak their own languages — although I've decided that if I was going to go in that direction, I was going to go all out.  I'm going to have characters speak them in the books, and I'm going to write poetry for these languages.

 

This is also sort of a reaction to the realization that my books will never be adapted into movies with John Williams scores.  My way of looking at it is that if I can't give my works the universal language (music), then I'll make up for it by creating a universe of languages.

 

24601

 

 

I wouldn't say that it would be impossible to adapt the story into a movie based around language. They could easily put subtitles or showcase more visual body language to showcase an idea of what's being said. If it can happen with foreign films I wouldn't be surprised if it would work with something of this concept. That is, unless your story revolves heavily on first-person narrative in which case I would say that would be a lot harder to adapt.

 

I'm honestly surprised to hear you say science fiction as that wasn't what I was assuming at all when I had asked. Normally when I think of constructed language I imagine fantasy, with such examples such as the elvish language so to see that it's going to be sci-fi is interesting in that regard and frankly, it makes a lot of sense. Especially with the perspective of it being related to aliens and alien culture. Which yields the question to how much culture you would then be putting into the story, especially in regards to aliens. I know that certain languages have restricted or different constructions that make poetry, wordplay, slang and other such factors unique so it makes me curious as to how much history and culture you're going to try to delve into in regards to your alien race. 

 

Regardless of that though, it definitely sounds like an interesting project. May I ask how far along you are? 

 

Anyway, I wish you good luck with your work.

 

~Soran

It's interesting that you should bring up first-person narrative.  There was a character of mine, an alien, and he was the only character that I wrote about in the first person.  I knew that he spoke and thought in poetry, which I actually wanted to write, but I encountered a problem, because I knew that none of it was in English.  It would be awfully convenient if rhymes in his language also rhymed in English.  I had seen a book do that once, and it really bugged me.  I didn't want to do that same thing myself.

 

Anyway, this character had an extremely alien way of thinking, which made it even harder to write from his perspective.  I knew that if I wanted to do him even the slightest bit of justice and actually get into his head, I had to at least understand his language.  Between understanding his alien psychology and needing write his dialogue using the poetry of his language, creating that language became an inevitable necessity.

 

It's so awesome that you phrased some of this as though it actually might get made into a movie.  I'm not sure how I'd feel about that, actually.  I have a lot of opinions about directing, cinematography, lighting, art direction, sound mixing, film editing, and especially music, so I'd imagine a film adaptation of my works would be pretty frustrating.  Still, it would be pretty awesome to hear actors actually speaking in these languages.

 

You asked me how far I am.  With my general notes on the book series, I have a full books worth of notes alone.  With the languages, I have about fourteen pages of notes, but I'm mostly studying right now.  It's imperative that I get the grammar right, and I don't want to get into the details of these languages before my studies, because I'd most likely have to go back and change all of them once I was better read and knew better.  Right now I'm sticking to broad strokes and the basic pitches behind these languages.

 

It would be nice to be able to actually go to college to study linguistics, but that's not something that I can afford, so what I'm doing instead is marking a ton of Wikipedia articles on grammar, and hopefully those should inform me well enough that I can write these languages authentically.

 

24601

Rhymes in a piece that was (by the writer's own word) originally in another language tend to still work when translated because of translating convention.

 

Rarely, if ever, will a competent translator translate a poem or song word-for-word. Instead, they will strive for a translation that preserves the original meaning as well as possible - a difficult task on its own, considering the frequency with which idiomatic phrases are used in poetry and songs - and produces a result that still functions as poetry. It's less "awfully convenient" and more a sign of the (either actual or fictional) translator's effort and skill.

 

As an aside, while I am familiar with the trend of associating the practices of grammatical prescriptivism with the most infamous group of genocidal tyrants ever to disgrace Western Europe with their presence, can you not?