Language in Fantasy when lacking the origin behind the word.

[QuercusMalus]

How thoroughly do you purge your stories of words and/or concepts that wouldn't exist in either a fantasy/alt history context?

Some things are fairly easy replacements, like instead of describing someone as 'christ-like', use 'godlike' or 'messiah' and it becomes less tied to a specific religion and more general.

But other things are harder, like 'sadism', as there isn't really as easy replacement term for that. I mean, I could just go WH40K and call them a painfreak instead, and most would understand it, but it just doesn't sound right to me.

The ones that really mess with me are distances and units of measurements. Do I just use meters and all it's derivatives? Even if Ancient Greece never existed to develop the base word? Because if I go down that rabbit hole... do I then need to change 'perimeter', as it contains the same base word as the unit of measurement? 'I walked around the periwhatthis of the camp', or do I keep it in that context even if I changed it in other uses....
How do you do that without it just becoming awkward?

 

[Deleted member 84247]

I never pay attention to any of this. I really won't notice unless a character in medieval fantasy goes "Ayo, whattup, bruv!" Then it might be a bit weird.

 

[2wordsperminute]

I mean, are you supposed to write the entire story in a fictional language that the characters would be speaking? The answer, of course, is only if you feel like it would make the story better and you're willing to put in the time and effort to make it work.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

I never pay attention to any of this. I really won't notice unless a character in medieval fantasy goes "Ayo, whattup, bruv!" Then it might be a bit weird.

Skibidi?

 

[Deleted member 84247]

Skibidi?

fr, fr, no cap.

 

[Aaqil]

Skibidi?

fr, fr, no cap.

*pat pat*,

 

[CarburetorThompson]

“What’s Crackalackin?” - Jersemine Aft Hoverhein Ditcslard the Fifth

 

[GlassRose]

How thoroughly do you purge your stories of words and/or concepts that wouldn't exist in either a fantasy/alt history context?

Some things are fairly easy replacements, like instead of describing someone as 'christ-like', use 'godlike' or 'messiah' and it becomes less tied to a specific religion and more general.

But other things are harder, like 'sadism', as there isn't really as easy replacement term for that. I mean, I could just go WH40K and call them a painfreak instead, and most would understand it, but it just doesn't sound right to me.

The ones that really mess with me are distances and units of measurements. Do I just use meters and all it's derivatives? Even if Ancient Greece never existed to develop the base word? Because if I go down that rabbit hole... do I then need to change 'perimeter', as it contains the same base word as the unit of measurement? 'I walked around the periwhatthis of the camp', or do I keep it in that context even if I changed it in other uses....
How do you do that without it just becoming awkward?

You're writing your story for people to read, so you should use language that people understand. There's not much good from changing what words you use to communicate distance, and if a world has animals that are direct or practically direct equivalents of real-world animals, you should just use the real-world term. It always annoys me when I see otherwise, because it just makes things harder for the reader to keep track of, and using normal language is so natural that it easily falls under suspension of disbelief.

I wouldn't use anything that directly refers to someone's name, like the Pythagorean Theorem, I would probably exchange the name for something else, just cause Pythagoras is a person, and didn't exist in that world. But I would use 'sadism', because while it was named after someone, that's mostly detached from people's view of the word, most people view it as a word in it's own right, not as someone's name.

I probably wouldn't use words for distinct religious concepts unique to a specific religion either, but broader ones are fine. No Ragnorak, yes Apocalypse. Unless I had ported over the Norse gods into the setting.

Advanced medical or scientific terminology I would not use if the tech/education level is too low, though scholars might use some of it, depending.

Most modern slang I would probably avoid, and instead of make up in-world slang, just because modern slang is directly affected by the fact that we live in an age with the internet. And, in-world slang, done well, makes the world seem more alive.

 

[Biggest-Kusa-Out-There]

Then they can't speak english...? I think replacing certain words only works if it elevates the story, not for the sake of language accuracy, because... again... why english? English can only exist if French, proto-German, and other languages existed in the world before... but then... where are those countries? Where are the fantasy french?

WHERE ARE THE FANTASY FRENCH?!

 

[Placeholder]

Sci-fi: meters.
Fantasy: feet and inches.

Done.

 

[ThrillingHuman]

fr, fr, no cap.

Type shit

WHERE ARE THE FANTASY FRENCH?!

They were done away with as it was ought to be.

 

[Arkus86]

How thoroughly do you purge your stories of words and/or concepts that wouldn't exist in either a fantasy/alt history context?

Some things are fairly easy replacements, like instead of describing someone as 'christ-like', use 'godlike' or 'messiah' and it becomes less tied to a specific religion and more general.

But other things are harder, like 'sadism', as there isn't really as easy replacement term for that. I mean, I could just go WH40K and call them a painfreak instead, and most would understand it, but it just doesn't sound right to me.

The ones that really mess with me are distances and units of measurements. Do I just use meters and all it's derivatives? Even if Ancient Greece never existed to develop the base word? Because if I go down that rabbit hole... do I then need to change 'perimeter', as it contains the same base word as the unit of measurement? 'I walked around the periwhatthis of the camp', or do I keep it in that context even if I changed it in other uses....
How do you do that without it just becoming awkward?

As a reader, I say there is a reasonable limit to what lengths you can go with this. A ballance of sorts to strike with convenience. And in my opinion, trying to purge words because their origin language does not exist in that world is beyond that line, because by that point you have to question your use of English itself.

When it comes to concepts that would not exist there, I agree. It would be weird to see terms refering events, places and people that are not known in that world.
Units of measurements are more on the fence. For example you can use Imperial units in medieval/fantasy setting, as they roughly correspond to the medieval/ancient units of our western civilizations in concept and most people are familiar with them to some extent, or you can use metric for modern setting, as advanced civilizations are more likely to have a simple, standardized base 10 system, unlike whatever abomination Imperial is. If you really need to, take a system and rename the units. But inventing a whole new system with its own units and cenversions is unnecessarily convoluted and a pain to deal with.
Same for time measurement. Different worlds would not have the same units of time, much less 24h days, with 12 months and 365 days in a year, but I just find it annoying when authors try to juggle with "this world's hour is two hours long, there is 10 hours in their day, month is 40 days and year 10 months long..."

 

[3guanoff]

I never pay attention to any of this. I really won't notice unless a character in medieval fantasy goes "Ayo, whattup, bruv!" Then it might be a bit weird.

Skibidi?

“What’s Crackalackin?” - Jersemine Aft Hoverhein Ditcslard the Fifth

I'd absolutely read that shit! Mates, historical comedies are gold. All them peasants in olden times didn't speak all that high and mighty.

Unless you are writing in middle English, I encourage you all to use modern language. Throw in some old slangs, units of distance, and names for a bit of spice. That's enough. Bet most English speakers don't know the etymology of sadism anyways. It's just a normal word at this point in time.

 

[QuercusMalus]

Yeah, I have been mostly trying to avoid very modern slang and references to recent historical figures but otherwise the focus is more on keeping the story readable without having to resort to extended explanations in story or as an authors note. I have introduced a few in world relevant slang references, but those also are used in such a way that explanation really isn't needed.

The thing that prompted the question was measurements. I had been thinking 'Oh, it shouldn't be hard to change the measurements used from meters, kilometers, ect to something else..' them promptly realized that parameter and perimeter both appear in the story several times, and both use the same root word, which if I change it in one usage, would be jarring if I didn't change it in others.

So, I am leaving it alone. But it's one of the things I try to balance in my story- readability vs world building.

 

[Rezcore]

Then they can't speak english...? I think replacing certain words only works if it elevates the story, not for the sake of language accuracy, because... again... why english? English can only exist if French, proto-German, and other languages existed in the world before... but then... where are those countries? Where are the fantasy french?

WHERE ARE THE FANTASY FRENCH?!

Ew, French

 

[Grim_Ether]

Then they can't speak english...? I think replacing certain words only works if it elevates the story, not for the sake of language accuracy, because... again... why english? English can only exist if French, proto-German, and other languages existed in the world before... but then... where are those countries? Where are the fantasy french?

WHERE ARE THE FANTASY FRENCH?!

There is no French.
All is Rome.

ROMA INVICTA

 

[CharlesEBrown]

So far most of my stories have included modern or near-modern characters in worlds like our own, so the issue has been more including non-standard terms in ways that make sense.

I try to avoid specific historical references if not writing modern stuff (nobody is going to face their Waterloo if Napolean was not part of their past - or if he never was defeated there), and on rare occasion I'll go back and remove terms.

Oh, I do have a "pseudo-Western/Isekai" that I am working on where I have the MC frequently think about these details, that "Well, they probably would not know who such-and-such was or what something-or-other is" when interacting with in-setting characters.