English and other languages in the same fic

[Tales]

Hi I am just curious. In Fantasy stories, we might encounter times when we have characters speak another language like say in my story there might be characters that taunt in each other in Chinese for example.

how then. We do translate or just write them in syllables?

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

One usually writes completely in the language one is most familiar in. It is the story characters that need not to understand what is said. Of course, there are sometimes special instances where a different language is used, such as spellcasting, but general conversation, not so much.

 

[reiver33]

I would suggest a phonetic representation of actual speech. I know from previous research that you can do this with Russian, but haven't seached for the Chinese equivalent.

 

[Tales]

I am looking at realism. Not everyone accepts English as the Basic like in Star Wars.

They will converse in English when the main character who lives in a bilingual country. But when they are in the heavens they will speak mandarin as they have been doing so for thousands of years.

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

It still won't work. If nothing else, editors would have an objection or two at it. I've actually yet to come across any story that is multilingual in its writing. You can state somehow that the characters are speaking Chinese or Japanese or Klingon or whatever, but the words the reader would read shouldn't actually be in that language. Movies get away with this because there are subtitles and the characters are actors who are real people actually physically speaking. In a book, it's a bunch of visually seen words. Multilingualism would just hamper a reader's progress, or else they'll choose to ignore it completely. It would make your work very choppy and awkward, so I would still not suggest in doing it.

 

[Tales]

So what I do then? Just Translate it into English but mention that the character is talking in Mandarin.etc?

 

[Culhwch]

Karn is right. In short bursts - a curse word, an exclamation, even a spell - having the phonetically spelt foreign word is fine. If you are going to have whole conversations that the reader must be privy too, just state that they are speaking this or that language. Even in cases where it's not important that the reader knows what is being said, it's not a good idea to have lengthy passages of indecipherable text.

 

[Tales]

For example

"Son of Xuanwu! Tell me now where is your mother!" The demon spoke in Chinese.

Being brought up in a bilingual country, MC understood what the demon said and replied fearfully.

"I dunno I dun have a mother!" said MC.

 

[Culhwch]

I'd write it this way:

The demon spoke in Chinese. 'Whatever the demon says.'

'Whatever the MC replied,' the MC replied.

The fact that the MC is answering the question speaks to his understanding of the tongue in which the question was asked, and therefore doesn't need to be stated.

 

[Boneman]

I dunno, but I have the same problem, but luckily not in Chinese... here's how I approached it: I only did it for a few lines, providing a translation after it, then then slipped back into English, relying on the reader to accept they were speaking in another language. By making the bits that followed very formal, idiomatic speech, I tried to draw attention to the fact that it was a different language. I'm uncertain whether it works or whether it's clumsy. Here's an example - it's easier for me because Jack is translating in his head, and I could put a line in to that effect, but in yours, they all speak the lingo, but it might work:

“Nituwe hwo? Táku eníciyape hwo?” the Elder asked him. Who are you? What do they call you?
“Jack emakiyape.” I’m called Jack.
“Nilakota hwo?” asked the old man. Are you Lakota?
“Hiya, milakota šni.” No, I’m not Lakota. He gestured toward Frank, who still lay unconscious on the ground. “Wicaša he oiekicatan ta unspemakiye.” This man taught me his language.
“Tokiyatanhan yau hwo?” Where do you come from?
“Lilaĥace tehantu.” A long way.

After this, it's all in English, idomatic (or should that be idiotic?)

 

[Mouse]

I have done that before, Boneman. I had a character who could only speak Hawaiian, and another character who could understand her, but not speak Hawaiian. So I'd write the Hawaiian stuff, then either translate it after in italics, or have the character who understood her give an answer which gave away what she was saying (kinda like what Matthew did with Sooty!)

In something I'm (supposed to be) working on at the mo, I have a character who can only speak Japanese. In this story I go with the 'she replied in Japanese' thing, but write it in English.

 

[Pyan]

The trouble with the quote above is that it's stuck everything into italics, so I can't tell if you've differentiated between the Lakotan and the English. If it looks like this:

“Nituwe hwo? Táku eníciyape hwo?” the Elder asked him. Who are you? What do they call you?
“Jack emakiyape.” I’m called Jack.
“Nilakota hwo?” asked the old man. Are you Lakota?
“Hiya, milakota šni.” No, I’m not Lakota. He gestured toward Frank, who still lay unconscious on the ground. “Wicaša he oiekicatan ta unspemakiye.” This man taught me his language.
“Tokiyatanhan yau hwo?” Where do you come from?
“Lilaĥace tehantu.” A long way.

...I'd find that both acceptable and easily read - in fact, I've read several books where languages (both real and imaginary) have been translated, for short conversations, in this way. I'd put speech marks around the translation as well, though, probably single ones if you've used double as the norm:

“Nituwe hwo? Táku eníciyape hwo?” the Elder asked him. 'Who are you? What do they call you?'
“Jack emakiyape.” 'I’m called Jack.'
“Nilakota hwo?” asked the old man. 'Are you Lakota?'
“Hiya, milakota šni.” 'No, I’m not Lakota.' He gestured toward Frank, who still lay unconscious on the ground. “Wicaša he oiekicatan ta unspemakiye.” 'This man taught me his language.'
“Tokiyatanhan yau hwo?” 'Where do you come from?'
“Lilaĥace tehantu.” 'A long way.'

Tolkien uses this system on occasion, for Elvish/Common Speech bilingual conversations:

'I thank you indeed, Gildor Inglorion,' said Frodo bowing. 'Elen síla lúmenn' omentielvo, a star shines on the hour of our meeting,' he added in the high-elven speech.

FotR, Ch. 3, Three is Company.

 

[Boneman]

That's much better, thanks Pyan. And I think (well, I would, wouldn't I?) that it works so much better - and copying Tolkein can't be all bad...

Mouse, I have three languages to cope with in my Trilogy, and one of them is going to be so difficult to do, I reckon I'll do as you have, and just say 'Blimey!' he say in aramaic, the words sounding harsh to the listeners....

Sorry Tales, we're diverging, but hopefully it should help you.

 

[Mouse]

Yeah I have Japanese, Chinese and Polish, but it's only the Japanese girl who can't speak English, and the Polish character is also known as The Translator and she can speak every language on Earth. Handy, eh?

 

[Culhwch]

Forgot earlier, but I've also seen foreign language translation dealt with by using alternate quotation marks. <Most often like this,> said Cul. [But I guess you could use anything.]

Though probably not this.

 

[Cayal]

Robert Ludlum did this. He will write something in French and then translate it directly afterwards.

But he did it infrequently in his stories.

 

[Toby Frost]

I would say that anything which has the effect of distancing the reader from the story should be avoided. Unless the reader is bilingual, which is very unlikely, I suspect it would have the effect of making the reader pause and think something along the lines of "Gosh, this writer is talented/daring/pretentious/scholarly" etc, rather than having them fully immersed in the story. The only story I can think of with a large chunk in another language is the play Henry V, which has a scene in French - and was baffling when I saw it.

Individual words however, especially if in a non-Chinese context, would look ok in italics within normal speech:

"Mon dieu, you really are crazy!" Pierre said.

That seems ok. As posted earlier, there may be a standard form for rendering Chinese characters into English.

 

[Tales]

Ok so I just translate it all but what happens when it come to humor?

Like say a joke about the character's new home which is called the Monastery of the 5 elements which in chinese can be misread as 5 Star Monastery.

Chinese Syllables:
Wu Xing Shi= Monastery of the 5 elements
Wu Xing Ji Fan Dian= 5 Star Hotel.

 

[asher marquering]

the humor would be a problem, i can see it working in a film with a subtitle like in the hulk movie with ed norton "don't make me hungry" lol always gets me, what you could do is explain the concept of the joke either a while before the joke happens and hope the reader gets it or explain the joke after at which point it won't have quite the same punchline

as to multiple language use in fiction, have you read things fall apart by chinua achebe, probably not, or the indexes and addendums of lord of the rings and then read the actual series, in both examples the different languages are used to engorge a reader in the world of book, and i think that works well, especially when English doesn't have an adequate term for an event which is happening in the book

thats just my opinion

 

[MistingWolf]

I've actually yet to come across any story that is multilingual in its writing..

Go find "Remember Me" [book 3, I think] by Christopher Pike. There's an entire conversation in Spanish, that wasn't translated. It's a teen novel, but the conversation is right in the beginning, so you don't have to look far.