Comments on: Getting the language of the period and place right… https://glendalarke.com/2006/04/getting-language-of-period-and-place/ Sat, 13 Mar 2021 10:37:45 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.2 By: Bernita https://glendalarke.com/2006/04/getting-language-of-period-and-place/#comment-25185 Wed, 03 May 2006 04:47:00 +0000 #comment-25185 Sometimes referred to as “the crik…”

]]> By: Glenda Larke https://glendalarke.com/2006/04/getting-language-of-period-and-place/#comment-25184 Tue, 02 May 2006 14:19:00 +0000 #comment-25184 Yes, that sort of surprised this Ozzie here, too. Creek is not popular in the UK, but it sure is common in parts of the US and I suspect in Canada as well.

]]> By: Bernita https://glendalarke.com/2006/04/getting-language-of-period-and-place/#comment-25183 Tue, 02 May 2006 09:31:00 +0000 #comment-25183 “Creek” is Australian?

]]> By: Anonymous https://glendalarke.com/2006/04/getting-language-of-period-and-place/#comment-25182 Mon, 01 May 2006 14:44:00 +0000 #comment-25182 😉

The knee jerk elements are going to be different for all readers. The minutes caught my eye, but most other people will skim over it. Whereas someone pulled me up for using ‘creek’ not ‘stream’ in one of my novels, said it made it ‘Australian’ and readers weren’t going to like that. I don’t have kangaroos in the novel, but I did want that Australian cant to the novel, so creek it was and will stay. Just to be a tease, in that novel I couldn’t be bothered working out a different time measurement system, so I went with clocks capable of measuring minutes (to be fair there are other such period pieces of technology like steam engines and revolvers).

I think the ‘minutes thing’ is going to haunt me too…

Cheers, Lisa.

]]> By: Glenda Larke https://glendalarke.com/2006/04/getting-language-of-period-and-place/#comment-25181 Mon, 01 May 2006 04:28:00 +0000 #comment-25181 Lot’s of wise words here in the comments, and on Gillian’s blog too.

I think I might blog about this again…

I guess the important thing is always not to jerk the reader out of your world. The problem is when you don’t realise what will invoke the knee jerk! (Like “minutes”…sorry Lisa; it is going to haunt me…lol)

]]> By: Anonymous https://glendalarke.com/2006/04/getting-language-of-period-and-place/#comment-25180 Mon, 01 May 2006 02:19:00 +0000 #comment-25180 Mm – I agree with Karen. It’s no good writing a medieval fantasy in Chaucer’s English, is it? We have to pretend the work has been translated. OTOH, I feel uncomfortable when medieval characters use modern slang. Of course they would use slang and colloquialisms in their own tongue, but to introduce “Hi” and “OK” into a conversation about curtain walls, keeps and trebouchets is just too jolting. As with all things, the middle path is probably best.

My big bugbear is things like weights and measures when I’m writing about an invented world. I absolutely agonise over this one! Is a mile still a mile on a planet long ago and far away?

]]> By: Anonymous https://glendalarke.com/2006/04/getting-language-of-period-and-place/#comment-25179 Sun, 30 Apr 2006 21:01:00 +0000 #comment-25179 I think it depends. I’m very much opposed to non-English words/terms in a fantasy novel, because within the context of the book English becomes the default language of the new world and is therefore invisible.

The minute you introduce French or German or whatever you’re reminding the reader that this *isn’t* the default language of the new world and you break the bubble.

Ditto blatantly anachronistic terminology. If it’s identifiably from an era not a subject of the story, you pull the reader out.

I think some language becomes almost invisible, and doesn’t register as ‘wrong’ to a reader. I feel the same way about animals in fantasy, actually. Some translate as almost neutral, I think, and some, for me, really really don’t. Generic animals like horses, cows, goats, sheep — to me they become invisible. But some animals, like armadillos, racoons, kangaroos … to me they are so identified with this world that I can’t believe in a fantasy setting unless it’s an AU.

Great topic, Glenda.

Karen

]]> By: Bernita https://glendalarke.com/2006/04/getting-language-of-period-and-place/#comment-25178 Sun, 30 Apr 2006 06:33:00 +0000 #comment-25178 Remeber reading a discussion where one writer used the word “donjon” instead of the expected “keep” because she discovered that “keep” was of a later vintage than her period.
I solved that by using “donjon” when the 12th c. character speaks of his dwelling ni the bailey upon the motte, and “keep” in my time-traveling heroine’s pov.

]]> By: Glenda Larke https://glendalarke.com/2006/04/getting-language-of-period-and-place/#comment-25177 Sun, 30 Apr 2006 02:45:00 +0000 #comment-25177 Yes, I agree with Gillian, Lisa. If it annoyed you, say so – we can only learn from our readers! I love feedback, all feedback.

And now I am going across to Gillian’s blog, cos I know I shall learn a whole heap of stuff there too…

]]> By: Anonymous https://glendalarke.com/2006/04/getting-language-of-period-and-place/#comment-25176 Sat, 29 Apr 2006 20:30:00 +0000 #comment-25176 Lisa, I, for one, am very grateful you made that comment, because it has really helped me clarify a bunch of things.

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