Post by Golden Dragon Girl on May 25, 2009 17:33:55 GMT -5
So those of you who've been reading right along may have noticed that Alien Revenant features a lot of alien words. And you've probably wondered "Gee whiz, how does she manage all that?"
The short answer is that I have weird hobbies.
The longer answer is that, thanks to an interest in different languages sparked by four years of high school German classes, I have a lot of different language dictionaries and grammar books amassed in my personal library. Also the internet helps. And once you come up with a grammatical system that you like, getting onto the words themselves is a lot easier.
I don't do word for word translation because, when I first was devising an alien language for this universe, back when I only wanted to do it because that would make AR like Star Wars and before German classes, I discovered that doing that allows you to fall into lots of kind of weird and ridiculous traps.
Also it makes it too easy for other people to translate, and I like to make it hard. (vicious grin)
Anyway, each language is probably going to get its own thread. If a word pops up in the comic or you notice something that makes you curious, and I forget to mention it elsewhere, say so here and I'll work on explaining it.
Also, the language that most of the dialogue actually is may be English, but there are some deliberate oddities I'll be tossing in here and there to make it feel slightly different from the English a lot of modern Americans (and modern any other English speaker, for that matter) actually use.
(As an example of that: If it's ever gone into, while an AR English speaker just "shops," a place WHERE you shop is a "shoppe." Also a pretty girl is called a "sheila" as well as a "babe." XD I don't know why some of these came and went into the language the way they apparently have; to be quite honest I pick and choose on that one.)
The short answer is that I have weird hobbies.
The longer answer is that, thanks to an interest in different languages sparked by four years of high school German classes, I have a lot of different language dictionaries and grammar books amassed in my personal library. Also the internet helps. And once you come up with a grammatical system that you like, getting onto the words themselves is a lot easier.
I don't do word for word translation because, when I first was devising an alien language for this universe, back when I only wanted to do it because that would make AR like Star Wars and before German classes, I discovered that doing that allows you to fall into lots of kind of weird and ridiculous traps.
Also it makes it too easy for other people to translate, and I like to make it hard. (vicious grin)
Anyway, each language is probably going to get its own thread. If a word pops up in the comic or you notice something that makes you curious, and I forget to mention it elsewhere, say so here and I'll work on explaining it.
Also, the language that most of the dialogue actually is may be English, but there are some deliberate oddities I'll be tossing in here and there to make it feel slightly different from the English a lot of modern Americans (and modern any other English speaker, for that matter) actually use.
(As an example of that: If it's ever gone into, while an AR English speaker just "shops," a place WHERE you shop is a "shoppe." Also a pretty girl is called a "sheila" as well as a "babe." XD I don't know why some of these came and went into the language the way they apparently have; to be quite honest I pick and choose on that one.)
