Enzo asked Cinda Williams Chima:

Hi! I was wondering how you went about the process of finding a linguistic basis for the different people the the Seven Realms? I always loved reading those books because I love delving into the linguistic history and culture, with names like "Hanalea", "Raisa ana'Marianna", as well as the naming system of the tribes. What was that process like, and what languages or cultures did you draw inspiration from?

Cinda Williams Chima There was some method in the madness, but not always. I started out with some common High Fantasy naming tropes, e.g. ana' to indicate kinship among the nobility. One of my greatest sources for jargon was 18th century thieves' slang in Britain. There are online dictionaries for it, so I would pepper it in here and there. Too much would make it unintelligible. But terms like "blue ruin" for gin, and "slide-hand" for pick-pocketing came from there.

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