Non-English dialogue/script in stories #BOM_January_17

[Quantum]

In Ian's book, one of his characters says, "Insha' Allah." No translation is provided, which isn't really important at that point--although it might become later--because its use is more for mood and characterization.

When do you use non-English dialogue (or even non-English script) in your stories and why? Do you romanize it and how do you research it to make sure it's correct?

[Kent]

Mainly to add local flavour. Some readers will certainly understand the foreign word(s) and perhaps get more out of them. Inshaallah is a great example. If you've lived in a country where that is said a lot, you come to understand that it means so much more than just "God willing."

I write foreign words phonetically in Latin script. Also, I'll only include words that I either know well or have been cleared by a native of the language.

[Nik]

I think widely recognized Latin phrases, words from foreign lingo can be used without translation for the flavor, so you'd 'hear' an accent of the speaker -:)
Some 'invent' languages for 'aliens' for example and care to translate them in sci-fi.
I use some Russian curses in Latin letters -;)
As for the research - with something basic 'Google translate' is not a bad option...

[GR]

I use German terms in my writing when I write a story or person of German origin or it takes place in Germany. The known words, e.g,, Ja, gut, nein, etc. are understood. Some words not understood I repeat them in English.

The dictionary that comes with my iMac has a multi-lingual dictionary. It's pretty good, MicroSoft word, my version, has the same thing. But, you can also use Pons: http://en.pons.com/text-translation. I find it has problems. It's more for modern usage. Beolongus, http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/dings.cgi?..., is academic German.

[M.L.]

Occasionally I've used a term or phrase. Depending on what it is/how it's used, I've factored in the explanation into the sentence (for example the word/term of address 'sensei') or just put the translation in italics. In the most recent instance, what I'm working on now, one person is explaining a French term to someone so the translation was part of it. As GR mentions, some obvious words are generally understood.

[[deleted user]]

I often use curse words or exclamations in foreign languages, in order to add a local flavor to the story, but try to use words that are heard or read frequently around the World. For example, if in Paris, I will use 'monsieur/madame' instead of 'sir/maam'. In German, the popular curse words I use are 'Himmel!' (Devil), 'Mein Gott!' (My God) and 'Scheisser!' (Shit) ('Merde', in French). In Québec joual, well, my repertoire is quite long and would probably earn me a mouth washing by the moderators.

[Krazykiwi]

Reader perspective: Please please please get a native speaker (and definitely not Google Translate or just a dictionary) to go over foreign lingo. Unless you're going for unintentionally hilarious :)

If you don't know a native speaker, bet you can find one around here somewhere :)

Object lesson: both from the same book, someone attempting to write a Scandinavian thriller with added Swedish for flavour managed to:
1) Mistranslate "violent offender" with "rapist" (the latter is certainly the former, but the former, particularly in the context of an armed robbery, is not necessarily the latter.)
2) Literally translated the word "arms" (the body part) with the word for "guns". In a love scene. Something like "My favourite thing in the world is lying in your guns". I read that one out to my daughter and it's become a longstanding in joke around our house.
3) Probably more, but I gave up reading the book.

Actually, have them check things like character names too. I read a fantastic book the other day, but one of the characters was Polish - and one of the reviews I read was a Polish friend's ranting over the author thanking a Polish friend in the acknowledgements and still getting almost everything about Poland wrong, including giving the polish protagonist a non-Polish spelling of their name. And danged if that didn't pop into my mind every single time that character came up.

Point being, if you don't get a native speaker to carefully check your stuff (unless you are one, of course), then you can probably be assured a native speaker will ding you in the reviews :)

Also, Michel has a useful point, and I can probably actually find an academic reference for this if you like, but most people tend to instinctively do a few things in their native language, no matter how fluent they are in the language of their host country: Curse (particularly when injured or surprised), talk to babies, talk to pets (especially other people's pets, think meeting a cute friendly cat sitting on a fencepost), sing when drunk, and a couple of others that have slipped my mind. If you are going for flavour without overdoing it, those are some very natural places to slip it in.

[Ian]

Since I was mentioned specifically, I should say that my attitude is I do not use foreign words UNLESS the use of them adds meaning to the story, as in the example Alex mentioned. The key here is who said it?

There is another associated problem, and that is real meaning. I wrote two novels set in the time of Caligulae, and the question here is, what to do about latin words? One problem is you do not really want to take time out to explain what they mean. Thus I have Tiberius, Caligulae and Claudius titled "Princeps", although I am not quite sure how many people really know what that means. Similarly, after the battle at Camulodunum, I had Claudius acclaimed "Imperator", partly because that was what actually happened, but I often wonder how many people would really know what the significance of that was? My answer to that was, write the term if there is a very good reason for it, but otherwise, stay out of it. Actually, I never wrote "Caligulae" - instead he was always referred to by people who wanted to use that term as "Little Boots". The alternative, of course, was Caesar. The reason for using "Little Boots" was it is more likely to show the derogatory nature - especially when I used a true quote (according to Tacitus) from Tiberius, although used at at a different place. I think it is important that as much of the intended meaning as possible shows through, and that is much harder when most people won't really know what the terms mean.

[GR]

Michel wrote: "I often use curse words or exclamations in foreign languages, in order to add a local flavor to the story, but try to use words that are heard or read frequently around the World. For example, if i..."

The word “Scheiß” (pronounced "shise" is the most popular here in Germany. There are many. If a German uses expletives, and is knowledgeable in English, he’ll curse in English rather than German.

[M.L.]

Detail is good but it can be overdone. I saw comment once about not using the word "sadist" if the time the story was set in predated the Marquis de Sade. I think that's over doing it.

That's interesting about cuss words. For example the f word seems to cross many cultures and chronologies as well. I've wondered about it sometimes, but it does get the point across.

[Daniel J.]

There is certainly a balance to anything, but foreign words and phrases can work in a story, even if it's just adding flavor to a scene or character.

There was a Jane Austen book I read where a character used random (as far as I could tell) Italian words and phrases in order to sound smarter. It was clear what Austen was doing, and was an effective joke despite the fact that I didn't intrinsically know what the Italian words meant.

I do agree with the basis of Ian's comment (#8) that foreign words and phrases should be used carefully and very intentionally.

[[deleted user]]

In one of my books that featured Australian soldiers fighting in Papua-New Guinea in 1943, I had them use a lot of the Aussie slang of the time. It seems that my Australian readers loved that.