Hey everyone! Here we are again with the next week of worldbuilding posts. As promised, we are here with the last element of culture from last week’s post. We only have one more aspect of world building and then a short wrap up of the series. So, without further ado…
Worldbuilding: Language
Last week we discussed culture and all its five elements which are language, symbols, norms, values, and artifacts. We didn’t spend a lot of time discussing language because I felt like language should have its own post. This post is mostly geared towards fantasy writers but can also have an effect on science fiction and historical fiction if you really want to spend some more time on the language of your book.
Language is the way creatures communicate with others. This does not have to be spoken language. This can also be written language, body language, or the types of verbalized sound that convey meaning but are not considered ‘spoken’ exactly. Language can affect a wide variety of things in your stories or characters world such as economics, religion, daily interaction, politics and travel.
For example, do the characters of one country speak the same language as the characters of another? If they don’t, are their languages mutually unintelligible or can they understand parts of what the other is saying due to the similarity of the languages? Does this make it difficult to trade with the other country? If so, does a common language of trade develop? Is the common language of trade written or spoken?
Let me give you a few real-world examples of some of these. In James Clavell’s novel Shogun, the main character is English and does not speak Japanese when arriving on Japanese soil accidentally. He does not speak Japanese, neither does the reader, therefore, we have no knowledge of what is being said by any of the other Japanese speaking characters until the main character begins to learn Japanese. This is an interesting way to show the understanding of language between the two cultures.
Historically in many parts of Asia such as Vietnam, Thailand, Tibet, and the Koreas they spoke languages that were so different from on another as to leave them completely unintelligible. People from Korea couldn’t understand people from Vietnam and vice versa. However, they both were vasal states of China and therefore had adopted the Chinese writing system even though they spoke a language neither could understand. Trade was conducted only in written Chinese for centuries in these parts of Asia.
How does language affect the religion or how does religion affect language? Are there phrases in the language of a certain region that only exist because of a certain religious belief or context? Is religion done in a language different than the commonly spoken one? How does this affect the daily interactions of individuals?
For example, in American and the UK or other British colonized cultures, it is common to say the phrase “Bless you” after someone sneezes. This is often traced back to the religious and semi-superstitious belief that when you sneezed a part of your soul left you. A person near you could bless you to help restore your soul or at least bless you while a part of your soul was lost. This continues into modern English even though no one believes that you lose part of your soul when you sneeze.
In historical Europe, there were a wide variety of languages spoken from proto-English, Norman French, Germanic based languages, Gaelic, and many more. All of these languages were spoken in different regions by different groups of people. However, no matter what part of the area you ended up, Christian church serves (really the most common religions of the time) were done in Latin – a language completely different from most of the spoken languages of the north.
Language can also affect politics and travel. Are there words in one language that seem similar to the words in another but have completely different (sometimes directly opposite) meanings? Could these kinds of words cause great political misunderstandings? If the languages are different, is it easy to learn one of the other languages for travel? Or is it easier to hire guides when traveling? Do diplomats or ambassadors learn the languages of other countries? Or do they rely on translators? What kind of accent do they have, and can these accents offend those of other countries who speak other languages? Do these accents create certain stereotypes?
Language is an important aspect of culture. Language is its own area of study outside of anthropology which some spend years studying to truly understand. Not all aspects of language will come up in a book – for example – if I was writing a book set in World War 2 perhaps, I would discuss the travel, political, or economic issues surrounding language, but the religious ones might not be important. If I was writing a book set in 13th century England the politics (such as the classes) and religiousness of language would be important to mention.
What aspects of language do you think would be the most important to the culture you are already developing for your characters? What aspects of language affect the daily life of your characters more? These aspects are what you should focus on when you are doing your world building.
That’s all I have for this week. As mentioned at the beginning, next week will be the last post discussing a new area of world building and the week after will be a short wrap up after which there will be a few stand-alone posts and then a new series announcement. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, become a blog page member, share, and follow me on social media at the links below. And remember,
Get Up, Get Writing, and Get Published. See you next week!