On being a native speaker of a fictional language

[rolanni]

Yesterday, I spent a lot of time on the couch (ably assisted by Hexapuma, who's really getting into this nap-on-Sharon's-papers business; and Mozart, on window-watch) reading what there is of Ghost Ship to refresh myself (again) on what the story is about and how much I've told so far (day-job noise keeps drowning out story-signal). In addition to the foregoing, my mission was to circle all the weird words (English), ship names, planet names/designations, names of trees and houses, names and nicknames of people, and of course all the foreign words (Terran and Liaden, mostly), so that I can once again make a Big List for the use of the copy editor.

One of the things that I noticed, as I was red-circling things, was that I've been speaking Liaden for so long that I no longer register words like melant'i, cha'trez, van'chela, relumma, nadelm or ge'shada as "made up" when I'm writing -- which is to say, I don't remember to underline them. This is a problem. Underlining signals the typesetter that this word here is "foreign" and should be set in italics.

Hmmm. Now, I'm wondering, pursuant to our earlier discussion in this journal regarding the copy editor's bible, if it would be useful to readers if we whacked together all these Weird Words of the Liaden Universe® -- and Beyond! lists we've made over the years into a chapbook. Such an undertaking would necessarily include spoilers, so maybe that isn't well-thought, after all.

In any case, I'm guessing I'll need to go through the 'script when it's in clean-up phase, and just search on each Liaden word in turn, to make sure they're properly underlined.

*adds to the finishing list*

Comments

Another option to identifying missing words

[jestermac.livejournal.com]

Another issue, outside of "I've been speaking Liaden for so long that I no longer register words like melant'i, cha'trez, van'chela, relumma ...", is that you have to read/re-read the story multiple times in the creation process, which causes a person's brain to start to skip words since your brain "knows" what should be there so just slides right on over various words.

Find a dedicated fan who would not mind reading and unfinished Liaden story (yes, tough, I know) and who you totally trust to not share (a really really much smaller list), and then ask them to read a section/etc and provide you a highlighted copy back.

- Jacques

Re: Another option to identifying missing words

[brock-tn.livejournal.com]

The problem is that MY brain sees most Liaden terms as being perfectly ordinary words, just as it sees the hundred-odd German terms I know as perfectly ordinary words, along with the Latin stuff I picked up while working as a legal scrivener. I couldn't just read a story and have the Liaden words just jump off the page at me.

Suspect it would be that way for a lot of dedicated fans. No the person to sic this on is someone with a large English vocabulary but no familiarity with the Liaden Universe at all.

Re: Another option to identifying missing words

[grassrose.livejournal.com]

It wouldn't be that way for me - honest! And I wouldn't tell a soul what I read, either! *g*

Re: Another option to identifying missing words

[jestermac.livejournal.com]

So, very good point.

Plan B then (pun not intended, but ha!), someone with a large English vocabulary, no familiarity with the Liaden Universe, and trusted. Hmmm.

Obviously you can pay someone to do this kind of work with cash/etc, but the original thought was for someone who was a fan who would view this cumbersome task as maybe not necessarily fun but still enjoyable since they get the benefit of reading pieces of future Lee & Miller artwork before everyone else, so basically getting paid to do work by reading something cool.

- Jacques