Words

I've been contemplating a lot lately about the English language. I find it funny that wherever in the world we go, while the language remains the same the terms we use and the slang we think common can be totally misinterpreted by someone from a completely different country.

Say English is your second language. You're learning it by the book, unprepared for the nuances that come with it. Such as 'you're' and 'your' which have two different meanings, can be used in two very different ways and should never be mixed. You're is a shortened version of you are, while your is yours, belonging to you.

With slang terms, I'm going to call a man a bloke, or a family a whanau, or a beach house a bach. Some of that is culture -- whanau means family in maori, blended with pakeha -- (white folk) -- english terms, which are used on an everyday basis by most New Zealanders. But if I were to go on the other side of the world and use the words I was familiar with, someone else might not know the meaning of them.

That relates to fantasy worlds as well. Too many  times writers assume that what is common brogue in one country might not be common in another. I think that if it applies to the real world, it should apply to fantasy also -- especially when it comes to new worlds. It might not be in line with inventing a whole new language and it is certainly a whole lot easier, but it does add some nice variety for a change. That's what I'd like to see in fantasy works, variety, accuracy, and yes -- realistic use of language.

Cheers