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I would make a distinction between linguistic drift and anachronistic references. You cannot write a story about the middle ages in Middle English because no one speaks Middle English anymore. That...
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#4: Attribution notice removed
by
System
·
2020-01-03T20:41:50Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/24438 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T05:33:15Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/24438 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
by
System
·
2019-12-08T05:33:15Z (almost 5 years ago)
I would make a distinction between linguistic drift and anachronistic references. You cannot write a story about the middle ages in Middle English because no one speaks Middle English anymore. That people use different vocabulary to talk about the same things in the 14th century and the 21st century is linguistic drift. When a 14th century character pulls out a cell phone or discusses supply-side economics, that is an anachronism. Use the modern term when the change is due to linguistic drift. Avoid anachronisms. Or, at least, avoid the anachronisms that will irk the reader. This is the tricky part because virtually all historical novels have anachronisms because most readers want costume drama rather than actual history, so they tend to want modern people with modern attitudes, not actual historical attitudes and ideas.
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2016-09-01T19:12:35Z (about 8 years ago)
Original score: 6