Post History

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/36427
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

# Pros

- Appeals to linguaphiles (especially if names are rich with internally-consistent historical or cultural meaning)
- Can add a sense of realism/immersion
- It is difficult to represent unfamiliar phonetics in written text. (For instance, an English speaker will absolutely butcher the sounds of any Asian language transliterated into our alphabet.) Long names are an alternative way of creating a sense of "foreign" sounds which is much more accessible to readers.
- Can create a sense of formality or pomp. Long names are often used as a sign of respect or formality (think "The Right Honourable the Lord Mayor of the City of London"). The [full name of Bangkok](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangkok#Name) is 65 syllables.
- Can be used for comedic effect (an "inconveniently long" name—doesn't fit on forms, holds up proceedings, the individual stands out embarrassingly, etc.)

# Cons

- Many readers will gloss over long words. (Remedy: Add hyphens, spaces, apostrophes, capital letters, parentheses or even non-standard punctuation to make names more digestible. It doesn't matter if the speakers of the language don't do this; you can make it clear to your readers that you are not staying true to the language's written form if you want. Start with small, easy words and build up with time, and give readers incentives to actually imagine the words in their heads, for example by describing in detail the way a drunk character slurs some of the syllables.)
- Long words are a cognitive strain. If you don't give the reader's brain a reason to say "oh, cool!", it's going to say "oh no, not again" and the reader will not enjoy reading.
- Two long names _with minor differences_ are hard to tell apart at a glance.
- If your characters are saying long/complicated words frequently, you can actually lose credibility. Unless one of the defining features of your race/culture is "correct speaking" then readers may find it strange that the characters are not using abbreviations or slang.

Original score: 17