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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48800
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48800
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Whatever language your readers speak, they expect your book to be "translated" into that language.

I write in English for English speakers, I have written stories set in the ancient past where the characters, at best, would be speaking in Old English, but that might as well be a different language. I was careful to not use "modern" words and stick with concepts and comparisons they would plausibly understand, but still, their dialogue was in English understandable to the modern reader.

You pretty much have to do that, trying to teach readers a made up language will destroy their reading immersion, and they won't read your book. On TV, subtitles may suffice, or on Star Trek, told from the "human" POV, they build in translations, or use the universal translator, or rephrase so the person understands (Star Wars does this for everything R2D2 says in beeps). An example:

> Alien (scowling): Trukof tolay vis cunato?  
> Human: Of course it comes with whipped cream! We're not barbarians!

Star Wars is a good example of what I am talking about: _"Long Long Ago in a Galaxy Far Far Away,"_ there is zero chance people were speaking modern Earth English! Heck, **_WE_** weren't speaking it a three hundred years ago. Whatever language Luke and Hans and Leia **were** speaking, George Lucas translated 95% of it into modern American English for us, and the audience didn't care about that for one second.

We do the same thing here on Earth. _Vikings_ has everybody speaking English, nobody would watch it if they spoke their natural Old Norse, we couldn't understand it. Shows set in medieval times have everybody speaking modern English, because Old English is mostly unintelligible when spoken.

Use your made up language like "alien" languages are used in Star Wars; in places where the context is clear, or it can be translated by another character, or the response of the other character gives the reader the gist of what was said.

In particular, you can use it where English will not do, your alien language can have concepts covered in a word that demand a sentence in English. Or it can have words used for romance or intimacy that just don't translate, but readers can get the sense of what is meant through the context.

It is like a spice: A little of it helps complete the fantasy, too much of it starts to get in the way of reading immersion. And by "little" I mean little, like 1% of dialogue.

Original score: 3