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For French words, at least, it is mostly a pretentious way to show the author is cultured, thought funnily enough their "French" is often incorrect, though it will pass mustard for most readers. F...
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#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T02:47:44Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/24277 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
by
Reed
·
2019-12-08T02:47:44Z (over 4 years ago)
For French words, at least, it is mostly a pretentious way to show the author is cultured, thought funnily enough their "French" is often incorrect, though it will pass mustard for most readers. For other languages, there are words or concepts that are not easily translated like the German _gestalt_, the Czech _litost_, or the Japanese _bakku-shan_ Though, as suggested, it is also sometimes used to give it a foreign flavor and greater realism. I think that it targets speakers of that second language only if the book is mostly culturally dependent and the readership is assumed to be bilingual. For example a book using Spanish words whose MC is a Mexican descended teenager having a Quinciniera.
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2016-08-23T02:48:58Z (over 7 years ago)
Original score: 0