Writing in 'Anglish'?

[Kayzee 4,032]

Lately I have experimented with writing stuff in Anglish. That is, a version of English that gets rid of a lot of the words that come from french and other languages. Like for example, in a poem I posted in the comments of this blog post. I mean, it kind of takes forever, but it might be a kinda fun way to spice things up in writing. Might be better to drop thee/thou/ye/etc. though, I am not sure if I correctly internalized their grammar. Also 'unwizen' is probably wrong and it is more correct to say 'unwiz', but I like the construction of using 'wiz' as a noun and -en modifying it into a verb.

 

Anyway, if I were to make a whole game where everything possible is written in Anglish, what do you think people would think?

[Nirwanda 323]

It looks kind of hard to follow, at least for a non native english speaker.

[Kayzee 4,032]

Forsooth, it is so. But is not the lay of wordcraft fair? Does not the dare to know it's meaning goad you?

 

Er... I mean... Yeah but I think it's kinda pretty and fun!

[+ CVincent 234]

It'd definitely be hard to follow, I think I'd lose interest quickly. A big part of the experience in a game is having good communication between the developer and the player, ensuring the story is clearly portrayed.

 

The idea could be expanded upon, perhaps having certain characters speak in that dialogue. Consider how writing in 'Anglish' would fit into the game you're creating. There's not a lot of detail to work with here so I think it's safe to jump to extremes.

 

On one hand you could have a unique game that might perhaps even demonstrate the use of Anglish in a way that teaches the player so they are more easily capable of following things, however for the opposite it may appear more as a gimmick. How would this be used as a hook to keep the player interested?
 

Ultimately though, I wouldn't know for certain until I've experienced a game that was written like that.

[Kayzee 4,032]

This is not something I think I will actually do any time soon, if only because it's really annoying to look up the right words and I am lazy. It's just a thought. That said, it's still kind of an idea that appeals to me a lot partly because it's something that requires a lot of attention to write correctly. It's the exact sort of limitatio0n that can make it interesting and encouraging creativity. And I think for a lot of people having just enough obfuscation with creative use of language makes it much more interesting to read too, just enough to make it seem otherworldly and strange while still inhering to it's own rules.

 

I do feel bad when people who are not native English speakers, or often even people who are, try to understand more poetic and flowery wordings. Anglish is even worse in several ways because often you just have to plain make up alternative words based on forgotten roots or use archaic language that no one knows anymore. But on the other hand, I really like the English language in all it's forms and really enjoy looking back to it's roots and think about how it would have evolved in a new context. But I still rather try to do something unusual and interesting and worry about translation issues later. Maybe I just like Anglish because I have become sort of a language nerd.

 

I think as a game it would work better then many other forms of media simply because games and their conventions often communicate so much information without any kind of text. Do we really need a clue when we call things like 'savepoints' something like 'lorehavens' (or just 'havens')? Pages and pages of text and lore is not something I ever really enjoyed anyway. It's mostly a flavor thing in my eyes. It is sort of a gimmick, but then again the question isn't what how it would fit in any particular game world, but rather what kind of game word Anglish would inspire me to make. I could imagine all sorts of ideas involving fairies and other mythological creatures who spoke differently then humans. It's worth thinking about in my mind, but I am not sure where it will go, if anywhere.

[Tarq 746]

I think its a good idea. Yeah, it might be obtuse to some initially but its just a different kind of learning curve for the player, and one that could lead to a lot of enjoyment for a fanbase who could adopt it in communicating among themselves.

As for worldbuilding I think some derailment of current languages is basically a necessity; it encourages the idea that world is like our own, or could be like our own, or perhaps at one point even was our own, but then it took an alternate route. Language reflects culture (and vice versa) and I'd say its a better way of establishing lore than hundreds of optional pages. Perhaps even because its not optional; the full experience is mandatory.

 

@CVincent: while you haven't experienced an Anglish game you have probably had a relatable experience: Have you played the Fallout games? They take place in the future but use language (and other things like music) from our past (well, America's) to display how those people's development differ from our own.

[Kayzee 4,032]

Yeah I mean, one thing I really loved about J. R. R. Tolkien's work was the way he felt about language. Now I am not a language scholar of any description. The only language I really know is English (unless you count various computer programing languages), and I am too lazy to rigorously study any one subject for too long. A lot of people felt his books were long and dry and hard to understand, and maybe in a way they were, but they involved so much history and had some much weight to them. Even ignoring the way he basically wrote his whole fictional world history for the sake of his fictional languages (and not the other way around as most people do), the way he used English was also rich in history and meaning. The Lord of the Rings wrote this huge section of the appendix just about how he 'translated' the book, the kind of conventions and meaning behind the names. I think he even wrote this long paper after The Lord of the Rings began to be popular internationally on exactly how things should be translated because of how translators would often miss the point.

 

This is something I think is important to think about even in things written in more or less plain everyday English. I were to make a more contemporary example, in Undertale there are too skeleton brothers named after fonts which use those fonts when speaking. The it's likely that in other languages, especially those with non Latin characters, this element of their characters is completely lost. There was talk about how in a possible Japanese version to translate 'Sans' (from 'Comic Sans') into 'Poptai' after 'Soueikaku Poptai' and maybe 'Papyrus' into 'Kinbuntai'. I don't think they actually ended up doing that though. There are all sorts of little puns and clever uses of language in Undertale. And moving past Undertale one of it's influences Homestuck, which probably is hundreds of times as long and can use and abuse English in ways that would make a whore blush, has a whole wiki dedicated to a possible Japanese translation that will probably never be completed. And Japanese is actually probably a pretty easy example because it gets so much attention from obsessive anime/manga fans. What about Korean? What about Arabic? Heck, what about even just Spanish?

 

My point is that writing and language is a fascinating thing that involves a lot of history and culture. It's deeper then just understanding the surface elements of a story. There are all sorts of implications and interesting wordings to pay attention too. And I think it's a fascinating idea to go back through the roots of a language and find forgotten uses and poetic ways of stating things, to use it to make a world and culture all it's own. I don't claim to be someone who can really do that in the most effective way, like I said I am not a language scholar. But it's something I enjoy thinking about.

Edited December 11, 2016 by KilloZapit

[Jeanne d'Ys 166]

Nice idea! I love studying certain languages, so this should pique my interest...

I like writing or using foreign language because of how beautiful lost of them are. Heck, I'm not even writing in my mother tongue now, as English was the second language I studied after my mother language, but I enjoyed the hell out of it.

 

Regarding language translation, yeah I agree that a lot of things just couldn't translate well, such as puns. In the Monogatari series for example (or actually, almost everything written by Nisio Isin), there are lots of puns and references that can only be solved in Japanese language, and would got lost during translations.

[Kayzee 4,032]

Though the translation can make things more interesting in some ways too. For example Kefka. I keep hearing the story that he was more of a joke in the original script and the translator really played up the evil and cruelty. Because of that, it's hard sometimes to tell what elements are good or bad in a work that has been translated is due to the translation sometimes. When it is all good and done, a translated work owes as much to the translator as the original author. It's almost as if a translation and the original should be counted as their own works sometimes.

 

Sometimes because of that I wonder if everyone should just write in English, because it's a language most people in the world understand and it would be so much easier for people to delve into it and get the hidden meanings behind things without relying on translation. Imagine how much more people could get across that way? Imagine how much more people could play with it when everyone has the same base knowledge? Imagine how many things get lost in translations? But I have to say no. I like English, but other languages have their own beauty in some ways, their own culture to explore. I should really try learning a few other languages rather then be lazy and wait for everything to be translated for me if I want the full story. But eh, I am lazy.

 

Anglish isn't really a new language though. It's different enough to show a interesting cultural divergence, while still being mostly understandable. It's a 'what if' kind of thing. I am sure lots of languages have elements like that, major crossroads in the evolution of the vocabulary. It seems like something fun to explore.

Edited December 11, 2016 by KilloZapit

[+ Chaosian 617]

I mean, it already kinda exists...

It's called Dragon's Dogma, and it's a fucking awesome game with fantastic atmosphere. ( Spoilers for one of last fights, but it's a great example of the game's dialogue. and Lyrics for one of the game's songs. )

 

I'm not sure if it's COMPLETELY true Anglish, but it's about as close as I think you'll see a game get before it gets annoying or too difficult to understand. It's a good idea though, all the details and neuances even in the dialogue makes it feel like a true gaming 'gesamtkunstwerk'.

Edited December 20, 2016 by Chaosian

[Kayzee 4,032]

Though it often is, Anglish is not always weird or hard to understand... as I think these words show.

Edited December 20, 2016 by KilloZapit

[Rio Cortez 3]

I think if you made a game where a certain culture spoke Anglish, and you made that culture prominent enough in the plot and develop this culture, really flesh it out and make it interesting, it could develop a sort of cult following, as St Valen Tarq suggested.

 

It would be important to make sure the player can inform themselves and try to learn this language more in-game. A sort of dictionary feature would be really cool and help something like this work.