Friday Sept. 1, 2000 - 2:30 p.m.
Alien Languages
Hyatt Concourse - Picasso Room
Stanley Schmidt (M) - Editor, Analog, author of "Aliens and Alien Societies".
Emmett Gard Pittman - Submissions editor for Otherworlds.
Maggie Hogarth - artist, poet, writer, grew up in bilingual household.
Elizabeth Barrette - writer, reviewer, and editor.
Suzanne Alles Blom - writer, "Inca, the Scarlet Fringe" - out in October.
Vera Nazarian - Short story writer, speaks Russian, Armenian, Mandarin, German, etc.
VN: Language will reflect the needs of the society and the basic needs of the individual.
SS: Reverse engineering is not a really good idea; it is thinly disguised to a linguistically knowledgable person. You need to invent the basic structure and use only the words you need.
EB: Writes both SF & Fantasy, looks for words that cannot be translated readily, i.e.: the names of the five genders of an alien race. They can communicate telepathically, by scent, gesture, infrared, virus, etc.
MH: You don't need to know the language to use it for a character. Translating into English, the tone, rhythm and cadence can come through.
Blom: How much do we leave in, and how much do we take out?
SS: Dolphins communicate in stereo and with a much broader spectrum than human beings. They also use sonar to sense their environment. When communicating, they could do so in pictures, almost like telepathy, with their sounds painting a picture for those who hear it.
Niven suggests that we are used to talking to aliens. Men and women have different mentalities. We have animals, pets and plants that we talk to. We talk to machines.
Languages change over time. How did the language change with the species' history.
What does the culture consider taboo? In English, we have curse words about two subjects. Other cultures have different words and different taboos. We write in English, and these concepts can be hard to convey.
What if you have a language and a religion where the "world" is male, neuter or hermaphrodite?
Use brief sections of the language just to give a flavor. You will lose your reader if they have to translate a lot.
If you have a concept that takes two pages to explain it, then explain it once. Thereafter use their word for it.
Interesting web site for languages:
http://www.stardancer.org/panel