Reading foreign words in non-isekai novel

[Hathnuz]

As a reader, if you encounter a latin or french word while reading a non-isekai novel that isn't based on this earth, will your immersion be broken? Especially in monologues or dialogues.

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

Just do it. The majority has no idea whether it is Latin, Greek or French anyway and they are well part of the ENglish language.

 

[AliceShiki]

It doesn't break my immersion at all, though I'd probably laugh a bit if I recognized the word in case I knew the language you chose.

 

[Chrono_Historia]

No, and I would translate it.

 

[FireflyFanatic]

It depends on the setting. A story set on another planet in a Sci-Fi setting makes perfect sense. In a fantasy world though, it does not. Having it certain words on items or records from people who came from another world might make sense, but as a non-isekai novel it would have to be only in passing.

 

[Phantomheart]

Foreign phrases run rampant in western literature. Most of the time I see it and don’t bat an eye. It depends on the skill of the author to integrate and explain foreign phrases in their works.

 

[binarysoap]

I mean, it is strange that a non-Earth based setting is speaking English to begin with, but it's not like you can type the entire novel in some foreign language, since no one would get it. So having Latin or French is not much different than having English, so it shouldn't ruin immersion.

 

[DragonMage18]

It can break imersion, but it's hard to do so.
Just be consistent on who, where, why and how they are used. Then it won't matter.
You could also do some modifiecations on words if the seting allows it (eks. The story is set in the future you could shorten words and make minor modifications to show, it's not the world we know IRL).

 

[yansusustories]

Not any more than something being called a trainwreck in a medieval setting does. If it's a word that we would normally use, I don't see it as a problem at all. Like, let's say, 'merci' is something I'd consider normal for an English-speaking person to use every now and then (while in a situation where they'd otherwise speak English) even if they didn't actually speak french. If it's a word that doesn't fit that and would be more uncommon, it might be different though.

 

[Ral]

To me, it is more on how incongruous the word is in terms of world building. A lot of words are steeped in history and this history sometimes clash with the story's setting. A lot of expressions, especially cuss words, fall under this. "Okay" "f*ck" "shit" "down the drain" "when the shit hit the fan" and many more just doesn't fit given the history of how these expressions come to be.

Worse are the words that are heavily connected to modern technology. "Selfie," "online," "robot" and "cartoon" sometimes appears in works where they just don't make sense. Are there mobile phones, internet, intelligent machines or TV in the setting? The anachronism is just too glaring. Some aren't that distracting through like "trainwreck" "(TV) screen" and "balloon". They are just so invincible to me.

As for foreign words, the same thing. Some foreign words are actually very commonly used in English. "Et cetera (etc.)," "et alia (et al.)," "cum laude," "touché," "bon appétit," and the like are just so widely used. Many doesn't realize that many words they are using are foreign. "Alpha" "versus," "status quo," and the like are often thought of as English.

So, mostly no, especially if the words used are the common and familiar ones.

 

[Daitengu]

Modern English is a train wreck of multiple languages anyway. Latin, proto-Germanic, French, and Norse. Along with borrowing of spelling systems from those languages.

Straight up why I pref American English. Atleast Merriam and Webster tried to unify the language. program instead of programme. color instead of colour.

So, no I don't think barrowed words of another language are an issue. They often convey character. Just don' expect to get away with Desu, Desuwa, Desune, Desuyo, and expect anyone but the most expert of otaku to get the inflection.

 

[Sabruness]

language in general is a trainwreck from centuries of cultural mixing, not to mention most language groups will usually shade a common root ancestor somewhere along the line.

 

[AliceShiki]

To me, it is more on how incongruous the word is in terms of world building. A lot of words are steeped in history and this history sometimes clash with the story's setting. A lot of expressions, especially cuss words, fall under this. "Okay" "f*ck" "shit" "down the drain" "when the shit hit the fan" and many more just doesn't fit given the history of how these expressions come to be.

Worse are the words that are heavily connected to modern technology. "Selfie," "online," "robot" and "cartoon" sometimes appears in works where they just don't make sense. Are there mobile phones, internet, intelligent machines or TV in the setting? The anachronism is just too glaring. Some aren't that distracting through like "trainwreck" "(TV) screen" and "balloon". They are just so invincible to me.

As for foreign words, the same thing. Some foreign words are actually very commonly used in English. "Et cetera (etc.)," "et alia (et al.)," "cum laude," "touché," "bon appétit," and the like are just so widely used. Many doesn't realize that many words they are using are foreign. "Alpha" "versus," "status quo," and the like are often thought of as English.

So, mostly no, especially if the words used are the common and familiar ones.

Oh yeah, that's certainly true, it's honestly quite bothersome when you realize the word you wanted to use doesn't make sense in the setting you want... Although an interesting exception is isekai, because many of the words don't make sense for the setting, but they make sense for the MC, so the MC can use them anyways in 1st person narration, even if the other characters can't.

It's quite fun to play with that~

 

[Ram5]

As a reader, if you encounter a latin or french word while reading a non-isekai novel that isn't based on this earth, will your immersion be broken? Especially in monologues or dialogues.

It didn't, in fact, sometimes it even add the real atmosphere toward certain action, for example casting magic, it's in people knowledge that most magic used latin as incantation.

 

[BenJepheneT]

in all honesty, the sudden change from english to baulwhurst really does throw me off guard some times

 

[ddevans]

I wrote a scene the other day where two characters decide that the words they are using (like "quixotic") seem to have no real origin. If your baseline assumption is that the characters are speaking a different language 'in-universe', it should also be possible for you to imagine that their use of a foreign word represents a similar situation in their universe. Or even that another man who is not Cervantes wrote a book similar to Don Quixote, in that world.

But that line kind of breaks down if the characters start engaging in word play. Are fantasy works doomed to being bereft of Anglocentric wordplay? Surely not...

To me the main use of not setting something on Earth is to lift the events out of pre-existing contexts, and not necessarily to leave behind everything and create an entirely new world.