As a worldbuilder, storyteller, and writer, language style is where you get the biggest bang for your buck. Granted, style doesn’t hold water if you don’t have a foundation. This worldbuilding blog series started with an article entitled Worldbuilding 101: Logic, and as with most aspects of worldbuilding, logic must come first in order to make your world comprehensible. Therefore, some of the science behind Sense and the math behind Structure are necessary elements before you can really dive into the Style aspect of a language.
Language Style, for me, focuses on the psychology and anthropology built into the words used and the way communication happens between people. I’ll look at four specific areas as they relate to style: honorifics, emotion, slang, and gender.
Honorifics & language style
From Meriam Webster, the term honorific is an adjective meaning something that belongs to or constitutes a class of grammatical forms used in speaking to or about a social superior
Honorific usage within language is a fantastic example of how the foundational elements reside within the language structure, but the implications push into the language style. It further helps to define who the people are as a society. Grammatical symbols of respect in the U.S. range from Mr., Mrs., Miss, to Captain, Reverend, to Ma’am, and Sir. In Japan, suffixes are used. For example, -kun is used for people of superior status. Furthermore, in Japan, forms of address often depend on relationships between people and families. In Latin-based languages, there may be a different pronoun form to indicate respect. In French, this is seen in vous vs. tu when using the personal pronoun for you.
Aside: the Japanese language would be a really interesting deeper dive or fodder for a new story. Maybe more to come on that one.
Emotion & Feeling
Emotion and feeling within a story often come from how a writer puts the entire scene and overall story together. It can be heavily focused on character development. As this article focuses on Style in constructing a language as a part of worldbuilding, let’s analyze what aspects of a language will contribute to emotion and feeling, but keep the culture you’re putting together authentic.
David Corbett mentions in his article, Emotion vs. Feeling: How to Evoke More From Readers, a technique of objectifying a feeling. He recommends that the writer finds a physical analogy for the feeling and gives the following example:
“She felt as though her shame had created a sunburn from within.”
Corbett, 2017
How does this relate to language style?
At this point, you might ask how this relates, but consider the objects that a character in your particular culture within your particular world might use to objectify his or her feelings. An underground race might not use a sunburn as an example. Perhaps he or she would use a comment more like:
“Her shame burned like the lava running in streams beneath the great mountain.”
Slang to emphasize language style
Every culture, each era, and all languages have slang. I’ve said a number of times that it’s not necessary to develop the mechanics of every part of your language in order to tell a comprehensive story. However, a culture typically has some common sayings or words that are used in a slang form. Even if you’re writing a story that’s historical fiction in a well-known setting, this is an area where you can infuse some worldbuilding through language that you don’t even need to create.
A couple from the 1920’s that you might consider:
- Jake: okay, fine, as in “Don’t worry, everything’s jake.”
- “Don’t take any wooden nickels!”: “Don’t do anything dumb!”
- Panther piss: whiskey, particularly homemade whiskey
Slang in the Caeteran Tales
In taking slang a bit further, you might consider situations in which slang would commonly be used. A few that come to mind are referring to alcoholic beverages (as is the case with panther piss), having good times, ways to say farewell to someone, and in some cases derogatory remarks. For example, in Caetera, I have several tribes who are not fans of the main race in the novels. They tend to refer to Terrinians as either crith which means worm or gneàrp – which I do not define fully, other than stating it’s derogatory. This simply reinforces my claim that every single detail of a language doesn’t have to be fully worked out to seem authentic in the context of the story for the reader. Here’s a quick sample where I use both of these:
“I’ve ne to bring a crith.” Ailig arched his double brow, challenging Gregor with hard amber eyes.
Sixth Induction
Gregor held his poise but flinched inside. It was only one of the derogatory words that the stahmen called Terrinians. It didn’t reach the insult level of gneàrp, but it was close. Gregor still fought back his bristle at being called a worm. Ailig was only being forthright. He’d hear those words and likely worse within the market
Gender
Finally, I’ll address gender as it relates to language style. In writing, especially in building fantasy or science fiction worlds, gender takes two forms. It could be part of the mechanics within your language or in reference to characters. In my post, Structure of Language: Sense, Structure, and Style Part 3, and the free worksheet available there, I discussed the structural portion of this topic. Here, I’ll discuss gender as it relates to characters.
With all due respect to sensitivity issues prevalent in today’s society, there are aspects within fiction and within language style that are pertinent and must be considered. I would contend that this is a tricky area to address and as a modern writer, you should approach it with caution. There are traditional grammar mechanisms in many cultures where certain terminology will ring offensive. I’d argue that it’s perfectly acceptable to embed some of these aspects into your stories and it can greatly benefit the way you build the culture and world within your story. Consider the following examples.
Woman at Point Zero. In this, the main character holds a fairly disparaging viewpoint toward men. It builds her story and drives it forward, and it is a great worldbuilding exercise that paints Firdaus’s reality–her world. It adds to the raw emotion within the book and effectively tells that one person’s story.
Within the last couple of years, I wrote a story that twisted a traditional slight toward women. However, using the relationship between the two characters, I showed the word’s true intent. The intention with which it is uttered is what matters rather than the word itself. Maybe I’ll get around to publishing that story one day. For now, it sits close to my heart.
Did you miss the prior posts in this series?
Check them out here:
- Worldbuilding & Language – Series introduction.
- Sense, Structure, and Style: Worldbuilding & Language – An overview of three major areas of language creation
- Sense: Sense, Structure, and Style Part 2 – An article focused on the senses that may be used when creating a language.
- Structure of Language: Sense, Structure, and Style Part 3 – Focus on the constructs of language with a FREE WORKSHEET.
Upcoming in the Worldbuilding & Language Series
- Language in as it relates to other aspects of worldbuilding
- Science Fiction Novels with Constructed Language
Comments (1)
Really great and useful information. Thanks!