“Speaking in Alien Tongues”

One of the great challenges in writing science fiction about alien places and people is language.  How much alien language and jargon do you use?  The best answer is enough to give the reader a sense of an alien place and culture, but not so much as to make the story unreadable.  It’s always a juggling act.

In a previous post, I had this to say about the language used by my marine aliens in The Farpool, who live on an oceanic world called Seome…

The Language

Seomish is designed phonetically to carry well in a water medium. Hard, clicking consonants are common.  The ‘p’ or ‘puh’ sound, made by violent expulsion of air is also common.  Modulation of the voice stream, particularly at high frequencies (sounding much like a human whistle) produces the characteristic “wheeee” sound, which is a root of many words.  Translation from Seomish to human languages like English requires some inspired speculation, since so many Seomish phrases seem to be little more than grunts or groans, modulated in frequency and duration.

Most Seomish words are grouped according to several characteristics: (1) Who is speaking (the personal); (2) who is being spoken to (the indicative); (3) state of mind of the speaker (the conditional); (4) the kel-standing of the conversants (the intimant).

Each classification has a set of characteristic pre-consonants, to indicate the nature of the coming words, etc. Thus:

1.     k’, kee, t’

2.     tch, g, j, oot

3.     m’, p’, puh’ (both anger, dislike, distaste, etc), sh, sz (both joyful)

4.     each kel identifies itself with a unique set of capitalized consonants, like a vocal coat of arms.  Example: t’milee, or CHE’oray…Seomish  versus Timily or Chory…English.

 

 

And just to emphasize the point, here are some words commonly used in the story, along with their definitions…

 

Glossary

AK’LOOSH:        The Ponkti doctrine that predicts the end of the world by a giant, globe-circling tidal wave.  According to most interpretations, the Ponkti are chosen by Shooki to survive the catastrophe, by burying themselves underground, until the danger is passed, after which they will rule the world.  Ak’loosh is the reason usually given as explanation for the tendency of the Ponkti to isolation.

ARCTOSS:          A four-player game common to Omt’or in which the participants float at the corners of a square with three or more open cones in the middle.  The object is too weighted balls into the cones in such a way as to amass the most points.  Sometimes played with artificial current generators to stir things up.

AZHTU:              In Seomish mythology, a terrible serpent granted dominion by Shooki over the Notwater, the Highwater and the Deepwater, in exchange for peace and tranquility in the Middlewater.  More generally, any form of evil especially in unknown waters.  There are legends of renegade kels roaming the Serpentines who worship Azhtu.

BEAT:                 An echo unit of distance.

EM’KEL:             A basic subdivision of the kel, usually based on mutual interest, often enduring for hundreds of mah.  Em’kels are egalitarian, communal groups, in effect, families since the kel itself is too large to provide much care.

EMTEMAH:        A unit of time—one sixth of a mah (see MAH).  About three Terran months.

EM’TOO:            The berth space or home chamber of the em’kel.  Usually a domicile not partitioned physically but by “curtains” of sound and/or scent.  Em’kels often share the same housing pod or space including cooking, cleaning and other facilities but sleeping, meeting and work areas are always separate.

FREE-BOND:     The act of spiritually binding any member of the kel to the will of the Metah for a specified period of time.  Basically a contractual relationship entered into for the purpose of doing something the Metah would rather not be associated with.  Free-bonds can be used for anything but have come to be employed in espionage and intelligence work in modern times, thus a certain social stigma results from the public knowing a person is bound this way.  Failure to carry out the stipulations requires the bound one to take his own life in shame.  The bond is cemented by consuming a vial, called a pot’l, of the Metah’s blood.  The incentives are many: loyalty, patriotism, special favors from the Metah.

 

GISU:                   A fruit plant, cultivated for its potent juice extract and tasty pulp.  It can be eaten whole (the rind is slightly stimulating) but the popular way is to poke a hole and suck.  The taste is tart and lingering.

HOLDPOD:         Any synthetic pod, sac or drum used to hold personal items.  Often made of plastic, these vessels are among the most common of domestic utensils and are also used as luggage on long trips.  The true holdpod is a small, oval egg-shaped container that opens and closes like a clam shell.

JEE’OT:              A form of punishment, practiced by the kel against an offender as designated by the Metah.  Fairly serious, it is a period of time in which the offender is ignored, not spoken to and treated as if he didn’t exist.  The effect of this varies but it usually creates frustration at the very least and forces the recipient to examine his character in some detail.

KEK’OT:             The warrior-select that each generation creates to do battle with Azhtu.  A form of ritual sacrifice.

KEL:                    Any of the five great nation-families—Omt’or, Ork’et, Ponk’et, Sk’ort or Eep’kos.  Can also mean life itself, or water, comfort, home or any of several dozen other similar meanings.  The root word “kel” is the most commonly used component of words in the Seomish language.

You get the idea.  I may well include this as part of an appendix at the end of The Farpool.  Seome is a fully realized world with intelligent people and a language and culture suitable to their environment.

Whatever an SF writer does regarding language should be internally consistent.  It has to sound right and that ‘sound’ has to be carried through the whole story.  Also, a little goes a long way. To help matters, I have invented a device called an echopod for this story. 

Two of my main characters are Chase and Angie, Earth people who go through the Farpool and wind up on Seome.  The Seomish are marine people.  So how do Chase and Angie live and communicate among intelligent marine people?  Through the echopod.  They also undergo a procedure called em’took, which helps them adapt to the marine environment…it makes them a sort of amphibian, able to live in and out of the water. The echopod works as a translation device and a sort of encyclopedia-dictionary.  Seomish gets translated into 22^nd century American English and vice versa through this device.  Also, when I want to convey some factual information to the reader, I have one of the Seomish characters tell Chase or Angie to check it out on their echopods.  This gives me an opportunity to show them learning, through this device, about aspects of life on Seome.  Problem solved…except, again, a little goes a long way. 

I’ve even worked out a way for Angie to do a sort of diary-journal, using her own echopod.  This gives her (and me) the chance to comment on story action, problems, feelings, etc.

It’s a fairly common SF ‘writerly’ device. 

Use language in an alien setting carefully, to amplify the story and in such a way as to not slow it down or bog the reader down in arcane linguistic gymnastics.

Remember, if it sounds funny to a reader’s ears, it probably isn’t a good idea. 

Next post will be on April 11.

See you then.

Phil B.