For anyone not in the know, in my story, the two human protagonists travel from Earth to the Fabulous Plane, an alternate world peopled by creatures from myth and legend rather than humans. Virtually no one in this world (other than the occasional scholar specializing in the study of humans) speaks English, for obvious reasons.
I’m opting not to gloss over the linguistic difficulties this presents. Instead, I’m having the characters’ guide provide them with a device currently called a talistongue which provides them with a interpretation. The talistongue consists of a pair of jeweled amulets: one, worn as an earring, translates a speaker’s words into the wearer’s languag e. The other, worn around the neck, does the reverse.
My questions are these:
Is there a more elegant or archaic word for “choker” I can use for the second amulet?
How does the name “talistongue” strike you for the translation device? I’m sure I had a good reason for choosing it, but when I wrecked my car a couple of months back, I lost a good deal of the notes I’d written for the story, including my justificiation for using that name.
if you got “talistongue” from “talisman”, I’d say ‘meh’ as talisman is most definitely an English word Here is a partial list of archaic English words.
My suggestion for a “more elgant” name - look in one of the Romance Languages (French, Italian, Spanish) for an archaic word that is appropriate and strikes your fancy.
I do like the premise of your novel, and look forward to reading exerpts as you go along
As a general rule, don’t obsess about this: it’s not going to affect your story if you call it a “talistongue,” a “universal translator,” or even a “smeerp.” Pick something that sounds good to you, and then concentrate on the plot, setting, and characters, which are much more important.
BTW, if you pick something and then change your mind later . . . well, that’s why global search and replace is for. I was trying for ages to come up with a race of people in the novel I’m working on, and just kept using various placeholders until I found one I really liked.
It’s possible for me not to to obsess, but it involves either years of psychotherapy, divine intervention, or time-travel back to my toddler-years to prevent my being potty-trained at gunpoint. ;j
Believe me when I say this is an ancillary matter. I’ve completed a 25-page thumbnail, a 100-page outline (which is really a super-detailed first draft), about two hundred pages of notes on such items as the history of the Plane (both politcal and otherwise), character histories, maps of the Fabulous Plane and of the real-world locations where the action takes place, philosophical backgrounds–and, not least, a 400-page draft. I was just looking at the chapter where I mention the translation issue and thought, “hmm…i don’t like the word ‘choker’…or ‘talistongue.’”
Text based Middle English Dictionary (use your word processor or browser to search for words): Fayerye (magic) which added to the latin lingua you would get linguafayerye which doesn’t trip on the tongue like Talistongue (which I like quite a bit). Oh, the link: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10625/10625.txt
If you must name the separate pieces, I would consider using your Talistongue as a name for the whole rig and then give separate names to the pieces but refer to it as the Talis tongue or whatever you settle on.
Actually I’m not naming the separate piece, just describing it. It goes somethign like this (though better written in the manuscript, I hope):
“The monger handed Andy two items. One was a sort of earring with a sapphire in the middle; you slipped it over your upper lobe so that the sapphire sat in the middle of your ear. The other was a choke with another, larger sapphire in the center; when strapped into place, the gem sat in the middle of your neck.”
I don’t like using the word ‘choker’ there for some reason.
Torque could certainly serve. I’m not entirely sanguine about “talistongue” for the whole contraption. It sounds a bit awkward. Since it’s being supplied by a monger (insert Shadowrun flashback), I would guess that this device is in fairly common use among the Fabulous; depending on how long this has been the case, a shorter or simpler term for it might well have come into play. Perhaps starting from “lingual talisman” and eventually morphing into something like “talingual” or even “taling” (pronounced “tah-ling” rather than “tay-ling”)? Is that any better? Regardless, once the protagonists put it on, they should probably hear the term as “translator”.
Given that your protagonists are from the modern/real world, I would probably have them call the earpiece an “earbud” between themselves.
I’m not sure they would, given how I envision the talis-tongue as working. It’s not like the miraculous Star Trek universal translator; it has to be programmed with specific languages, and they have a little difficulty finding one with contemporary English put into it; they end up settling for one last used by Amelia Earhart. The way it works, both auditor and utterer must stop from time to time to allow the device to work–say every sentence or so, just as if a living being were providing translation. The taling (I kind of like that, BTW) provides the translation based on the vocabulary it’s been given, and a good number of words–proper nouns, for instance, and also words without equivalents in the other language–come across exactly as they’re pronounced in the first place. I rather doubt Amelia Earhart had the concept of an artificial translator, so the term comes across exactly as the monger says it in the first place.
Good point. Now if only we could figure out why I couldn’t think of the word “earbud.” I blame the french.
Actually, a torque can be an armband, too. A torque is made of metal (usually twisted metal), is stiff, and generally does not completely meet in the back.
I don’t think chokers are as carefully defined. Some are stiff and don’t close completely, but others are soft (ribbon or some such) and have clasps.
That said, I like the torque much better as a medieval-fantasy type of ornament, so I really hope that’s the direction you were headed. “Choker” has a Victorian ring to it, at least to my ears.
