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Ah, good point. Though I don't think there's an overuse of made up words, and most are actual non-English words. I like that in the (otherwise mediocre) "Night
by the_af 5y ago
Ah, good point. Though I don't think there's an overuse of made up words, and most are actual non-English words.
I like that in the (otherwise mediocre) "Nightfall" novel by Asimov and Silverberg, the preface states "we are going to use English words because alien words are stupid. Please understand the characters are aliens and are not actually speaking in English. If it makes you happy, substitute "mouth" for "lrrrvkr" and "eyelids" for "ktkskssrrsch") :P
The characters of the Dune universe do come from Earth though, and it's clear Herbert was fascinated by the Middle East to the point Arrakis is The Middle East in Space.
- moffkalast 5y agoYep, that's mostly what I'm talking about as you said with Nightfall. It's often unnecessary for its own sake imo. It's true that Dune is based on that, but languages don't really stay the same. Middle English from 500 years ago is barely readable today. Latin was transformed into French, Spanish, Italian, etc. in a mere 2000 years. None of us can really imagine what would happen in 10 times the timespan, especially with cultures living very separated on different planets which would lead to different dialects and eventually completely separate languages over time. It would still be rooted in the same principle, so the languages wouldn't be completely alien but they sure wouldn't be possible to understand for someone living today.
- Scarblac 5y agoThis is why _A Deepness in the Sky_ is such a great book. The reason that you can read it in English, and understand the motivations of the aliens and view them as people at all, suddenly becomes a huge part of the plot.