This would seem like the perfect sort of novel to incorporate a conlang, and I first found out about it via the Lingthusiasm podcast because one of the hosts, Lauren Gawne, actually created a conlang for it, which she gave a presentation on at the latest Language Creation Conference!
While the full translation would potentially constitute a spoiler, we get a little bit of explanation with more repetitions of the Old Imperial words in this excerpt:
"We still use marsat for 'cloud', but the other terms have no modern equivalent. If we were to be literal, masaat asytaa and masaat kiregtaa translate to 'wet cloud' and 'dry cloud', more or less."
This is just plain old diagetic translation, but it does a nice job of almost-lampshading the implicit translation convention between the modern Aramteskan that the characters are "actually" speaking and the English that the reader can see. (As well as demonstrating phonological evolution between the archaic words and a modern equivalent.) And this causes me to wonder how direct that translation should be assumed to be, at least in this instance, because the speaker almost certainly would not have actually said the equivalent of "we still use the word 'cloud' for 'cloud'". Are there perhaps multiple modern words for "cloud", such that a different one was substituted in the latter case? Or did he really just say "we still use the word 'cloud'" with the extra "for 'cloud'" being added in "translation"? Something to keep in mind when crafting dialog that's supposed to be a translation--similar to the "it just happens to rhyme in English" trope. (This excerpt also tells us something about noun-adjective order in Old Imperial... but since syntax as well as phonology can change over time, we can't be sure that the same applies to modern Aramteskan! So you'll just have to wait for the grammar to be published. UPDATE: The grammar of Aramteskan is now available through Fiat Lingua.)
While I don't have a whole lot of Aramteskan text to analyze in context, though, I did manage to get an interview with Lauren Gawne for another behind-the-scenes look at how the language influenced the books.
Q: There was very little Aramteskan that actually made it into the text, aside from proper nouns. Was simply using it as a naming language the originally planned extent of its usage? If so, do you know the reasoning behind that? If not, and there was a plan to exhibit more of the language, what caused the change?
A: There’s one phrase-length string of Old Aramteskan in the first book (see above). Other than that, the language appears either directly as a naming language or indirectly in a variety of in-world structures, such as the way people greet each other, insults, socio-dialectal dynamics and the way the currency is structured.
This was the extent the language was always intended to feature in the books. The additional depth to the language was something I worked on in part for my own interest. PM Freestone is a long-time colleague and collaborator, and they brought me into the worldbuilding on this project really early. I don’t normally get the chance to work with authors so early in the process, normally there’s a world, characters and/or plot already in place. Being on board from the start was a chance for me to build something more structured while also helping to build out the world for the books.
While of course I always like to see the actual language in a secondary-language situation, I think this is an excellent addition to the list of Reasons Why You Need A Conlang; a simple naming language already adds a lot, and Shadowscent is a demonstration of how thinking about the language, even if it never makes it to the page, can feed back into informing the culture and character interactions.
Q: Was there any consideration of including a pronunciation guide in the books?
A: Not that I’m aware of. I’m very sanguine about the fact that there are names and words that people will bring their own pronunciation to. I try to structure the language and the names to minimise the likelihood of that, but it happens and it’s ok.
My conlanging for other people’s work always accounts for the medium and the audience when it comes to the sound and the structure of the language. A conlang is there to enrich the experience, not to pull people out of the world.
A related excerpt from the forthcoming Aramteskan grammar:
Aramteskan was created with the aim that it be easy to read for English speakers, using the Latin alphabet. I have deliberately avoided using diacritics or other markings. Aramteskan mostly exists in the written medium and so I have avoided using sounds beyond English phonology, since people will encounter the language as written rather than spoken.
...
Stress is free, based on how English speakers find the words best to pronounce. A more consistent stress system can be developed if this needs to become a spoken language.
Q: What was the editor/publisher's opinion on developing a conlang for the books? Did they even have one?
A: I think what is immediately apparent in PM Freestone’s work is the general depth of worldbuilding that underpins the fast-paced narrative. The language building is just one element of the cultural and physical world building that they bring to their work, so I don’t think it was something that was singularly noticed in the work process. The publisher trusted them to deliver a rich and fulfilling story and I’d like to hope that the language helped them accomplish that.
Q: At what point in the writing process was the language "finished"? Did it develop more between books 1 and 2?
A: There are still so many things I’d tinker on, but there are more projects to do then there are hours in the day. Putting together the materials I have to publish with Fiat Lingua (forthcoming) is part of trying to draw a line under Aramteskan now that the books are finished. The structure of the language was broadly in place by the end of book one, and then for book two it was mostly about adding vocabulary and tweaking a few things, including fleshing out the pronoun paradigm to make sure Rakel’s chat with another character (spoilers!) about pronouns and gender make sense within the structure of the language.
Q: Are you aware of reader feedback specifically about the linguistics content? Is it practically nonexistent, generally positive, or generally negative?
A: I haven’t seen too much, but then I am happy to not spend time delving into the bookwebs (either as a creator or a reader!). A lot of the positive feedback has come from linguists and authors. When it comes to authors they love hearing about how building a rich conlang can help give motivation to narrative, characters and the world they’re building. Linguists enjoy hearing how conlanging can be a creative way to highlight the constraints of what we know about existing language typologies, for example almost a quarter of the world’s languages have a grammar feature that shows the source of evidence for a statement (in English we use additional, optional phrases like ‘I saw’ or ‘I heard’), but none of those languages have a distinct category for scent-based evidentials. I always like to find one or two ways to push against my own tendency to be very focused on naturalness, and deliberately build in features unattested in natlangs. Linguists appreciate the humour and creativity in that.
So there you go! It's just not just me who likes linguistic content in books! But if you, current reader, happen not to be a linguist or another author, but you have opinions about the linguistic content in Shadowscent, leave a comment or @ me on Twitter! More data is always good!
And finally, a bit of con-historical linguistic nerdery:
Q: Have I correctly interpreted the grammar as indicating that "ph" represents an aspirated p in the language of Doskai, but was loaned as /f/?
A: That’s pretty much how it goes. This is one of those moments where the conlang builds itself around the constraints inadvertently created by the author. Aphorai was a place that was named by PM Freestone in early drafts, and I never managed to budge that <ph>, even when they were happy with the phonology of the language in general. So, /f/ as <ph> became a sound in the language specifically in that region, and specifically loans from a long lost older language. You’ll also notice that it pops up in names from that area, such as Sephine. This kind of chaos would stress me out when I started creating languages, now I appreciate the way it builds in more texture and natlang style layers.
And I think there's a useful lesson there in how artistic creativity can be sparked by constraints!
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