----- Original Message ----- From: "Howard Brazee" <howard at brazee.net> Cc: <dragaera at dragaera.info> Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2005 10:20 AM Subject: Evolution in languege: On Topic > Top posting: > > I just noticed that this thread was marked OT. > > But I'd like to move it On Topic, by discussing how Steve writes > hard-boiled USAmerican style prose & stylized 19th century English > translation of French prose in an environment that doesn't know > English. He has people from various countries and species, peoples > with big cultural differences, and includes various expressions that fit > one culture or another. Many of those expressions are familiar to us - > because he is writing in English. The balance needed seems to work, > and I'm wondering what tricks and methods work best. > > In the quote below, we see an English language depiction of a Lithuanian > speaking Russian in English. I liked the results, others didn't (or > sometimes missed what was being attempted). Steve has similar goals > that he has to achieve in his books. > > Who has good quotes from the Dragaeran cannon that illustrate what is > happening here? > > The most obvious illustration of this that I can think of is the conversation in Dragon between Morallen, Vlad, and the Serioli. In that conversation, we have two non natives speaking Dragaeran, who managed to illustrate a point to each other that is totally missed by the native speaker. On reflection, this is more of a plot device, rather than a literary one. Jeff