Do you use modern slang in dialogue in medieval fantasy?

[gunhilltrain]

I realize I'm replying to a troll, but it's actually an interesting discussion.

I haven't written anything "Midieval."

Closest I had was a character in a setting in the Middle East around 2,000 years ago.

I decided NOT to try writing the dialog with any period of time in mind, BUT avoided things like contractions (can't, I'm, etc) to make it read slightly more formal.

My characters weren't speaking English at the time, but of course English is all I know lol.

If you were Mel Gibson, you'd make the effort to get it right. Regarding The Passion of the Christ: "The dialogue is entirely in reconstructed Aramaic, Hebrew, and Latin. Although Gibson was initially against it, the film is subtitled." I really feel for the actors who had to learn those lines. Then in Apocalypto he had to use Mayan.

Mel, swords and sandals epics are not in ancient Egyptian or Babylonian. The audience gets what's going on.

 

[Pabiporffor]

A while back I read an article on the problems of writing Welsh erotica. It was originally being a very good religious area the language didn't develop many slang words for sex and were usually mild and agricultural based. For example, a lady's parts were called "a furrow in a field". I'd keep to that mindset and call an arsehole "the forbidden slurry pit".

 

[Jmanchu]

When I was writing my medieval-fantasy story, my beta reader had also pointed out that it was anachronistic to use words such as "dude" and "asshole." Do you agree?

Back at it? Good for you. Sure, use "dude" "asshole" "Bruh" "Motha'fucka'" all you want. I mean... everything becomes "historical" eventually, right?

 

[JohnSm123]

An imperfect story is still better than no story.

Myself, I couldn't stand an imperfect story, which is why I gave up.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Myself, I couldn't stand an imperfect story, which is why I gave up.

There are no perfect stories.

FWIW, "arsehole" goes back at least to 1400 AD, and "arse" goes back much earlier - its origins are somewhere before English, German, and Dutch separated. I don't know when "arsehole" was first used as an insult rather than just a part of the body, but I can't imagine it would've taken long.

 

[Duleigh]

Did the King give thou the ring?"

Some author will get the idea that "thou" is the old-fashioned "you", and just replace all their "you"s to make something like that sentence. But it's wrong in the same way as it would be to reply "Yes, he gave I the ring".

in Enchantress 5 there is an eye witness to a battle who was asked to write an article about it. The writer used 'Thee' exclusively instead of 'the' but the writer of the article was an eleven year old dwarf who had just recently learned to read and write so I added a lot of beginners mistakes (many of which I see in stories posted here)

 

[gunhilltrain]

Myself, I couldn't stand an imperfect story, which is why I gave up.

John, if you are trolling, your troll personality is even weirder than the one you are presenting in your posts. Of course, I can't be sure, but there is obviously quite a bit of suspicion here about you. Can't you think of something more interesting to say here? This has gone beyond stale; it's moldy. Talk about old ocean liners or something. Or just go away already.

https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/22719

P.S. I see that you claim to be a monarchist on the Politics board. How serious is that? No, please answer over there, not here.

 

[Codoc24]

Not sure when the word "fuck" came into usage, but it bothers me on "The Witcher" series when they use it. It feels really out of place to me. It pops the fantasy bubble that I'm in while watching it.

 

[StillStunned]

Not sure when the word "fuck" came into usage, but it bothers me on "The Witcher" series when they use it. It feels really out of place to me. It pops the fantasy bubble that I'm in while watching it.

It's been around for a while: https://www.etymonline.com/word/fuck

 

[JaxRhapsody]

Not sure when the word "fuck" came into usage, but it bothers me on "The Witcher" series when they use it. It feels really out of place to me. It pops the fantasy bubble that I'm in while watching it.

I guess you'd better not watch Dissenchanted, then.

 

[Codoc24]

I guess you'd better not watch Dissenchanted, then.

Reminds me of a time when my family (all adults by then) was watching some movie that used 'fuck' a lot. My Mom was pretty conservative and rarely used any profanity. About half through, she stood and said, "I'm going to bed, I'm tired of this fucking movie." We all nearly died we were laughing so hard. The one and only time I heard my Mom say 'fuck'.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Not sure when the word "fuck" came into usage, but it bothers me on "The Witcher" series when they use it. It feels really out of place to me. It pops the fantasy bubble that I'm in while watching it.

Here's a lovely example from 1528 where a monk transcribing Cicero complained about his "fuckin Abbot":

https://solongasitswords.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/whole-page-adjusted.png

Didn't get written down often, but it's another one that's old enough to have cousin-words in Dutch and German.

 

[Stimtheone]

Did you guys ever read original shakespeare? It is practically impossible to understand. Emulating medieval dialogue would possibly need two degrees. Even if I may use modern slang in my stories, I would do so after a lemony statement as "Due to the immense time passing from the actions depicted here and the present day, the book has been rewritten for modern audiences, so knights will greet each other with 'wazzup my homie' rather than 'hark, slother mine'."

 

[TheArsonist]

If you were Mel Gibson, you'd make the effort to get it right. Regarding The Passion of the Christ: "The dialogue is entirely in reconstructed Aramaic, Hebrew, and Latin. Although Gibson was initially against it, the film is subtitled."

And he still got it wrong, since the Romans in Judea would mainly have been speaking Greek, not Latin.

 

[onehitwanda]

And he still got it wrong, since the Romans in Judea would mainly have been speaking Greek, not Latin.

Romani eunt domo!

 

[Duleigh]

Myself, I couldn't stand an imperfect story, which is why I gave up.

I see no evidence that you ever tried. Show us an example.

 

[StillStunned]

I see no evidence that you ever tried. Show us an example.

He's written a perfect minimalist story. Just a blank page. The reader can fill in the details to suite their own taste.

 

[onehitwanda]

We are Nihilists, Lebowski!