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dagas_isaAfter weeding through the stories in the FFX or X-2 sections on Fanfiction.net, my absolute worst pet peeve is the rampant abuse of the Al Bhed language. Yes, there are cliches, OOCness and other more serious horrors, but this is a particular peeve. Must be the linguistic anthropology student in me.
First, gratituous insertion of any foreign language into a story will disrupt the flow somehow. Regardless of where you put a translation in the story, it ruins the spontaneity and atmosphere of the scene where it's inserted. Either the action itself will be intterupted, or the reader will have to scroll to the top or bottom to get a translation. And if you leave out a translation, then you risk coming across readers too lazy to puzzle out what the characters are saying and thus could possibly miss a major part in your fanfiction.
Al Bhed is perhaps worse in this respect, because unlike natural languages, or artificial ones created by linguists to have the natural properties of language, there is nothing that can be said in Al Bhed that cannot be properly expressed in English. Grammar and syntax are the same, and as far as I can tell, there's nothing culturally significant in the Al Bhed speech that requires it's use in 99% of all FFX related fics.
Second, there are limits to the use of Al Bhed. Proper names are never translated between languages, and neither are such words as 'fiend' or 'aeon' or 'machina' that are normal parts of the Spiran vocabulary. Al Bhed applies only to generic English words. Also, few people who are not Al Bhed should be fluent in the language. They've had centuries of prejudice against them, and I bet their language had the same stigma. To have Yevonites (or former Yevonites in the case of X-2) fluently speaking Al Bhed, would be like expecting white, middle-class people to start speaking ebonics. It might happen, but there would be resistance from people on both sides of the issue. The Al Bhed themselves don't use their language all the time. Those who are fluent in both the standard language and Al Bhed only use Al Bhed when talking to Al Bhed who are not fluent in standard language, or when in an in group mainly consisting of Al Bhed. Actually, especially in FFX-2, a lot of the Al Bhed were speaking in the standard around each other. Think of the Gagazet hot spring scene between Rin, Cid, and Nhadala, they were all talking in the standard language. Gosh darn it, if English is good enough for the Al Bhed, the native speakers of the language in question, it better be good enough for your fanfiction.
And this thing has taken me too long, so I bit thee adieu.
Over and out.
First, gratituous insertion of any foreign language into a story will disrupt the flow somehow. Regardless of where you put a translation in the story, it ruins the spontaneity and atmosphere of the scene where it's inserted. Either the action itself will be intterupted, or the reader will have to scroll to the top or bottom to get a translation. And if you leave out a translation, then you risk coming across readers too lazy to puzzle out what the characters are saying and thus could possibly miss a major part in your fanfiction.
Al Bhed is perhaps worse in this respect, because unlike natural languages, or artificial ones created by linguists to have the natural properties of language, there is nothing that can be said in Al Bhed that cannot be properly expressed in English. Grammar and syntax are the same, and as far as I can tell, there's nothing culturally significant in the Al Bhed speech that requires it's use in 99% of all FFX related fics.
Second, there are limits to the use of Al Bhed. Proper names are never translated between languages, and neither are such words as 'fiend' or 'aeon' or 'machina' that are normal parts of the Spiran vocabulary. Al Bhed applies only to generic English words. Also, few people who are not Al Bhed should be fluent in the language. They've had centuries of prejudice against them, and I bet their language had the same stigma. To have Yevonites (or former Yevonites in the case of X-2) fluently speaking Al Bhed, would be like expecting white, middle-class people to start speaking ebonics. It might happen, but there would be resistance from people on both sides of the issue. The Al Bhed themselves don't use their language all the time. Those who are fluent in both the standard language and Al Bhed only use Al Bhed when talking to Al Bhed who are not fluent in standard language, or when in an in group mainly consisting of Al Bhed. Actually, especially in FFX-2, a lot of the Al Bhed were speaking in the standard around each other. Think of the Gagazet hot spring scene between Rin, Cid, and Nhadala, they were all talking in the standard language. Gosh darn it, if English is good enough for the Al Bhed, the native speakers of the language in question, it better be good enough for your fanfiction.
And this thing has taken me too long, so I bit thee adieu.
Over and out.
