I am currently writing a portal fantasy story and I have run into a little problem with language.

How would a person from our world communicate with someone from another world?

Because people in different countries obviously speak in different languages, why would the inhabitants of a fantasy world speak the same language as the characters from our world? It just seems rather convenient that all the Narnians just happen to speak English*...

So, how do ya'll deal with this? Do you make your this-world characters learn the other-world language? Do you work out a way for your other-worlders to speak the same language as your this-world characters? Or do you totally overlook this tiny issue and get on with your life?

Any ideas that you have on how to solve this problem would be greatly appreciated.

~ Evensong

*I have nothing against the CoN books, this was just one of my little observations.

Um, in Narnia they speak English because the original humans there were British - therefore Aslan made everyone to speak English originally.

I usually use English for humans, and then I come up with reasons why the other beings learned English...

On the other hand, if you read The Space Trilogy, there is a splendid example in Out of the Silent Planet of the MC entering a world in which he knows not the language (Malacandra) and has to learn it. That was neat. (that's sci-fi coolness, but I only 75% recommend the trilogy because it has some swearing in all three bks, and #2 has adult themes so I can't randomly recommend... )

haha I noticed the whole thing about Narnians speaking English too. Though, Lewis does give a plausible explanation in Magician's Nephew.

I think there are several different ways I've dealt with this in the past, some of which you've already mention. Depending on the origins of your otherworld, you could, like Lewis, come up with a reason that the inhabitants of said otherworld would speak English. I've used that one before.

Another idea that I might use for one of my short stories is to make the characters of this world and the otherworld speak different languages but give them a translator. While you probably shouldn't do that very long, it does create for a rather amusing subplot in which the characters from different worlds try to interact without a common language. It also gives it a touch of realism. I've always thought that characters crossing into different worlds should experience a little more culture shock that than they seem to in most stories.

Anyway, hope that helps .

I had one of the same problems with a similar story I have involving a portal. I didn't have any idea what language to use, but then the idea came to me. History. Or at least that's how I solved my problem. I created a history somewhat like C.S. Lewis'. The world through the portal was inhabited only by fantasy creatures (griffins, unicorns, and other creatures I came up with). Humans from our world discovered the portal sometime during the middle ages bringing their culture, weapons, and similar government, with the country being ruled by a king.

Perhaps you could solve your problem by creating a history of your fantasy world. Or perhaps you could make your characters not the only one/s who discovered the portal. Perhaps you could let someone go ahead of them and conquer that whole language barrier problem.

Well I hope that helped you some. I know I was kind of rambling for a minute there.

Ah, now I remember.



Good idea. I was going to do things this way, but then I changed a major part of the plot and it didn't work. But I think I will be able to bring this idea back into the story. I'll probably post my synopsis... somewhere. Eventually.

~ Evensong

I'm not closing this thread, so if anybody has other ideas, please post them!

This is a topic that has always annoyed me when people do it wrong (like the Passages series) and fascinated me when people do it right (like the Space Trilogy).

I plan to use a situation like C.S. Lewis did for my Community Story synopsis if it goes through. Except they won't be speaking English (because the portals were all closed a millennium before English was created), but altered versions of older tongues from the places that the other worlds' inhabitants came from.

In Ithelak there is no communication with Earth at all, so that problem is no problem at all. Haha. But I do have a faerie-land of Ithelak called Alronia, and in it there are different means of communication entirely (language itself is foreign to its inhabitants) so that is also different.

Very insightful question!

It depends on the story. And how 'realistic' you want it to be, which usually varies from story to story. One thing that drives me insane about both Stargate and Star Trek is that they come to a totally new, different, isolated civilization, that conveniently speaks English! And this is supposed to be Science Fiction???

But! Translation can be a pain! Especially something you're reading, and you just want people to communicate. So you can conveniently ignore the fact that they probably speak a different language, have a brilliant translator along, have them learn the language really fast, or make non-communication a plot detail, or have some kind of universal language that everyone knows. Let's see what I do...
In Prince of Yen they all just speak the same language. Of course, they're two world that originated form the same place so that's not that outlandish, but I just ignore the whole languages diverging probability thing.

In Legend of Darmoor I have one character bridge both worlds.

Heroes of Ynoureth I ignore the problem, but they don't travel that far so there has to be some kind of universal communication used in trade and what not.

In Tia's World he learns the language in a few paragraphs.

In "Trice" they don't interact from anyone who speaks a different language, so no one has to learn it, but again, there are traders who could translate if I needed them to.

In Lightning Ranger I ignore the problem.

In The Third Earth there's a universal language everyone uses.

There's another scifi story I talk about writing where they have to learn it, and that's going to be interesting because that's a situation where they can't communicate for a while...

So for the most part I ignore it I guess.

In my story there is only one person who crosses over, so I just have him miraculously understand and be able to communicate with the people. At one point I plan to laugh at myself by acknowledging the whole problem and dismissing it. The main character mentions something about everyone speaking English and someone tells him "No, you're speaking Lescatian." Since I'm having it basically be divine intervention behind my MC crossing over, why couldn't God allow him to understand the language? It makes sense to me

How did Passages do it? I can't seem to recollect.

In one of my stories the fantasy part is a game, so the language is English. In A Slave's Song they speak the same language, but there is an older language that comes into play. It was rather interesting how Tolkien had "the Common Tongue" a.k.a. English.

Passages ignored it for the most part (though Arin didn't understand Russian).

Oh, right... Now I remember.

I generally ignore it. While I have mulled over it, I think it's a leap that is accepted in fiction-writing. If you were to pick up a historical fiction novel set in France or Israel, chances are the characters would all speak English. That's because it's being written for an English-speaking audience. In effect, the author is the translator. The audience isn't stupid, but you don't want to over-complicate things. I think if you have plot space for it, working in a foreign language would be highly interesting. But I wouldn't clog up the narrative with it if it didn't fit the flow.

In some historical fiction novels I've seen, the author includes an occasional foreign word, just to have flavor without overloading the narrative.

I do like the idea of creating a realistic history. I also like how Tolkien handles "the Common Tongue." It's English, but they have their own word for it.

@ Philli: I have adopted this basic principle myself. The Caldarian tongue is the accepted language of my world, but each additional race has their own language too. I occasionally will throw something around to remind people of this (when someone is frustrated, for example, and reverts back to their native tongue).

However, a well developed language can be really interesting, as long as it is properly done.