#but nooo time to misinterpret medieval phonetics

[raven-eats-desks]

Okay this is a weirdly specific pet peeve but; I hate it when (professional) authors (who could do better) just cobble together a 'fantasy language' that is clearly just latin/ german/ [insert mainstream non-english european language here] by spelling the words weirdly/ overly phonetically. It's extra annoying when they then- by not doing their due diligence- end up muddling conjugations; and creating false languages with English grammar; mispelled words from [european language]; and somehow, 5 grammatical 'genders' because they've just been borrowing 'default' versions of languages.

The worst part is that I can't even be that pissed because I am equally lazy when it comes to language crafting but if you're not gonna try,, just don't try ;-;. I'd rather have author's notes explaining how "This phrase is actually translated from a made up language and more literally could be translated as this"; than some unhinged attempt at esperanto for your one shot minimal lore romantasy. Like, not every fantasy book needs a language!! Tolkien was just a dedicated nerd!!

#idk i hope this makes sense #like this is not about baby linguists with a bad passion project #this is specifically about #bestselling romantasies #with agents #and editors #who could probably afford to hire a linguist #to make an actually half decent language #or #they could just imply a language #without making one #but nooo time to misinterpret medieval phonetics #and fail to grasp basic grammar somehow #certified semi colon post tho #lol #writing #writers #pet peeves