Post Apocalyptic Language

Discussion in 'Setting Development' started by MilesTro, Apr 14, 2014.

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  1. Hubardo

    Hubardo Contributor Contributor

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    Such a great point. And if there are books/dictionaries then I suspect the language won't change all that much. Now that we have dictionaries and there are right and wrong ways of using language, it doesn't leave as much room as when people were just using language as a tool to convey messages. That's not to say English won't change, but I don't think we'll see dramatic developments over the next few hundred years - if the dictionary wielding gatekeepers keep up with what they do.
     
  2. MilesTro

    MilesTro Senior Member

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    How about new accents? Like how would a bird man speak?

    In most animal cartoon shows, they all speak like humans too perfectly, except Donald Duck.
     
  3. Tiradentes

    Tiradentes New Member

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    Writing and dictionaries have been around for thousands of years and languages have still managed to evolve...
     
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  4. jannert

    jannert Retired Mod Supporter Contributor

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    Riddley Walker, by Russell Hoban, deals directly with this issue. He 'writes' in the post apocalyptic language itself, which makes it a slow read ...but the payoff is superb. The slowness and difficulty of the read itself emphasises the theme ...but you don't realise this till you get to the end of the story, and the 'big reveal.' How well can we EVER understand our past, when all we have of it is fragments? Despite our erudite attempts to piece it together, we're just guessing, aren't we?

    One of my very favourite stories of all time.

    There's an author who took a BIG chance, defied convention and publisher's rules, and wrote exactly the way he wanted to write.

    ...............................

    I was totally dismayed at seeing a recent edition of this book that contains a picture of a certain item ...which gives the whole bloody game away. One of the worst 'spoilers' I've ever run across. What were they thinking of?
     
    Last edited: May 1, 2014
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  5. MilesTro

    MilesTro Senior Member

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    I can also invent new type of slang for my Beast characters. Like lizards are called Scalies.
     
  6. Tyler Danann

    Tyler Danann Active Member

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    Well if something was set 3000 years after an apocalyptic event I wouldn't really class the genre it was it in to be post-apocalyptic. It would be more like a paradigm shift or even a new era.

    What language would the be the base for the area of people you are writing about? English / European? Spanish / Hispanic?
     
  7. Tyler Danann

    Tyler Danann Active Member

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    In my post-apocalyptic book it takes place only months after the big-world changing event so the language is nearly the same except that instead of the USA it's a different acronym to better represent the new society and even the ideological shift etc.
     
  8. MilesTro

    MilesTro Senior Member

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    Mainly English, but my main characters travel around the world to help tribes to earn trade for their clan. The places they went was North America and Africa. And they live in Hawaii.
     
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  9. Tiradentes

    Tiradentes New Member

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    They travel from Hawaii to Africa, but not Asia?
     
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  10. MilesTro

    MilesTro Senior Member

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    They will travel to Asia later in the series. I am still working on the first book. They also discover the lost continent of Lemuria, which is populated by humanoid dinosaurs and tribal humans.
     
  11. Uberwatch

    Uberwatch Active Member

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    It's really hard to predict what language could sound like in the future unless you're a linguist. The best you could do is inject made-up slang into Modern English.
     
  12. MilesTro

    MilesTro Senior Member

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    That can also work, but would the readers understand the new slang? Would they just understand based on what sentence it is in?
     
  13. Uberwatch

    Uberwatch Active Member

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    You might have to add a dictionary in the back of your book. Look at the book A Clockwork Orange. It was full of made up words but ended up successful.
     
  14. Tiradentes

    Tiradentes New Member

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    That's really ambitious for a first book. A Clockwork Orange was Burgess' eighth, and by then he had developed his skills enough to be confident that a book written almost entirely in slang would be read. However, if you think your writing skills are comparable to that of a veteran novelist then I say go for it.
     
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  15. BoddaGetta

    BoddaGetta Active Member

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    No offense, but that makes no sense in a post-apocalyptic society. The distance between Hawaii and Africa is much greater [maybe even three times the length] as Hawaii to Asian, even a Pacific colony. Not to mention that to get to Africa you would need to cross not one, but two oceans. Incorporating Asian language and culture makes much more sense, especially since in Hawaii and on USA's western states, it is happening already, than African.

    Unless, you make the island in the Carribean. Then it would make so much more sense with the cultures and languages. Then you would involve the Eastern USA and subsequent cultures.

    The tribal humans would also have a similar culture to Africans, rather than Western.
     
  16. BoddaGetta

    BoddaGetta Active Member

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    .
     
  17. MilesTro

    MilesTro Senior Member

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    The humans in Lemuria are the original African people. They been living in Lemuria since the prehistoric time and some of them moved to Africa before Lemuria sunk into the ocean. The Lemuria is now in an under water bubble, created by sorcerers.

    Instead boats, they can use flying monsters for transportation. I still like Hawaii.
     

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