In a fantasy script I'm writing, I used French as a language for a scene. It only used like once, but I was concerned that it's a cop-out to use a actually language for a fantasy setting. Thoughts?
I will use a mix of Germany and English for place names. For the feel of a different world. but that is the extent of my use of other languages. An entire scene in French without any translation would turn off most American readers.
Well, it's used in one bit between two characters. I was hoping under the pretense of "use it once" logic I could sneak it in. *Fingers crossed*
Does your fantasy world have a connection to our own, like Narnia? If so, then you could plausibly have characters there speak in any human language. It might add either some interesting depth or a bit of levity, depending on how you handle it. But if your world isn't connected to ours, like Middle Earth or Westeros, then I wouldn't use a real human language (other than the primary one you're writing in, presumably English) unless you intend it as a joke or Easter Egg. It would either confuse people or make them laugh when you don't want them to. If it's only a line or two, you can probably just make up some gibberish and call it whatever; there's no need to invent a real language.
Well the "World" IS Earth...millennium years later. My thinking was that some languages survived, and/or cultures either survived or adapted.
