German expressions in recent Trek novels

[Count Zero]

But "Scheiße" is a pretty tame swear word. People say it all the time, even some of my teachers and professors. I believe swear words are a valid expression of emotions. That's why I think censoring them is silly.

[Marie1]

David Mack wrote:

---

Fine, I'm convinced. I will never again have a character in one of my stories use any non-English word or phrase, unless it's in an alien language. Because, as this thread proves, it's just not worth the effort.

If after this you do not instead have multiple characters in multiple stories doing this with many words in several languages, I will be very disappointed in you...

[Trent Roman]

According to some online translators, the German word for "Stygian" is "Stygisch". I mention this for no particular reason except to speculate that it would seem like an appropriate word to use in a made-up curse...

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

[TheAlmanac]

Steve Roby wrote:

---

If it's in the same sentence, probably unrealistic, except for characters struggling to remember rarely used words in a second language. But switching back and forth on a sentence by sentence level? I hear it all the time here in Ottawa, where there are a lot of French/English bilingual people (and French/English/Arabic trilingual people, etc). It seems to be easier to switch language tracks than to translate, so you'll hear a conversation going on in French for a bit, then someone says something like, "et puis elle m'a dit, 'You can't take that dog on the bus,' and I said, 'Oh yes I can'" and the conversation carries on in English for a while.

I'll back up Steve Roby on how often this happens in Canada...

The common occurrence of franglais in Canadian speech (and my own use of "Portuglish" when speaking to my family on a regular basis ) are why I never found this sort of back-and-forth odd.

I can also understand how difficult it would be in print to distinguish between native English speakers and excellent non-native English speakers (if you want to indicate that distinction between characters) without using this sort of device.

[Baerbel Haddrell]

Count Zero wrote:

---

But "Scheiße" is a pretty tame swear word. People say it all the time, even some of my teachers and professors. I believe swear words are a valid expression of emotions. That's why I think censoring them is silly.

I agree with you but I noticed that there are mentality differences in general between Germans and the British. In my daughter`s school teachers most definitely don`t like any form of swearing and therefore I have to keep reminding her to be careful with her language especially at school.

[KRAD]

Trent Roman wrote:

---

According to some online translators, the German word for "Stygian" is "Stygisch". I mention this for no particular reason except to speculate that it would seem like an appropriate word to use in a made-up curse...

Trent, you owe me a cup of coffee and a paper towel................................

[Mike Farley]

David Mack wrote:

---

Fine, I'm convinced. I will never again have a character in one of my stories use any non-English word or phrase, unless it's in an alien language. Because, as this thread proves, it's just not worth the effort.

Just use made up words that no-one can argue about. Next time a massive alien fleet drops out of warp in front of the Enterprise Picard should shout "Frak me!"

[captcalhoun]

no, Stomm!

or Drokk!

or FUNT!

[KRAD]

^ Oh yeah? Well, FUNT YOU TOO!!!!!

[captcalhoun]

stomm you, motherfunter!

[JD]

Are those from a show?

[captcalhoun]

they're expressions used in the UK comic 2000AD. Drokk is used in Judge Dredd, Stomm in Strontium Dog and Funt in Sinister Dexter

[KRAD]

One of the things driving me fahrbot right now is that I'm simultaneously writing StarCraft (a novel and a manga series) and Farscape (a regular comics series), and I have to keep remodulating my made-up slang.