Esperanto Fm

[the_deep]

I've been toying with the idea of doing a project in esperanto for a while (just didn't know what form it would take), and I wanted to know if there would be interest in an FM using this language. It could be interesting.

 

Basically, it would allow me to use friends as voice actors without dealing with broken english accents (as we are not native english speakers) and I could also direct them better than I ever could working with someone strictly on-line.

 

Obviously it would need subtitling, and I'm not sure if that's available just yet, but from what I've read work is being done on it(?)

 

Anyway, just one of many ideas I ponder at night...

[SteveL]

I don't speak Esperanto, so I'd need those subtitles. That said, foreign languages can work well to add atmosphere. Assassin's Creed 2 made great use of Italian+subtitles on their "English" option. Friends of mine who don't speak Italian (I do, no doubt with very bad intonation because I learned it as an adult) were quoting bits at me that they'd memorized from playing the game

 

Strong "foreign" accents (or "wrong" intonation etc) aren't really a problem though IMO. Could you work it into your FM plot? Maybe using our Moor AIs or a context that says the AI are foreign? If that doesn't fit the FM then still no problem, English in a strong foreign accent won't be a problem as long as it's intelligible. English has become the common tongue in the west, so everyone's used to hearing it in every intonation.

 

Where are you from btw?

[Sotha]

A controversial plan. The mission may become an intersting work of art, or a generally disliked mission.

 

According to my experience, people do not like to have extra difficulty of translating (or learning) a language in an entertainment piece such as a computer game or FM.

 

The idea could be made to work with some plot elements and mechanics.

 

*The player ship/submarine/flyingmachinewrecks into a strange island with strange people. They are hostile and want to kill: the player needs to hide. The enemies speak a weird language the player does not understand. (The AI needs to be mute, but you could do the conversations in esperanto.)

*The player finds readables, but they are in weird language. They need to find a plot element for automatic translation of the texts.

*By mastering the language (using the plot element: a translation machine, or codebook, etc) the player deciphers the texts and gets clues about i) who the strange people are, ii) what are they up to, iii) why they want the player dead, iv) how to escape the island.

 

This would offer the best of two worlds: those who do not understand esperanto, they have a mystery. Those who do, have nice practice and get to learn stuff in advance. Perhaps the mission is completeable completely without using the translation tool. No subtitles required!

 

You could change the "island" into a "manor" or "prison" or "asylum" or whatever you like to have as the locale of the mission. I think asylum would be great: perhaps the player is mad/drugged/brainwashed and does not understand the language because of this?

[the_deep]

Those are some nice ideas, Sotha. I'm not sure I want the language to be a plot thing, though... Although, that could be interesting as well. Hmm...

 

I don't know much Esperanto myself, apart from some phrases I learned a while back while casually studying it. It's supposed to be very simple to learn and master. It feels like it could add a level of atmosphere too, if done correctly. Plus any potential actors would (I think) feel more comfortable as they don't know how it's supposed to sound vs. english which they do know how should sound and would probably feel less secure doing it.

 

But both of you have good points, I shall think more about this. But, in the distance I do hear a Builder say: "Majstro Masonisto."

[HMart]

Not trying to be the naysayer but i must ask what's the cost/benefit on this? How many people speak Esperanto?

 

For the ones that don't know, Esperanto is a fake language, just like klingon, lotr elvish, Avatar Na'vi, etc, etc.

[the_deep]

I wouldn't call it a "fake" language.

 

I'm not sure there would be a benefit at all, it's just something I've wanted to explore to see how it would affect the telling of a story. I could always ask the actors to do their lines in both english and esperanto should it not work as intended. But I think, thanks to what Sotha said earlier, that I could reach a compromise and have it both ways in a way that would fit nicely.

[VanishedOne]

'Hlör u fang axaxaxas mlö' is from a fake language. Klingon, Quenya, etc. are constructed languages associated with fictional settings, and Esperanto is a constructed international auxiliary language. Possibly around two million speakers.

[HMart]

IMO is just semantics here, i call it a fake language because it was a intentionally constructed language by a man not a language that evolved, morphed and improved, sometimes unconsciously, for many years by means of social interaction in a society, like real languages, but if that two million speakers is true, than it is fast becoming the most important fake language, that i know, and the line between fake and real starts to blurry, is surprising to me, there's real languages that don't have that amount of speakers, for example on my country Portugal we have a second official language, Mirandez, but only a really small number of people speak it!

But i don't really care if some mission is made using it or not, i will play it, is also funny to me that Esperanto is based loosely on latin or latin like languages, Portuguese evolved from latin, so perhaps i will understand some of it.

[jaxa]

Esperanto is based on Romance languages, so it will sound familiar to many.

 

I like the idea of just including a voice set in Esperanto for whatever purpose. Or Italian or some other language.

 

Nothing is stopping you from doing this other than the hard work involved. You could make a "non-canon" TDM mission in space if you felt like it.

 

If the voice set quality (microphone and acting) is high, maybe others will use it for foreign sounding NPCs.

 

The prospect of the utopian/constructed/neo-Romantic Esperanto becoming the foreignish TDM dialect for many missions is very funny.

[the_deep]

Well, this certainly got my creative juices flowing. So, I think I'm gonna go ahead and do it.

A lot of work, yes.

[demagogue]

I think it's a great idea. Have subtitles & you're fine. Your target audience is the group already ok with that, which does exist btw, like me. I love subbed foreign movies and don't like them dubbed.

 

BTW, I made my own conlang (constructed language) called Wasmanxa, and I've been thinking about using it in something like an FM too for flavor. Nothing sets a mood like a mysterious new culture.

[the_deep]

BTW, I made my own conlang (constructed language) called Wasmanxa, and I've been thinking about using it in something like an FM too for flavor. Nothing sets a mood like a mysterious new culture.

That's brilliant. You should definitely use it.

[161803398874989]

"Fake" is really the wrong word to use since it implies some sort of dishonesty or veneer. "Artificial" or "constructed" are the words you're looking for.

[demagogue]

Yes. Fake would be a bunch of random syllables strung together to sound alien, and you arbitrarily subtitle it. Or it's just a glorified cypher of your native language, like English using other words.

 

Constructed means it has a legit and full grammar and vocabulary. So it's a real language in the sense you can say anything in it that another speaker can understand, which is a vastly bigger project, i.e., it takes the same 2 or so years to learn like any natural language.

 

Esperanto is one of the most storied and respected of the big conlangs too. It was making waves way before the others. Although, aside from my own, I'd probably use the rather inhuman lojban, just because it's ridiculous in its purity.

[HMart]

"Fake" is really the wrong word to use since it implies some sort of dishonesty or veneer. "Artificial" or "constructed" are the words you're looking for.

 

I don't want to bring this thread to offtopic land, but i think you guys are taking this too seriously, fake do not means dishonesty all the time (nor was that my intention with the use of the word), btw just for the kicks, this types of languages are also called conlangs (diminutive for constructed languages) but is very similar to conman (sometimes used to refer to dishonest tricksters). ;P

 

Demagogue fake is very different from random, imo something can be fake and not be random don't you agree?

 

I have nothing against conlangs or fake languages or constructed languages or artificial languages and i will play any mission with them in, i also agree they bring something especial to the game/movie if used well.

[demagogue]

Fake doesn't have to be random, sure, and I included cyphers as fake, which are not random. But I find it hard to call a language with 100,000s of words and more grammar rules than French that took decades of work by 100s of people somehow just made up, like somebody sneezed and the entire Turkish or Finnish language just accidently popped out.

 

But I know you were just speaking informally so it's no big deal. It's just semantics anyway -- fake, artificial, constructed, artefarita, all ways to basically say the same thing more or less.

 

And since this thread doesn't have much to go on except the conlang angle, I don't think it's really going off topic to chat a bit about it for fun.

 

And I don't really take it seriously at all. This isn't politics or religion (not that I take those too seriously either). I just did my own conlang for fun, and it's not all that great compared to the kinds professional linguists make, some of which blow me away with their creativity or beauty.