English and non-English languages in written stories

So…  As I mentioned before, I have my conlang Arcegaō/Arusigaō (which I'll label AG from here on). It's used by people of the Arcekō/Arusikō culture (I'll label that AKC), often times along side English (called Myūdaigaō/Myaūdaigao by the Arcekō, which will be called MDG from here on as needed).

Notice I say "often times", not "always". This is because a relatively low number (~10%) of people in the AKC actually have enough knowledge of English to understand anything beyond the bare basics. And those who do understand English are mostly concentrated in and around the areas of human cities, where they actually need such skills.

Case in point, the main character of the series that I've been trying to write: "Allomera Chronicles: Muteki the Black Rainbow", and its alternate, "Gramman Chronicles: Muteki the Black Rainbow".

Muteki is a Cobalion (Allomera)/Sunakigaro (Gramman) with a long history, but grew up and lived away from humans. Their knowledge of humans and human culture is minimal at best, with not even a concept of gender or sex to go off of when speaking or internalizing thoughts. They find the lax nature of humans uncomfortable at times, and often need a translator to even interact with humans and the human-born non-humans, much less fully understand what they're doing. This is established quite early on.

And this character is narrating the story.

So… How do you tackle something like this when the reader-base is English-speaking. For visual novels, you could use footnotes, but for written work, that can become excessively cumbersome in a verbose language like AG. There are two very well-proven options, though. I mean, there is a third, but it would require ePub or another interactive medium to function, so I'll leave that for the end.

Option 1: Internal translations

With a native speaker, one can internalize translations without breaking character, as the internal thoughts are being translated for the reader already. As an example:

"Mutekiwateru-kama re myuudaigaou ku fiidanai ka?" Faikuruma-kama asked me, curious as to why I asked them to translate.

In truth, my understanding of Myuudaigaou was limited. I had not needed such a skill. "Mutekiwataru-kama na myuudaigaou na fiida so paninaikwa uza. Mutekiwataru-kama re myuudaigaou na fiida ku sorai uzanai."

From this bit of dialog, you can extract that they're thinking exactly what they say before actually saying it, thus translating their speech through their thoughts. This can get monotonus quickly, but it's also the most natural for a first-person story where you want to keep the actual language within the story itself. Third-person stories can't really use this method easily, but the second option gives those stories a method to use.

Option 2: Replaced text

Rather than stating what is being said through a character's thoughts, the writer can also simply translate what's being said, using alternative quotation marks to denote translated speech. As an example:

<Is your knowledge of English so limited?> Faikuruma-kama asked Muteki, curious as to why they asked for a translation.

Muteki's reply was short and concise. <It is limited. I have had no need for English.>

 

This is far from being my preferred method, but for a third-person perspective, it's honestly the cleanest and easiest to read. However, when mixing English with translated English, it can also become confusing when characters are speaking multiple languages while you're trying to convey their misunderstandings.

If you've watched the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode titled Darmok, you can understand why such a method would be confusing when trying to convey an inability to understand speech. The Tarmarians, whom Captain Picard met with in a first contact mission at El-Adrel, spoke purely in idioms based on their cultural history. "Shaka, when the walls fell" denotes failure, while "The beast at Tanagra" denotes an obstacle to overcome. If these phrases were pre-translated, all of that context would be completely lost to the reader. Sure, they'd know what the person was saying, but they wouldn't get why the other person can't understand them.

Unlike internalized translations, replaced text is much more fickle, and should be used with caution and respect.

Option 3: Mouseover/text-switch/ruby translations

Remember when I said the third option required an interactive medium? Well, this is why. With HTML (and by extension, ePub), one can write a story with the ability to provide translations when moving the mouse cursor over text, upon tapping the text on a touch screen, or by switching between translated English and the original language through scripting. It takes a bit of coding to pull off, but can provide a much more natural method of providing those needed translations.

There's also <ruby> translations. The <ruby> tag is normally used for translating Japanese kanji into romaji or kana, but can be used for much more. It's entirely possible to place translations of entire sentences above the original text, and still leave it legible. I won't try too hard, but…

"Mutekiwateru-kama re myuudaigaou ku fiidanai ka?" ("Mutekiwataru-kama, is your understanding of English so limited?")

This is only really doable in an HTML format, or something printed/made from such a format (PDF, XPS, ePub), but it's a viable alternative for those needing such a feature.

 

So, which am I using? Option 1, since it's a first-person narrative story that I'm writing. I may switch to using <ruby>  translations of I make HTML-based versions, but that's a maybe at best.