Episode #213: We Chillin' With Our Communication

An art piece that my lovely daughter created for my brother as a late Christmas present. I do not recall what type of material was used, but it took her many months to finish.

Going back, once again, to my four volume series colloquially titled Hot Mess, for this particular topic. In addition to creating unusual characters (mostly) based in the real world, I used all kinds of communication methods for the series as well.

Most obvious was the plethora of languages, both real and imaginary, that were used throughout the story. 

First and foremost, I applied the advice that a good editor friend, as well as examples used in various historical fiction novels, which was to state early on in a given conversation/scene/chapter what the actually language being used was. So at various points we had the following real (verbal) languages in use: English; Spanish; Portuguese; Greek (modern & ancient); Quechua (Incan); Nahuatl (Aztec) and just teeny-tiny bit of Biblical (e.g. thou, hast, etc) and Medieval/Renaissance English.

I also added in, because I believe in fantasy, the sky's the limit when it comes to communication, we also used the following real non-verbals, with great gusto and realism: Sign and Morse code. And we also used the following non-real types: Telepathy and Pod Planet.

Now the first paragraph is mostly self-explanatory, in that a person who spent, at the very least, centuries roaming the Big Blue Marble, would pick up the ability to communicate in a variety of languages, with varying degrees of efficiency. The second paragraph is where we'll have some fun explaining my thought process.

With Sign, this choice was a no-brainer, simply because I had created nine humanoids who had no real communication skills beyond telepathy, a very basic concept of grammar and no vocal cords, so I wanted them to use a language that could be considered a universal language. I originally used the moniker ASL until I found that there's another predominant version called BSL, thus the general moniker of "sign language" was employed. The one twist that I had decided to add, was to make it universal across different human species. That way, if telepathy wasn't available, various human species still had a rudimentary common language to use.

I chose Morse code simply because I love niche/obscure methods of communication, and what is more niche than Morse code? For at least a hundred years or so, it was the predominant mode of non-direct communication between people in the real world. In my series, I made it obsolete when I decided to treat telepathy as a real language that anyone could use, including animals. But I also made it a universal language that anyone or anything could use in a pinch, especially those who needed to keep their communications on the down low.

I turned Telepathy into basically a normal every day language that anyone or anything with a functioning brain cell could use reasonably well. So in my series, I have humans, sentient beings and animals using it with a very high degree of efficiency, and I gave humans the ability to put blocks in, so as to keep certain private convos private.

Now the last, Pod Planet, this was a bit tricky to implement. I wanted to give the denizens of the planet an official language that everyone was required to have a working knowledge of (speaking and listening), even if they don't use it, but I also wanted it to be the kind of language that people generally loath when they hear it or use it. So with that being said, the language itself consists of clicks, whistles and grunts. Which I believe, is just about the ugliest combination of sounds you can put together and call it a "language".

Overall, I really do enjoy employing different styles of communication in this particular series. It gives it a lot of real world flavor that would otherwise be missing if I kept everyone to speaking just American English. 

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