Diacritics

[Justin4Fun]

When using a foreign language, by this I mean foreign to my characters, should I use diacritics? Or simply romanticize the words?

I'll explain a bit: In my series "New Reality", several of my characters speak Romanian. In the past, I've used diacritics for Draculesti, Maica, and several other words. (These two just happen to come to mind.) Now I'm faced with using an eleven-character insult that has a diacritic on every other letter. I can romanticize it, and Google Translate will still translate for those readers who want to copy/paste to see the meaning, or I can use the diacritics, but I fear readers will be more likely to stumble over the word.

And before anyone says I should post a translation in my text, I almost always use dialogue to convey the translation. I also feel that interrupting the flow of the story with a translation pulls the reader out of the story.

I'm struggling to share my thoughts, so this post is rather confusing, but I hope I've made my point.

Now, let the debate begin!!!

[lawfulneutralmage]

It depends on whether you want the reader to know what is being said. If no, leave the word or sentence as is or just write:

"He swore something i Romanian."

If yes, you cannot expect me to look that sentence up. Then write something like:

"He said in Romanian, '<You put the sentence in English here.>"

This way you can tell the reader what he said without the character knowing.

[Justin4Fun]

4 minutes ago, lawfulneutralmage said:

It depends on whether you want the reader to know what is being said. If no, leave the word or sentence as is or just write:

"He swore something i Romanian."

If yes, you cannot expect me to look that sentence up. Then write something like:

"He said in Romanian, '<You put the sentence in English here.>"

This way you can tell the reader what he said without the character knowing.

I see your point, but as I said, IMHO, doing that pulls the reader out of the world, if only for a split second.

It can also be said that stumbling over foreign words, or having to Google has the same effect, so there IS that.

[lawfulneutralmage]

Lol, copying something to translate it, definitely takes one out of the flow.

Basic issue: if the reader shall know what is said, you need to yell them.

[Jason Rimbaud]

4 hours ago, Justin4Fun said:

diacritics

Not gonna lie, I had to look up that definition. 

In one of my stories, I had a character who spoke English and Spanish, I never translated the spanish into english because the protagonist couldn't understand spanish. I figured if the reader wants to know, let them look it up.

As a reader, when I see something I don't understand, I usually go to the end of the chapter. Then I'll go back and look up words I don't know. And if I feel its important for me, I'll look it up in the moment. But that's me, the only thing that can take me out of a story is bad writing and overly long paragraphs that have multiple ideas in them. 

I'm sure that didn't help at all.  

[Valkyrie]

I would use the diacritics.  They're part of the word and not using them could change the meaning and pronunciation.  While the majority of readers aren't going to likely know Romanian, the ones that do will certainly cringe at the misspelling.   Same with any language that uses diacritical markers. 

[Justin4Fun]

1 hour ago, Jason Rimbaud said:

the only thing that can take me out of a story is bad writing and overly long paragraphs that have multiple ideas in them. 

I'm sure that didn't help at all.  

Feels targeted.    

[Justin4Fun]

17 minutes ago, Valkyrie said:

I would use the diacritics.  They're part of the word and not using them could change the meaning and pronunciation.  While the majority of readers aren't going to likely know Romanian, the ones that do will certainly cringe at the misspelling.   Same with any language that uses diacritical markers. 

Best argument for using them ever!!!

 

NOT using them is a disrespect to the language. Almost saying that your heritage and traditions don't matter.

THANK YOU!!!

 

[Jason Rimbaud]

4 minutes ago, Justin4Fun said:

Feels targeted.    

Wow, that did come off as targeted. My bad, I was reading Robert Jordan and after the thirtieth billion time he described womens dresses and how they pull on their braid, I kind of saw stars. 

I humbley apologize for my error in comment. If I would have read it back I would have for sure clarified.  

[Justin4Fun]

1 hour ago, Jason Rimbaud said:

Wow, that did come off as targeted. My bad, I was reading Robert Jordan and after the thirtieth billion time he described womens dresses and how they pull on their braid, I kind of saw stars. 

I humbley apologize for my error in comment. If I would have read it back I would have for sure clarified.  

HAHA, guess my joke fell flat. I was teasing, and apologize for the misunderstanding!

[Jason Rimbaud]

2 minutes ago, Justin4Fun said:

HAHA, guess my joke fell flat. I was teasing, and apologize for the misunderstanding!

Whew, I thought that but I wanted to cover my bases. I always go for the joke as well, and sometimes they don't always land so I'm worried about other people more than before. However, I can't get offended so you never have to hold back on my account.  

[Kileoli]

On 1/2/2026 at 1:20 AM, Valkyrie said:

I would use the diacritics.  They're part of the word and not using them could change the meaning and pronunciation.  While the majority of readers aren't going to likely know Romanian, the ones that do will certainly cringe at the misspelling.   Same with any language that uses diacritical markers. 

I totally agree. Depending on the language, it can also change the meaning of words if not used correctly.

It's like the character speaks a certain language with its own alphabet but it is just romanized by the writer.

It's weird, when I see a Japanese sentence written with English letters, not that I could read it much if it was written otherwise:😁

It's just the feeling of being exotic 

[W_L]

I write both the original language and translation in the story sometimes.

It's easier and creates a feel of realism in certain scenes. 

However, if the story has a better flow strictly in English, I'll keep it in one language all the way through. It depends on how the plots and characters' words flow.

[Justin4Fun]

<blush>  Got distracted and posted a reply in the wrong thread.
OOOPS!!!

Edited January 24 by Justin4Fun