From Complex to Plain: Language in The Wheel of Time

The following piece is an examination of Richard Littauer's work "Old and New Tongues: Constructed Language and The Wheel of Time." Here, I examine his use of Plain Style in order give his audience understanding of a complex and abstract topic. 

What is The Wheel of Time?

In order to understand this work we need a background on the context that it exists within. Here, we will be taking a closer look at the short piece "Old and New Tongues: Constructed Language and The Wheel of Time.” This piece was written by Richard Littauer and published to Tor.com. If you expected Littauer to be a journalist, you were wrong. Richard Littauer works in website development and writes as a hobby. For a work such as this, Littauer's lack of credentials isn’t a problem. Throughout the piece, Littauer demonstrates knowledge in Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time and linguistics.

This work was published online at Tor on March 19, 2018. Here is the purpose of the site:

Tor.com is a site for science fiction, fantasy, and all the things that interest SF and fantasy readers. It publishes original fiction, art, and commentary on science fiction and related subjects by a wide range of writers from all corners of the field; both professionals working in the genres and fans. Its aim is to provoke, encourage, and enable interesting and rewarding conversations with and between its readers.

              Along with that, Tor.com is part of Tor Books- the largest fantasy and science-fiction publishing house in the United States. Some of the famous series published through Tor include: Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive and Mistborn, Stephen Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen, and (of course) Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time.

              A constantly important factor to understand any text is the audience. While this work focuses heavily on linguistics, the main audience is probably just fans of fantasy works. Specifically, fans of The Wheel of Time. The series began in 1990 with the release of The Eye of the World. After the passing of Robert Jordan, the remaining three books of the series were co-authored by Brandon Sanderson with the series being completed by A Memory of Light in 2013. The Wheel of Time rests as one of the best fantasy series of all-time. Richard Littauer's work offers fans of the series an opportunity delve deeper into their favorite world.  

Argument

A vital aspect of Plain Style is its informality. In contrast with Official Style, Plain Style is written similar to how people think. Our thoughts are often simple, jumbled, humorous, and beyond all else NOT formal.

Here, I will examine the use of Plain Style in “Old and New Tongues: Constructed Language and The Wheel of Time.” The author of this piece, Richard Littauer, uses the informality of Plain Style in order to engage the reader. Littauer’s writing feels like a having a conversation. This use of Plain Style allows a reader to follow Littauer’s work on a complex subject in a simple way.

One of the key things we see throughout the work is Littauer’s use of hypophora- the writing technique of asking questions and then immediately answering them. Littauer’s first use of hypophora comes early on when he states “what can we make of the Old Tongue? Not much. We can say it sounds pretty, and we can learn by rote some of the grammar rules and intricacies that Robert Jordan invented it for.” By just reading the headline of this article, we can assume that it deals with made up languages from The Wheel of Time. From there, there could be a variety of content: learning grammar, phrases, origin. However, Littauer shatters any of those expectations through his use of hypophora. What will we learn? Not much, but we can enjoy our time spent with Littauer. He follows that use of hypophora with another, “Again, who am I to judge? A persnickety, entitled, and small-minded linguist, that’s who.” He gives answer to his own question with a bit of attitude, offering a glimpse of personality that comes with Plain Style.

Along with Plain Style, Littauer mixes in a bit of the creative style. Once again, this adds to Littauer’s informal writing throughout. Writing for a fantasy/sci-fi website, Littauer cannot help but add references to other popular works. Look at this line, “But there’s a small percentage of us who want more: Those of us who try and learn Quenyan, those who translate Facebook into our favorite conlang.” Littauer uses the creative style her to make a joke, referencing the language of Elves in Lord of the Rings and social media. Adding in Creative Style, Littauer continues to showcase his personality in an informal way.

Littauer continues to guide and help readers into understanding a complex topic. Look:

Another example, within a single word, is from Towers of Midnight, where Faile mentions one of her ancestors: “Nikiol Dianatkhah was a drunkard, despite being known as one of our greatest kings.” This is decidedly weird. I couldn’t find any other character or name in all of the books with a <kh> phoneme in their name, and that’s not for lack of trying. They appear in other fantasy languages—who could forget the keen edge of a Dothraki arakh, for instance—but we never see it in the Old Tongue. But here it is in a name. This suggests that the name was either a result of subtle language change in Saldaea, or it was misspelled by the publisher (sorry Tor), or Sanderson couldn’t read Jordan’s handwriting, or Sanderson made it up (which would also be OK, I think, as he did a fantastic job with the series), or it was a one-off and no one could spell Niki’s name throughout his life—or it was simply an example of poor language planning on the part of the author. I’m much more inclined to think it is that last one.

              The letters "kh" are not found anywhere else throughout the entire series. Littauer ponders as to why Dianatkhah is a special case. Littauer continues to use plain style in order to help readers along. Littauer uses amplification- restating that this is a strange occurrence multiples times in this paragraph. Once again, Littauer adds the creative style, making multiple jokes in the last sentence, including; "…was misspelled by the publisher (sorry Tor), or Sanderson couldn’t read Jordan’s handwriting…" He also uses Apocope, subtracting from the end of the name "Nikiol" to "Niki." This gives an especially informal sense considering Niki was a king.

Discussion of the Old Tongue- a created language in a fantasy novel- could easily leave the average person behind. Yet somehow, Littauer manages to keep an informal approach, despite a difficult topic. Take a look:

First, let’s briefly talk about how names are useful when trying to understand languages. Onomastics is the study of the origin and use of proper names. By looking at how people and places are named, you can get a pretty good idea of what the language looked like when spoken by those people or in that area. Normally, this is pretty clear: Paris, Lyon, Marseilles all sound French, which makes sense, because they are French cities. Boston, New Hampshire, and Manchester all sound English, largely because New England was settled by the English; similarly, Connecticut, Nantucket, and Massachusetts are harder for English speakers to pronounce because they aren’t English words at all, they’re Wompanoag.

In the first sentence Littauer uses a strategy called distinctio. Littauer addresses a complex idea- the importance of names when trying to understand a language. He recognizes that many people may not understand what he’s talking about so he goes on to define onomastics. Littauer then follows up that idea with the use of exemplum when he says “Normally, this is pretty clear: Paris, Lyon, Marseilles all sound French, which makes sense, because they are French cities.” Littauer takes into account the complexity, and continues to use Plain Style in order to help his readers.

Implications Beyond

              Despite addressing a complex and abstract topic, Littauer does a good job of using Plain Style writing in order to make a complex and abstract topic easier to understand. The rhetorical strategies deployed do two key things: clarify ideas and show the author's personality.

              Littauer knew that the ideas he was presenting were fairly complex. He was focusing on the linguistics of a fake language- no small task. However, by using rhetorical strategies such as distinctio and exemplum Littauer was able to present a clear piece that was easy to follow along with. Along with that, Littauer presents his personality. He uses references to other major works of fantasy and science-fiction throughout. Along with that, he used humor countless times. By doing so, Littauer was able to keep his audience active and engaged in the writing.

              This is a post for fantasy and science-fiction website, but Littauer's implementation of Plain Style writing has implications beyond. This work is a great example of how to make a complex topic simple. IN order to educate the masses on complex issues, Plain Style writing could potentially be incredibly impactful. Specifically useful strategies include those to clarify ideas. Providing emphasis and repeating complex ideas multiple times-in multiple ways- will provide clarity to audiences.