Yeah, there's really only three languages in the story: "English", Ilion, and the language of the Holopts (which I haven't named yet, but would have a pseudo-Cyrillic block letter typeface with serifs, and would make up a small fraction of dialogue).
While "phonetic misspellings" wouldn't appear, grammar would be affected by a character's native tongue. Someone with a mild accent (typographically close to the language's "correct" font) would probably not make errors very often, but may be slightly stilted; one with a strong accent would have difficulty with constructions that are very different from how their native language works, may use incorrect auxiliaries (directly translating the ones used by their own language), etc.
Holopts would be especially subject to this (since they're from far away and have little direct contact with either of the other groups), and their language is highly isolating with serial verb constructions and reduplication. The resulting errors would tend to reinforce the other cultures' stereotype of them as big, dumb, bloodthirsty barbarians.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2009-04-07 06:53 pm (UTC)While "phonetic misspellings" wouldn't appear, grammar would be affected by a character's native tongue. Someone with a mild accent (typographically close to the language's "correct" font) would probably not make errors very often, but may be slightly stilted; one with a strong accent would have difficulty with constructions that are very different from how their native language works, may use incorrect auxiliaries (directly translating the ones used by their own language), etc.
Holopts would be especially subject to this (since they're from far away and have little direct contact with either of the other groups), and their language is highly isolating with serial verb constructions and reduplication. The resulting errors would tend to reinforce the other cultures' stereotype of them as big, dumb, bloodthirsty barbarians.