History TranslationConvention / Literature

* It's not entirely clear what language they're speaking on ''Literature/{{Dinotopia}}'', but the first book makes it clear that it isn't modern English.

* ''Literature/TheCityInTheMiddleOfTheNight'' has a foreword explaining that the novel was originally found documents written in Xiosphanti and Argelan, the languages spoken on the planet, and were translated into what the novel calls "Peak English." It's indicated that sometimes the characters are speaking either Xiosphanti or Argelan when it's important to their character development. Xiosphanti is apparently an incredibly complex language that has particles indicating the time of day that it is when speaking, the speaker's social status, and the listener's social status or occupation, and sometimes this is mentioned in the text, i.e. "He spoke to us as if we were laborers and he was a manager."

* It can be assumed that the characters of the ''Literature/GirlsOfManyLands'' series that are set in non-English countries--e.g. Cécile, Leyla, Spring Pearl, and Saba--are not speaking in English; the only characters that do natively are Isabel and Kathleen. The books intersperse English with the native language and glossaries in the back define words from any other languages used.

* In ''Hunter's Moon'', AnimalTalk is translated as every animal speaking in different human languages. Foxes (the main species) speak English, badgers speak German, cats speak French, etc. Animals of the same family speak in related tongues, such as dogs (dogs and foxes are distantly related) speaking broken English.

* ''Literature/TheBible'':
** Much of the New Testament was originally written in Greek, although it's likely UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} and his disciples actually spoke Aramaic. A few words ("Eli Eli lema sabachthani" is the most famous example) are left in the original Aramaic and then translated in the text, and it's implied that different people speak with different accents, but these subtleties are lost in translation, which (obviously) are all in one language and dialect. Occasionally, some wordplay is lost in the translation to Greek: for example, in Matthew 23:24, Jesus accuses the Pharisees of straining out a gnat (Aramaic: galma) and swallowing a camel (gamla).
** It features a minor {{Aversion}} of this. Here and there you see a line like "Her name was Tabitha, which translated means Dorcas" and then a footnote informs you that "Dorcas" is Greek for "gazelle".
** Translations have a basically universal TranslationConvention that makes no real sense if you actually think about it. It operates across languages too, though how exactly it is implemented depends on when the first translation into that language was done. New translations almost never mess with these conventions, even though many of them describe themselves as being extremely radical. This leads to things like people using the title "Christ" as if it was actually the guy's name. fyi, Christ comes from "χριστος" (christos) and means "the anointed one". Since the original text was in Greek, the original readers would have read "Jesus the anointed" rather than two mostly meaningless names. Or rather "Iesou the anointed" because "Jesus" is a Latinization. Oddly enough most conlangers follow this convention as well (when someone makes a language, one of the first things they usually do is translate a bible passage because that's what Tolkien did. Even if said conlanger is not religious). Even Tolkien didn't translate the title instead Quenyarizing the word "Christ" to Hristo, even though he did actually know the Greek. Other things also get translated with weird results like in this quote "and from him who takes off your coat, do not withhold even your shirt". If you actually think about it, Jesus is referring to garments that hadn't been invented. The Greek actually says "and from him who takes off your cloak, do not withhold even your tunic". It's of course fine for translators to modernize the text for the benefit of modern readers, but it's especially weird when the editors have gone to all the trouble of including a bunch of historical context information (as has become the fashion with newer Bible translations).

* ''Literature/WarriorCats'': It goes without saying that cats can't speak human, so all of the dialogue is written in whatever language you happen to be reading the books in.

* ''LightNovel/AscendanceOfABookworm'': Myne has a brief period of not understanding the language of the new world in which she has reincarnated until she gains access to the memories belonging to the body that her personality unwittingly took over. After that, the world's language is rendered in Japanese (or whatever language the translation is in). However, since the new body belonged to a poor five-year-old girl, words the girl didn't know come out in Japanese until she learns the settings equivalent. Myne also need to learns how to read and write in her new world's language all over again, despite the fact that she could do both in her previous modern-day Japan life.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' is written in a third-person limited perspective which changes viewpoint character by chapter. Languages understood by the viewpoint character are rendered in English, and the specific language being spoken is only brought up by the narration if it becomes relevant (such as when Dany pretends not to understand High Valyrian in order to hear a slave trader's real words instead of the sanitized version presented by his translator). Westerosi alone is ''always'' rendered as English, with no associated ConLang or [[SpeakingSimlish nonsense vocabulary]]; chapters in which the viewpoint character does not understand Westerosi will gloss over it in the narrative with a few words about "babbling in the vulgar Westerosi tongue" rather than give specific dialogue.

* ''Literature/{{Wasp}}'': All conversations in the alien Sirian language are in English, but a number of Sirian slang terms remain (the swearword "soko", "yar" and "nar" which mean yes and no, and the VerbalTic "hi?")