'Borrowing' Words from Other Languages

So I've been world building for a project I'm working on and have been working on giving names to the towns/gods/etc. It's a fantasy setting and it's not intended to be any specific region in particular, so for inspiration I've been looking up words in various foreign languages. (like various Slovak languages, Swahili, etc.)

Unfortunately, the only language I happen to be somewhat fluent in is Spanish, so I've had to use online translators. I've only been looking up single words with a specific meaning like 'mountain' or 'river or such and i've tried to make sure I actually know how the words are pronouced. With a few, I changed the word slightly but with some I just took the direct translation.

I just intended for it to be a Meaningful Name and a Bilingual Bonus, but does anyone see a problem with this?

Oh boy.

I'm a big offender in this department. As I'm still currently working on my second universe to polish it, I've taken various languages(usually with a help of Google Translate) and pinned them to various races. And so, orcs use Swahili, gnolls - French and German, minotaurs - Latvian and so on and so forth.

Naturally, I tend to limit myself with going full French/German/Yiddish here, on excuse of having a common language used by everyone. That being said, main heroine for one example is fond of using some "orcish" insults when angered enough. I suppose it will have to be toned down when it's going to be released(if) though.

grah

Quite frankly, it's not any more realistic to have a 'common' language that's too widely spoken, especially when your world's cultural and historical climate wouldn't logically cause a 'common' language to spread too far.

I don't actually see anything wrong with borrowing words from other languages for a fantasy setting, so long as you're consistent about it and don't have people named John, Sakura, Mwenye, and Leilani all living in the same secluded settlement. In fact, you could imply some interesting relationships with certain races by having them use words from related languages.

"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."

Hm.

I prefer to view this common language as something like Common from D&D. Here, however, its ubiquitousness is justified: humans brought it with themselves during their great conquest back in a day and while it never became a "main" language anywhere outside their land on the north, it is still something like English: everyone can utter a few sentences, but speaking fluently might present a problem for most.

I agree however that giving each country(and by extension, race) an individual language(or a few) to use spices them up.

grah

I've run into this problem regarding clothing, though I imagine it appears in other places as well. English words for non-Western clothing get vague very fast (seriously, how many garments can "sarong" describe) and using the word from the original language can yank readers out of the experience. When you have a character from a Turkish-based culture interacting with Mayincatec people and suddenly dropping a Japanese word, I found it creates a feeling of disconnect- especially when you can't use the English word for the object because there isn't one. In this case, I've been forced to settle for just a basic description and letting the reader's imagination do the heavy lifting.

The point I'm getting at is that while multiple languages/cultures are good and realistic, some constructions have obvious roots in real-world Earth cultures- "mukokuseki" is obviously Japanese, "Thwappington-upon-Treacle" is obviously British, "kopfegeshlagen" is obviously German, and so on. Unless the story is taking place on Earth, you'll want to be careful just to avoid unjustified Aerith and Bob.

as a resident of Thwappington Upon Treacle, I find that offensive.

I write stuff sometimes. I also sometimes make youtube videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/majormarks

Is there anything I should try to avoid as I do this?

Be very careful with this. It is very easy to go the wrong way accidently:

Example: all the primitive jungle people speak a variation of an African language while the beautiful, civilized elfen people drop French.

Not to say that is what you are doing, just giving an example of how people have borrowed and have really botched it.

I like what Robert Jordan did, he made a lot of time elaspe where common words changed meanings more so than a word kept the same meaning over a long period of time. That also follows more linguistic tendencies too.

Oh and there isn't a problem with a Bob and a Guillermo and a Shalyla coming from the same neighborhood depending on how you have evolved the political and cultural groups in your world.

"Psssh. Even if you could catch a miracle on a picture any person would probably delete it to make space for more porn." - Aszur

And now I'm seeing the hilarious inversion of that in a horde of barbaric orcs speaking entirely in French.

Of course people will assume I'm stereotyping the Quebecois.

hm/

trying to borrow names from greek, semitic and indian languages, and english here.

for a medieval fantasy-type setting. for a game along the lines of Long Live The Queen.

so much to do, and yet... here, it feels like one cannot do anything but lie here and sleep forever.