History YouNoTakeCandle / Literature

** Actual Lakota were [[https://web.archive.org/web/20090806050309/http://www.oyate.org:80/books-to-avoid/myHeart.html rather less than pleased]] by the language used.[[note]]The author also 'adapted' [[https://web.archive.org/web/20090320220649/http://www.oyate.org:80/books-to-avoid/myHeartMore.html several passages and incidents from authentic Carlisle narratives.[[/note]]

** Actual Lakota were [[http://www.oyate.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=111:my-heart-is-on-the-ground&catid=35:avoid rather less than pleased]] by the language used.

* Lakota Indian Nannie Little Rose talks like this in the book ''[[Literature/DearAmerica My Heart Is on the Ground]]'', which is supposed to be her diary as she goes to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlisle_Indian_Industrial_School Carlisle Indian Industrial school]], an (actual) school meant to teach Native Americans how to be "white" (no, really). [[labelnote:*]]The school founder's motto was "Kill the Indian to save the man!"[[/labelnote]] Then, as if to make up for this, she learns fluent English in ten months of being there.

* Yar the hyena in Louise Searl's ''Literature/TheWayOfKings2021 speaks like this when communicating with Kachula the lion, since she learned lion language purely by observation.

** One character speaking sub-fluently is Ghan-buri-Ghan, though it's {{Justified|Trope}} as his people have no real contact with Westron-speaking peoples, so it is not strange that he barely speaks it. Also, his people are [[EloquentInMyNativeTongue actually rather smart and wise]], and even the characters are a bit surprised at what they thought to be stupid primitives.

* In ''Literature/AMillionAdventures'', Pashka pretends to speak Cosmolingua, the interplanetary language, this way. First, he is disguised as a ditzy SpoiledBrat, second, it's just too much fun.

* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' has the Hork-Bajir, who talk in very broken English with some of their own language thrown in. It's said by many characters that Hork-Bajir are "not the geniuses of the galaxy," but in what appears to be an unintended subversion, the books that feature them heavily have shown them to demonstrate [[BookDumb street smarts]] that exceed their linguistic skills.
** Later revealed that the trope is justified. The Hork-Bajir's intelligence and language skills were being kept down and manipulated by an ancient conspiracy on their own planet. An alien race originally created them for ecological purposes and actively worked to keep them as dumb as possible so they wouldn't discover the truth. The low language skills were intentional as it prevented smarter members of the race from conveying complex concepts they had grasped to the slower members, for example a Hork-Bajir genius has discovered art but his language lacked the ability to represent abstract elements. When he said a etching was of a friend, others heard that he was insisting the markers were the friend, which lead them to believe he was crazy.

* Played with in ''Discworld/{{Snuff}}''. When we first see Goblins speaking (directly translated by magical means) it sound like this. Later in the book properly bilingual characters explain that it actually just has such a different grammatical system, and the culture that invented it is different enough in outlook, that it [[EloquentInMyNativeTongue doesn't translate well]].

* Creator/AnthonyBoucher's science-fiction story "Barrier" presents a future in which this has been done deliberately: only four languages remain extant, and all of them have been "regularized": there are no longer any irregular verbs ("is" becomes "bees"), all plurals are formed by adding s or es ("men" is now "mans"), articles have been dropped completely, and so forth. It sounds odd, but in fact probably would be considerably easier to learn.
* In Creator/CJCherryh's ''Literature/ChanurNovels'', the Mahendo'sat, though no more nor less intelligent than the other oxygen-breathing space-faring species, have a difficult time learning the languages of other species, so when speaking to other species their merchants use a pidgin language which is rendered in English in a "primitive" sounding manner. They speak it among themselves as well, from having hundreds or thousands of different dialects on their home planet, sort of like Chinese, with the differences between Mandarin and Cantonese and such. Because it's simplified so much, it's used as the de facto trade language between the various aliens.
* Lampshaded to a degree by the titular character of the ''Literature/{{Firekeeper}}'' series, who was RaisedByWolves. She [[ElectiveBrokenLanguage insists that using more words than she needs to make her point is pointless]]. Also {{Subverted|Trope}} to a degree in that when speaking with animals (which is her native "language") she is depicted as having normal grammatical skills.

* Foxes speak this way in ''Literature/{{Survivor|Dogs}}s''. They're closely enough related to speak the same language as dogs, but not closely enough to be fluent with them.

* [[Literature/{{Wicked}} Turtle Heart]] is to be surprised he is not to be mentioned yet. But Turtle Heart is to have been a small part that is to be served purely to be questioning Nessarose's father.

** One scene in the last third of the book has the scientists, linguists (named Ransom), and some of the natives all in one area performing an impromptu 'trial' of some of the scientists' ideas. The scientists know they can't defend themselves adequately, so have Ransom 'translate', since he actually spent time learning some of the vocabulary. The problem is, Ransom knows it's going to come out as "No Take Candle"; especially since he doesn't understand (or even support) some of the concepts involved. At one point he even lampshades it, effectively saying "He says... he says... you know what, I have no clue what he's talking about, and doubt I could say it even if I did."

* Somewhat a SubvertedTrope in RickRiordan's ''Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus'' with Ella; who despite her intelligence speaks like this because she is a harpy and that's just what they do.

* Happens several times in Creator/HarryTurtledove ''Literature/WorldWar'' books with the Race, reptilian conquerors to invade Earth during WorldWarTwo, although subverted in that they are a highly-advanced species. Their representatives learn major human languages, but tend to speak in this manner (e.g. "maybe you help us now"), often trying to find proper equivalent in the given human language for a specific word with the typical "[[HowDoYouSay how you say]]". This differs from lizard to lizard, though, and some get better as the series progresses. Given their physiology, though, their speech is also peppered with SssssnakeTalk. It also happens, as a necessity, between Liu Han and Bobby Fiore, as neither initially knows the other's language. They eventually develop a mix language of sorts, a mishmash of Chinese, English, Race, and sign. Only the two of them can understand it. The books show this as a YouNoTakeCandle-like speech.

* ''Five Get Into a Fix'' by EnidBlyton has Aily, a Welsh girl with extremely broken English ("Aily hide", "Aily not tell"), but [[EloquentInMyNativeTongue speaking beautiful Welsh phrases]] no one is able to understand

* Anthony Boucher's science-fiction story ''Barrier'' presents a future in which this has been done deliberately: only four languages remain extant, and all of them have been "regularized": there are no longer any irregular verbs ("is" becomes "bees"), all plurals are formed by adding s or es ("men" is now "mans"), articles have been dropped completely, and so forth. It sounds odd, but in fact probably would be considerably easier to learn.

* Tiger Lily and her tribe in ''Literature/PeterPan.'' Oddly enough, they use an AsianSpeekeeEngrish accent, despite being Indians. (Perhaps justified in that everything in Never Land is based on children's imagination, and children rarely do the research.)

* In Creator/CJCherryh's ''Literature/ChanurSaga'', the Mahendo'sat, though no more nor less intelligent than the other oxygen-breathing space-faring species, have a difficult time learning the languages of other species, so when speaking to other species their merchants use a pidgin language which is rendered in English in a "primitive" sounding manner.
** They speak it among themselves as well, from having hundreds or thousands of different dialects on their home planet, sort of like Chinese, with the differences between Mandarin and Cantonese and such. Because it's simplified so much, it's used as the de facto trade language between the various aliens.

* Lampshaded to a degree by the titular character of the ''Literature/{{Firekeeper}}'' series, who was RaisedByWolves. She insists that using more words than she needs to make her point is pointless. Also {{Subverted|Trope}} to a degree in that when speaking with animals (which is her native "language") she is depicted as having normal grammatical skills.

* In Creator/CJCherryh's ''ChanurSaga'', the Mahendo'sat, though no more nor less intelligent than the other oxygen-breathing space-faring species, have a difficult time learning the languages of other species, so when speaking to other species their merchants use a pidgin language which is rendered in English in a "primitive" sounding manner.

* Lampshaded to a degree by the titular character of the ''{{Firekeeper}}'' series, who was RaisedByWolves. She insists that using more words than she needs to make her point is pointless. Also {{Subverted|Trope}} to a degree in that when speaking with animals (which is her native "language") she is depicted as having normal grammatical skills.

* The Party was deliberately imposing this trope on the people of Oceania in ''[[Literature/NineteenEightyFour 1984]]''. NewSpeak was an effort to chop down the English language and strip away words for concepts (like love and rebellion) which were dangerous to the leaders, under the guise of efficiency.

* Various species of ''{{Redwall}}'' use different varieties of English, mostly based on actual British accents, but a few fall into this trope. The Sparra inexplicably use what seems to be TontoTalk, despite being from the Britain-analogue ("Can you imagine Friar Hugo's face when Warbeak tells him to 'burn fishworm good'?"), and some of the vermin use very broken English ("Dis de blade wot stop your breath"). It doesn't seem to be a sign of stupidity in the case of the Sparra, though, just that they have very little contact with the mammals.

* Kimy, Henry's mother figure and neighbor, in ''TheTimeTravelersWife'' is a subtle example.

* Benjy Compson in [[Creator/WilliamFaulkner Faulkner's]] ''TheSoundAndTheFury'' is mentally retarded and his internal monologue takes no candle.
* Used in ''WatershipDown'' when the animals speak Hedgerow, a kind of inter-species pidgin, which appears to owe a lot to Italian for whatever reason. Especially played up with mice ("You want-a nice grass? Plenty-a nice-a grass!") and Kehaar the gull.

* In Creator/JohnSteinbeck's ''EastOfEden'', the Chinese servant speaks "Chinee" until a white man observes how very odd it is that no one Chinese ever speaks good English, whereupon he reveals it's intentional, for those who expect it. He was in fact born in the United States and has lived his entire life there. He only reveals his true fluency and personality to people he trusts. He switches to standard English with his employer while the employer is suffering HeroicBSOD.

* This was TruthInTelevision for author Amy Tan as related in her autobiography. The mothers in her books -- particularly Lindo and Su-Yuan in ''Literature/TheJoyLuckClub'', Lu Ling in ''TheBonesettersDaughter'', and Winnie in ''TheKitchenGodsWife'', use English speech that is by and large based on that of her mom and other relatives, while quite EloquentInMyNativeTongue.

* Happens several times in Creator/HarryTurtledove ''WorldWar'' books with the Race, reptilian conquerors to invade Earth during WorldWarTwo, although subverted in that they are a highly-advanced species. Their representatives learn major human languages, but tend to speak in this manner (e.g. "maybe you help us now"), often trying to find proper equivalent in the given human language for a specific word with the typical "[[HowDoYouSay how you say]]". This differs from lizard to lizard, though, and some get better as the series progresses. Given their physiology, though, their speech is also peppered with SssssnakeTalk. It also happens, as a necessity, between Liu Han and Bobby Fiore, as neither initially knows the other's language. They eventually develop a mix language of sorts, a mishmash of Chinese, English, Race, and sign. Only the two of them can understand it. The books show this as a YouNoTakeCandle-like speech.

* Tiger Lily and her tribe in ''PeterPan.'' Oddly enough, they use an AsianSpeekeeEngrish accent, despite being Indians. (Perhaps justified in that everything in Never Land is based on children's imagination, and children rarely do the research.)

* Benjy Compson in [[WilliamFaulkner Faulkner's]] ''TheSoundAndTheFury'' is mentally retarded and his internal monologue takes no candle.

* ''{{Riverworld}}'': Mark Twain's caveman buddy Kazz speaks in heavily accented, broken English. He's smart enough, but his vocal tract is not sufficiently evolved toward speech. Flashbacks have to be told in a generic style.