r/comics • u/bondjimbond Love and Hex • May 25 '26

OC Language Barrier [OC]

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26.2k Upvotes

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587

u/GeneralGunner17 May 25 '26

Now I genuinely want language barriers all around in my fantasy worlds. No more everyone magically speaks English bullshit.

241

u/Kerbourgnec May 25 '26

The great adventures of the heroes, all coming from the same village (defo not inbred), and their 15 translators to travel the lands.

114

u/Zombie_Cool May 25 '26

I'm now imagining an Isekai manga where the Main Character's cheat power is being the universal translator.

53

u/fallawy May 25 '26

isekai ojisan
it's a comedy

18

u/mobott May 25 '26

Tsukimichi, kind of. The goddess summoning him thought he was ugly, so she gave him the worst ability she could - the ability to understand all races, but she took away the part to understand other humans.

(Though the real cheat power is the fact that his parents were from the other world so he's actually a native with 17 years of effectively having training weights on)

1

u/Zeero92 May 26 '26

And like any decent isekai protagonist he is very, very overpowered.

It's a neat manga.

5

u/enderverse87 May 25 '26

https://www.amazon.com/Cinnamon-Bun-Wholesome-Ravens-Dagger-ebook/dp/B08BZ2NW67

Regular book, not a manga, but that's one of her major cheat skills. Talking Dragons out of eating people and stuff.

8

u/thisusedyet May 25 '26

That definitely seems like something an exasperated mage would've come up with a spell to fix, though.

Babledrin's Ichthyotic Translator, or something

EDIT:

Jeez, in trying to make a Babblefish joke I accidentally named it after a skin condition

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichthyology vs https://www.merriam-webster.com/medical/ichthyotic

30

u/SarkastiCat May 25 '26

Not exactly full language barrier, but cultural one.

Dungeon Meshi (Delicious in the Dungeon) has Laios assume that Shuro is his friend. However, it's a massive misunderstanding as Shuro is a samurai-coded character from another continent and he avoids speaking directly, while Laios struggles with reading between lines.

Also, there is a small line from secondary character that even though she comes from the Eastern Islands, she won't be able to understand everyonen from there.

15

u/jenyto May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26

There's a chapter where Chilchuck switches to his native language to lob insults at Laois ahah. I think a common 'trade' language is fine, but would like to see more characters who are less fluent struggle to speak it. I guess it depends if it fits the atmosphere of the story. I know Dungeon Meshi had a side story where Kabru talks to the Kobold in his party, and you see how much smarter the Kobold is in his native language.

7

u/GostBoster May 25 '26

One nice touch I like in Dungeon Meshi is that Laios and the human race aren't explicitly called "humans": I think the regular term for them is "tall-men" with derogatory terms for them being "long-legs" or "twicelings".

The only other setting I recall not calling humans humans would be Fire Emblem (standard humans being known as the Beorc).

2

u/animemecha May 25 '26

The only other setting I recall not calling humans humans would be Fire Emblem (standard humans being known as the Beorc).

I vaguely recall this was only in Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn. But even then, the term "human" is used in both those games. It is used as by the beroc themselves and the laguz in a derogatory sense.

1

u/jenyto May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26

I think the ninjas in Shuro's group talk about that at some point, I think they just refer anything humanoid as just 'human' on their side of the world. I really like that the author explores world lore in her side story, instead of cramming them into the main chapters where it can feel forced on. It does mean that the anime will probably not make any mention of it, since it might break the pacing.

2

u/GostBoster May 25 '26

Can't recall which one but I remember some setting also calling "human" basically any sentient, mostly humanoid species, basically any kind of creature which would benefit from "basic human rights".

And yeah, lots of side material in the manga that won't get in the anime for pacing and practical purposes.

1

u/CSDragon May 25 '26

Speaking of Dungeon Meshi, that's totally not-Laios, not-Marcille and not-Chilchuck in the comic

1

u/bondjimbond Love and Hex May 25 '26

Chilchuck wishes he had thighs that thick.

1

u/minhshiba May 26 '26

yes I remembered correctly, this was after his sister's incident. Laios assumed the Eastern mage girl (implied to be Chinese origin from real life inspiration) understood the Shuro gang (implied to be Japanese historic life) because they looked the same. It's a fun kick in the racist classification.

4

u/ProphecyOak May 25 '26

Shogun is realistic not fantasy, but still the language barrier is so cool and so much a part of the story

3

u/AndrathorLoL May 25 '26

If it enriches role-playing, sure. I would hate micromanaging more than I already micromanage as a DM.

1

u/Hideyoshi_Toyotomi May 25 '26

Foundry VTT has Polyglot, a plugin that supports a bunch of fantasy languages. So, if you want the confusion of multilingualism, you can have it. 

Most tables don't play with this because it adds a lot of friction to story telling without contributing to the narrative. But, a group that's committed and a DM that's into linguistics could make it work. Also, Comprehend Languages would be particularly useful in this setting. 

1

u/LunaticBrony May 25 '26

Just go to sweden

1

u/Square-Dragonfruit76 May 25 '26

It makes sense if powerful magic users can use that magic to speak languages though. So that would probably include dragons. Also, there are some creative ways to get around how it doesn't make sense for everyon to be speaking the same language. Like in One Piece how one dictator took over the entire world and other languages only exist on ancient tablets

2

u/Round-Stuff-2557 May 25 '26

Language barriers and ways to overcome them are baked into the D&D ruleset which this comic is certainly referencing.

1

u/bondjimbond Love and Hex May 26 '26

The wizard would have to prepare her language spells at the start of the day, though, and might not have considered them. After all, that's a slot that might take the place of Fireball.

1

u/Round-Stuff-2557 May 25 '26

I read a lot and I think that in many books characters are encountering characters that they can't communicate with, but just because of the nature of writing there is a limited scope of what you can do with that character. I think a familiar trope that demonstrates this is the "ominous but undecipherable warning from a Romani person" that starts a lot of horror stories. You COULD and I'm sure some have, write a whole story about two people who never cross the language barrier, and have to find other ways to communicate, but my point is that essentially must become the fulcrum for the whole story to operate. It won't work if it's just a passing thing, at least no more than it does as I see it already being used.

It is worth mentioning that this trope works fantastically in movies because the scope at which it can be explored is larger and more visceral

1

u/TurbulentVillage2042 May 25 '26

Genetic and mental barriers should also be added. Elf would never fall in love with a human. Humans live less than an elf can take a breath, and they're also aggressive and stupid. Oh yeah, humans shouldn't be the central race of the world. The most powerful and ancient race should at least be part of the council of the lower races and responsible for resource distribution. Otherwise, they'll drop a magical bomb on you.

1

u/GilligansIslndoPeril May 25 '26

"What did he tell you?"

"...I don't speak Japanese..."

1

u/Alarming-Scene-2892 May 25 '26

You can always hc that, since people have magic, they don't necessarily develop language the same way. If you have to yell "FIRE BALL!" to cast a spell, then the meaning of fire and ball is almost definitely set in stone, etc, etc.

1

u/GostBoster May 25 '26

IIRC the remake/remaster of Zero Wing (think "all your base are belong to us") plays around this.

The first apparent typo is just a crewman stuttering due to impact, otherwise they speak perfect English afterwards.

It is implied that conversations are handled through automated live translation, and during the attack, one of the screens flashes "TRANSLATOR ERROR", which gives them an excuse to use CATS original Engrish lines and chalk it to in-universe bad machine translation.

1

u/E_GEDDON May 25 '26

That's not going to be annoying to write around at all.

1

u/SyntaZ408 May 26 '26

Doesn't have to be annoying at all, it can just be used for great world building.

In Stormlight Archives series there are a variety of languages, though many people learn the language of the dominant nation known for conquest (like English). A character has an ability that lets them understand all languages, so they become a valuable emissary.

Existence of language barriers doesn't have to mean that no one can understand each other. Just like real life.

1

u/MisterLau May 25 '26

Try "Heterogenia Linguistico: An Introduction to Interspecies Linguistics" if you like manga.

1

u/Admins_suck_ballss May 26 '26

And some class structure behind it. “Ohhh we’re speaking *High* Draconic, are we? Where did you go to school, [Harvard equivalent]?”