Language Tropes

Basic Information

Language tropes are tropes that have to do with languages, especially translations.

List of Language Tropes

• Aliens Speaking English
• Antiquated Linguistics
• Armchair Psychology
• As Long As It Sounds Foreign
• Author Vocabulary Calendar
• Bilingual Bonus
  • Bilingual Dialogue
• Black Speech
• Blind Idiot Translation
  • Do Not Want
• Busmans Vocabulary
• Buffy Speak
• Call A Rabbit A Smeerp
• Canis Latinicus
• Cluster F Bomb
• Conveniently Precise Translation
• Curse Of The Ancients
• Cut His Heart Out With A Spoon
• Cypher Language
• Deadly Euphemism
• Dissimile
• Esperanto The Universal Language
• Eternal English
• Everything Sounds Sexier In French
• Fan Sub
• Fan Translation
• Faux Fluency
• Fictionary
• Foreign Cuss Word
• Fun With Acronyms
  • Recursive Acronym
• Fun With Foreign Languages
• Fun With Subtitles
• Future Slang
• Gellerese
• Get Thee To A Nunnery
• Good Bad Translation
• Goshdang It To Heck
• Gratuitous Foreign Language
  • Gratuitous English
  • Gratuitous French Phrases
  • Gratuitous German
  • Gratuitous Japanese
  • Gratuitous Spanish
• Have A Gay Old Time
• Hollywood Spelling
• Hulk Speak
• I Do Not Speak Nonverbal
• I Pulled A Weird Al
• Incredibly Lazy Pun
• Inherently Funny Words
• Intentionally Awkward Title
• Japanese Language
  • Gender And Japanese Language
  • Honorifics
  • Japanese Pronouns
  • Kansai Regional Accent
  • Keigo
• It Is Pronounced Tro-PAY
• Jive Turkey
• Koan
  • Ice Cream Koan
• Leet Lingo
• Lucky Translation
• Mixed Metaphors
• Metaphorgotten
• Mondegreen
• Never Say Die
• No Longer With Us
• No Pronunciation Guide
• Oh My Gods
• Pardon Me Stewardess I Speak Iambic Pentameter
• Pardon My Klingon
• Phantasy Spelling
  • Magick
• Poirot Speak
• Portmanteau
• Prophecies Rhyme All The Time
• Punctuation Shaker
• The Queens Latin
• Realistic Diction Is Unrealistic
• Rouge Angles Of Satin
• Scanlation
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness
• Shibboleth*
• Shlubb And Klump English
• Sophisticated As Hell
• Spell My Name With An S
• Sssssnaketalk
• Speaking Simlish
• Spock Speak
• Starfish Language
• Surprisingly Good English
• Talks To Squirrels
• They Call Me Mister Tibbs
• Totally Radical
• Translation Correction
• Translation Convention
• Translation Style Choices
• Translator Microbes
• Two Of Your Earth Minutes
• Unusual Euphemism
• Verbal Tic
• The Vodka Is Good But The Meat Is Rotten
• Whedon Thyndrome
• Xtreme Kool Letterz
• Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe
• Yiddish As A Second Language
• You Are The Translated Foreign Word
• You Know The One
• You No Take Candle

See Also: Accent (sociolinguistics) and Accent Tropes

Sources

Bibliography

1. TV Tropes Wiki entry

Game and Story Use

• While using multiple languages in a setting makes it more authentic, it also makes it harder for the audience to understand what is going on. Creators of fiction have wrestled with this problem for a long time, and have come up with a variety of solutions. Game masters can use these tropes for inspiration on how to handle different languages in their own game.