Thursday, May 2, 2013

Importance of Language

The Word for World is Forest puts a lot of emphasis on language. The troubles with translating some words shows exactly what is important to the Athsheans, and why. From the title, “Forest” and “World” are the same; when they discuss what the humans are doing, in their own language, the people are cutting down “the World”. It shows how important to the Athsheans the forest is to them. There is also this combination of “god” and “translator” into a single word, however I feel like these are both mistranslations. The meaning is a person who brings new ideas into the world. A better translation would probably simply be innovator, although innovator does not carry the same reverence that god does, the same reverence that Selver seems to have from his people.

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