: Re: How to handle a pidgin language? Question: In reference to this question about how to show a foreign language in a manuscript, I am wondering: What is the best way to handle a pidgin language

@Turnbaugh521

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Personally I don't think you need to make the words italics, if you introduce a word that isn't part of the reader's vocabulary, and give them enough clues to understand what it is, then they will pick it up.

So for instance, if you had a sentence that said - 'Do you want to come to my lattie for supper' and later maybe said '...its in my lattie' people are going to pick up what it means.

If later on you say 'we're catching the lattie-on-water' to cross the river, it won't make a difference whether the reader knows English, the ones that do will understand the subtlety, the ones that don't will simply see it as a bit more of a phrase they need to learn.

drip the words in slowly, guide the reader into understanding the meaning, and don't clog up your story with unneeded explanations.

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