: Re: The use of footnotes to translate foreign words in a novel I'm writing a fantasy novel and one of my characters speaks in English, but sometimes utters single words in an ancient dead language,

@Candy753

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While footnotes are unusual in fiction literature, there are a few examples. The one that uses them for translation that I know is Liu Cixin's "Three Body Problem" trilogy as well as his short stories. They are originally written in chinese. In the english translation, the translator has inserted footnotes whenever a phrase or term or especially name could not be cleanly translated without losing, for example, a double meaning. They are also used to provide context for all of these things.

The thing I noticed is that the footnote is never just a translation. It always is at least a full sentence that gives some context.

Taking from that example, I would suggest the use of footnotes if you need to add details that would break the flow, and are important enough to include, but the reader can without harm decide to jump to the footnote right now, or at the end of the sentence, paragraph or chapter.

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