The fact that you're getting so worked up over it tells me you want to do a good job.

Considering that the short piece I'm writing for this world is one I plan to send in to the Aion Award's Annual Science Fiction contest and the novel-length piece I'm writing for it is one I aim to have published, you could certainly say that I want to do a good job, yes.

There ya go.

"Them," as opposed to "us."

That sounds ominous. Who is "them"? And why do I suddenly have in mind a vast shadowy network of puppeteers pulling strings?

Yeah, I'm worried now...

Also, that's not exactly what I'm going for. I want a word that's sort of like 'them' but the 'them' is specifically non-humans. So far I've managed to work out the sort of term I want in German (god bless those people and their love of compound words) "Nichtmenslichschen", which translates as "Not human people" and into bastardised Welsh as "ponadynol", and then into my fictional askriit language it's "dul-rimmlit" ("not ourselves"). But I've yet to think of something I'm 100% happy with that also fits comfortably into English.

Nichtdynols?

Does it have to be so specific? Won't the reader get the idea without it spelled out in detail? "Them," "The Others," "Mortals vs Non-mortals," etc.

Well it's a scene written from the point of view of a character who lives in that world, and it's a commonly employed term they have in their language, so she would use that term to describe them. Essentially, I'm looking for the equivalent of extraterrestrial, only the people I'm describing aren't extraterrestrials as they all evolved on the same planet. If I wanted to use a term that described all four of the planet's sentient species (humans, askriit, vespic and q'relli) then I'd just use 'people', but I need a term that would be used by humans to refer, collectively, to askriit, vespic and q'relli.

The problem with using terms such as 'the others' is that they feel like later additions to the language, introduced from a recent contact, when in fact (with the exception of the vespic) these people have been trading and fighitng with each other for millenia, so the term would have naturally evolved into the language. Compounded with that, I need a word that is also easily recognised as meaning something that isn't human even if it's sentient, hence why I've got rough ideas like 'xenoforms' and 'gentilics'. I'd use xenoforms, but that's already been taken by China Miéville in his Bas-Lag series and considering my own world already has a fair bit in common with his, I'd rather avoid accusations of plagiarism.

This post has been edited by Colonel Mustard: Apr 15 2013, 09:56 PM

If you use any term that currently exists in our language, your readers will take it as having the meaning they're familiar with, so I think you're stuck with a made-up word, such as your 'gentilic'. However, you don't want one with a religious overtone, unless the religions follow the racial divides.

You haven't told us if the term is used as one of disrespect, neutral, or what. That might help determine what sort of word would arise. E.g. "Nonnies" or "Nonners", from non-humans, might be used if humans look down on the others.

The tone of the word is a neutral one; there are slang terms and racial slurs about, of course, but the one I'm looking for is one that's just a statement of objective fact, sort of the equivalent of how you'd call someone from America 'American' or somebody from France 'French'. That's the sort of term I'm looking for.

Why wouldn't you call them the name of the planet then? Like we are called "Earthlings."

But more the equivalent of "foreigner", as it has to apply to all the non-human races. Do the others have anything in common that may group them together? In TES there are "Tailed races" or "Elves" - not that either of those terms cover all other races than one, but do group more than one by common characteristics. E.g. if none of the others has legs, then Zeropods could work. Glabs if they're hairless, etc.

BWAAHAA! I'm going to start calling my husband that and see what happens, ROFL !!!

*a massive explosion was seen erupting in ETN*

That could work, and I'll give it a though. I just need to think of what the other species have in common, though now you mention it, they're all hairless. Hmm...

I have also thought of the term 'extraperson' or 'xenoperson', both of which I quite like, xenoperson especially.

Well then, Smoothskins it is! Fallout ftw!

This.

Since there's three species, it occurs to me that one might have sightly different terms depending on which species you're talking about.

For convenience, I'll call the planet... um... Caatril. (If you named the world I never saw it.) I'd recommend giving the planet an indigenous name.

Caatrilan in general. It might seem cheesey, but think of all the SF that refers to Terrans.

Just popped in for a minute and caught this discussion. Interesting dilemma you have, Colonel. I think that ghastley raised a valid point when he asked if the term was derogatory or not. If there is a blanket term that is used to describe all non-human species in your world then the implication is that humans are somehow apart from or perhaps even in control of the socio-political climate of society. If the former, then a scientific classification (xenomorph) would be valid. Humans, in that instance, could be looked upon as 'apart from' or 'not as good as' the majority of society. If the latter is the case then the term you’re looking for was probably first coined by the humans and is therefore a slur against all species 'not human' (McB's 'Alts' would work really well in this case IMHO). To use an example from our own world you wouldn't say that there are several million animal species... and then there are cats. Unless, of course, it was a cat doing the talking.

Just to interrupt the subject...

I HATE WORD!!!... ...

I'm writing a Fallout bit...

Fallout has talking robots...Therefore, talking robots in story...

This sentence is doing my head in...



Word says the "it's" is wrong...And tells me to change it to its...Which then instantly gets a green line under it to change it back to it's...

What the?...

Or indeed...

Que?!! ...

Si!!...

Senor Toucan...Away!!...

*Cough*...Sorry, wrong thread... ...

Destri: I can kind of see your point there; the term I'm looking for is a sort of neutral one, though I guess it comes with some sense of 'apartness'. Like I've said before, the term I'm looking for would mean 'sentient beings who aren't humans' and in this case, something like 'extraterrestrial' or 'alien' doesn't work very well, as it implies an outsider, but in this case they've co-habited the same planet for more than 12,000 years. And with that in mind, it seems impossible to me that a term meaning 'sentient beings who aren't humans' would not be a part of the language. That makes it tricky as using something like 'non-humans' or 'sentients' feels like a recent attachment to the language when it would have been part of the vocabulary for far longer than anybody can remember.

I'm pretty pleased with my current term of 'xenopeople' and I may well end up sticking with that.


McBadgere: You want "its", there. If you spell it as "it's" then that's an abbreviation of "it is" while spelling it as "its" is the possessive term, because English is logical like that. The only reason Word is being iffy about it is, I'm assuming, because Word can be very stupid sometimes.