For authors of fantasy/historical fics. · 12:43pm Dec 10th, 2012
This is important, yo.
When you want to make a character that was bitten by a wolf and turns into a half pony, half wolf every full moon or whatever, there is something very important to remember.
Your character will not be a 'Werepony' 'Werehorse' 'Were ANYTHING' unless they are human.
Because 'Were' does not mean "wolf"
"Were" means "Man". Hence, werewolf=manwolf.
When you say 'werepony', what you are actually saying is "Manpony" and unless you're writing about a centaur or something, that isn't going to work at all.
What you want is something like "Equuswolf" or maybe just "ponywolf" and either way, those just don't roll of the tongue as well.
What's the solution then? I have no idea, but if I read one more fic where a pony becomes a MANPONY when you meant WOLFPONY I think I might just have to push you belly first into a pool full of Legos.
As you were.
Edit:
What I just did, would do Uncle proud. Because through RESEARCH I have found alternatives for were when talking about lycans.and ponies. The root of the word Equine is Ekwo- so it could be argued that in some senses Ekwolf would work as a Pony wolf lycanthrope. Alternatively, hippo- could also work, Hippowolf.
Two thoughts to keep in mind
~HPL
I AM DIGGING EKWOLF. Thank you, HP Lovecolt for your input.
What I just did, would do Uncle proud. Because through RESEARCH I have found alternatives for were when talking about lycans.and ponies. The root of the word Equine is Ekwo- so it could be argued that in some senses Ekwolf would work as a Pony wolf lycanthrope. Alternatively, hippo- could also work, Hippowolf.
Two thoughts to keep in mind
~HPL
594177 OOh. I like Eckwolf. Editing the post to add your suggestion, thank you much <3 For some reason, I could only think of Equus.
594178
Even that is /technically/ wrong, since it should be Anglicised to Equis. I think... Not 100% certain on that.
594182 Doesn't have to be, I don't think-for portmanteaus like that, latin or english are both generally acceptable
594201
Well when taking into account of a word Etymology is important. I had a long discussion with a friend about possible alternative names for Alicorn since the most common one, Pegacorn, just rubs us the wrong way. With what i did I took two roots, Equine and Hippo, which technically are from different languages but both have been assimilated as roots in English. Ekwo- is technically a Latin root, so it doesn't mix /as/ well with Wolf, same with Hippo. A better one would be the root aihwa-, which is a Gothic root and at least is in the same maxi-languige family of being a Germanic Language (East Germanic but there you are). If we take Aihwa and modify it slightly to make it look more English we could get something like Aehwa, which could translate into Aehwolf.
I could be thinking too much into this really.
594215 JUST A BIT
but we both know when it comes to 1. fanfiction and 2. made up worlds and words and stuff, accessibility is important, just as much so as accuracy. I think some accuracy can be sacrificed so that someone that is NOT familiar with latin/germanic/grecian roots can still look at the word and say 'yes, I know what that is' or can at least extrapolate.
594226
Well... yes and no. When we make up a word, if we want that word to seem like it really does fit within the language then we need to know the roots of that language and that will often times make creating a new word seem much more natural. Such as Eyeball. However, there can be exceptions IF there's enough pollination between roots of the two languages to make it sound pheasable. For example, you're almost never going to be able to create a portmanteau or root-based word that was created with a Western and Eastern language both being roots. However you can wind up with words such as Fleidercorn, which mixes a Germanic and Norman root each to create, I can't remember if it's Flying Horn or Winged horn. So yeah, guess what that could mean
594232 Flying horn, if I'm not mistaken.
I'm a little more forgiving on a site like this that has a large population of younger writers that aren't going to know all that stuff. If you say Fleidercorn, you're gonna get a blank stare. You say Pegacorn or Alicorn, and you get 'ooooh okay'.
I'm not suggesting we mix up something like German and Hokkien (though that could be interesting, lol, WA MAI), I'm suggesting that we come up with a word that is both mostly accurate (or at the very least, something other than completely incorrect in every way) and understandable for people from 12 years old to 90 years old, know what I mean?
594237 Yeah I dig. Still, I come from a love of language and a professional writing background. As such when I come up with new words I try at least to make them make sense either within the language that I'm deriving them from or within the story its self. It's one of the reasons I don't really like reading fantasy so much, there's so many fantasy novels out there who go by 'rule of cool' standards when naming things with little to no consistency on the language its self.
But I digress, in all honesty there isn't a whole lot of word-mixing that gets on my nerves. It's usually stuff like werepony that tend to do that, and I point these things out because I want authors to grow. If you teach a person to use a word wrong, when they're put in a situation where that word would be used they're either going to be confused or embarrassed. Besides, you have to admit learning new words is fun!
594246 I come from the same sort of background, actually-i've been writing for nearly 3 decades, occasionally in a professional context, so I understand where you're coming from.
When it comes to fanfic, I'd rather find a happy medium that works for everyone, kwim?
Now I know
and knowing is half the battle
Yeah I looked into this a lot before I started my fic, but basically gave up and called them 'shifters' instead (since, you know, they 'shift' between forms). Let's hope people like it ...