Hey Tumblr’s Writing Community

teratomarty:

thepeacockangel:

Do you guys have any tips on writing in ways that sound like they’ve been translated from other languages?

I’m writing something that needs to sound like it was translated into English from first or second century Coptic (and was originally in Greek or Aramaic)

Translations are not tidy! Use ellipses for parts of the text that were lost, have alternate possible translations in brackets (i.e. “she raised the hammer [sword, pestle]…”). A lot of early writing was more like shorthand or notes-to-self rather than proper joined-up conceptualison, so feel free to dispense with articles, prepositions, and the like. If there’s a concept you really want to get across, write up a paragraph explaining it, print it out, run it through a paper shredder, and then paste it back together any old how.

Thank you, it’s supposed to be an additional Nag Hammadi manuscript