Here's my current system for introducing the Tongue of the Ancients in the comic:
I try to keep it to a minimum. The Bana'i had the most dialogue of anyone so far. Up until that page, there were a few words peppered here and there. I didn't really string out a complete sentence until
the end of issue five.
In the link above, we have Silk's first big entrance (from Isaac's point of view), and she's doing what she normally does: speaking in the language of her childhood. And, while what she's saying isn't exactly obvious, I hope it's obvious that it's a greeting, or at least an answer to Moondoggie's "hey, sexy!" greeting.
(For the record: "Etharzi'de gi, ulfheonar" = "Peace to you, wolf-skin")
"Shen'to Bana'i'hii darsar?" is her second sentence, and it should be fairly obvious that she's asking, "where's Spook?" I gave two clues in this: one, she refers to him by "Shen'to Bana'i", which we know is his name from issue one. Second, he immediately answers, "right here, baby."
"Laida'to dosii...!" isn't explained at all, but I figured it was obvious in context. That's right where someone would say, "oh my god!" or something similar.
The
dialogue from the Bana'i a few days ago isn't quite as obvious, but it wasn't meant to be. However, I dropped two hints there, as well.
1. "Templeton...ethyyd'to ola..." are the first words out of her mouth. On
page two of this issue, Silk refers to Spook as "ethyyd'to ola". Now we know the two are married, so this is a name she's calling her husband. As such, I hope it's fairly obvious that it means something affectionate.
(for the record, it translates to "my heart". Literally, it's "heart of me")
2. Silk translates part of the Banai's monologue at the end of that page--the "many daughters" thing. Locus' "eewww" reaction should also be an indicator of what was said.
For the record, though:
"Templeton...ethyyd'to ola..." = "Templeton...my heart..." (Templeton...heart of me...)
"Ge'trian iada'de plosi pasa'i'to ola..." = "You will be the father of many of my daughters..." (Thou shalt be father many daughters of me)
"Niisa'ka ola...!" = "Come away with me...!" (Come away with me) <--this one actually translates literally, which isn't common.
The Bana'i doesn't speak a lick of English, and on Monday's page, she's going to do a lot more talking. All of it will be in the TotA. However, it should be fairly obvious what she'll be saying because of the responses from the other characters in the scene. if it isn't, respond in this thread and I'll give a translation.
I have a lot of readers who are multi-lingual and are most likely used to this sort of thing. I also have a fair amount of readers who are conlang fans and enjoy deciphering the TotA whenever it pops up. As the issues progress, I'll be repeating certain words to the point where they should be familiar, which will allow me to introduce new words and phrases. These can be deciphered by the context they're in, in regards to the words everyone should already know at that point.
The words everyone should already know by now are:
gi = you
ola = me
(word)'to = (word) of
etharzi = peace
There are a couple of others, but I can't recall them offhand, and don't have time to dig around for them right now. I should be working instead of typing all this out.
The gist of the whole thing is this: it's not necessary to understand the TotA when it pops up. Not word for word, at least. The context should always be pretty clear. Not knowing the word-for-word translation shouldn't be a problem. I won't be hiding anything important in a language no one knows.
There's a movie called "Zoot Suit Riot" which is a good example of this. It jumps between English and (Mexican) Spanish quite a bit. Now, the only words I know in Spanish are the bad ones (thanks to a Mexican cousin of mine), so the Spanish parts, to me, sounded like: "Blah blah blah fuck blah blah shit blah blah blah whore...". It was pretty amusing. And, while I couldn't tell exactly what Edward James Olmos was saying at times, the context was clear--from his voice inflection and his mannerisms. There were entire scenes where I didn't understand a word (except for the profanity), but understood exactly what was being said. This comic will (hopefully) be the same.
You guys are, as always, more than welcome to keep me honest on this, though. I'm not the greatest writer on the face of the planet. So if there's anything you want to know, feel free to post it in the forums or get ahold of me directly.