Marginal languages

From what I gathered, the Italian publishing industry is currently in a mediocre state. Italian Anons may confirm.

Writing in English is the easiest path for you, as you'll always find some public (including people from your area...) for English books. My own language is a major one, yet I feel it will always be parochial and ignored by the rest of the world because it's not English.

Writing in a foreign language that's not English is generally not worth it, unless you have serious connections in the related countries. There are some risky choices that paid off though (like Jonathan Littell writing in French instead of his native English).

couple of random anecdotes:

Darkness at Noon was written in German but immediately translated to and published in English. Although Koestler, at least later in life, was very fluent. The original German version was lost until 2015. It's also common knowledge that English was Joseph Conrad's 3rd language.

Recently a finnish author (Emmi Itäranta) wrote her book simultanuously in Finnish and English, both were well received.

Any German user can tell us about the actual situation with publishing there? Especially as a new name. Is it easier if you're published in another language already?

I didn't suggest you to translate it into Italian, just wanted to know if consider it "important" or not because I come from Italy

For the rest, who cares. Write in whatever language you want.
translations, made by you or others, are secondary. You'll need to worry about that after your work is completed

it's not like anyone's gonna read it anyway

Scandis are pretty much native English speakers though, a lot of them could probably do similar

I think it'd cool to take somebody with a basic grasp of English and just intensively school them in the King James Version, Shakespeare and Melville. No other access to the language. They'd be writing some modern baroque genius,

ironically, I heard the older Italian community in Australia learned much of what they know of their forefathers' language from operas lines

I speak a more or less marginal language (Portuguese), I write both in it and in English. While writing poetry I prefer my native language, though I do write some in English too, and for prose I'm proficient in both equally.

My brother is into linguistics and took some courses in Bosno-Serbo-Croatian and Old Church Slavic. Is it true that half of the differences between the three were made and popularized intentionally for the sole purpose of hating the other ethnic groups and desperately trying to differentiate themselves? I find it all very fascinating

>welcome to KFC, can I take your order
>I have in myself a voracious hunger, a gnawing lust that can be pacified by nought but thine $5 Fill-Up Box

Literarnu scenu poznajem površno, ali čini mi se da ima solidan broj pisaca koji objavljuju u svim zemljama regije, ili barem u više od jedne... Tomić, Dežulović, Ugrešić, Asja Bakić... (na stranu umjetnička vrijednost nekih od njih)

Basically, yes. I'm no linguistics guy, but my opinion is that the differences were mainly made up to just differentiate it one national group from the other. That became especially obvious since the latest wars where everyone is trying to show how different, authentic and autochthonous they are. There is no way any of these groups cannot understand each other, except some regionalisms. Speaking Germans I wondered when I saw how Germans use subtitles in a interview with a guy who was speaking some heavily regionalized form of German. Yet, it is still German for everyone involved, while Balkaniggers make different languages that are based on the writing differences like "Mlijeko/Mleko" or some words where the Croats like to use "Tisuću" which comes from old slavic I think, and the Serbs say "Hiljadu" which comes from the Greek, but both understand it perfectly. Words become a meaning of differentiating nationality here.

To je istina. Ali ja nisam superpopularan, nisam čak ni popularan, premda sam izdao neke knjige; a još manje popularno pišem. Regionalna ograničenja upravo prevladavaju oni koji su superpopularni i aktuelni (tipa Dežulović) ili oni koji su neprikosnoveni kanon (Andrić, Selimović, Kiš). A prije bih si pucao u koljeno nego priznao nešto poput Asje Bakić za umjetnost. Ali zato ja piskaram po kambodžijskom forumu za trgovinu gume...a ona je evo stigla i do Veeky Forumsa. A kakvih zaboravljenih umjetnika ima upravo u njenoj Tuzli, za koje gotovo niko ne zna, a za koje pouzdano tvrdim da su umjetnici europskog kalibra.. Хaoc, ova vremena.

Haha, a da znaš i ja se večito pitam da l' mi vredi da pišem na srpskom. Problem je što kad pišeš na određenom jeziku, imaš iza sebe čitavi kanon tog jezika koji moraš da uzmeš u obzir. Ako pišeš teoretske knjige, to je onda već nešto drugo, ali što se književnosti tiče, i to one prave koja drma jezik u korenu, e tu je bitna istorija jezika i književnosti.
Ja na primer imam želju da napišem knjigu na hipotetičkom srpskom jeziku - neki književni eksperiment - kako bi izgledao srpski jezik da nije bilo Vukove reforme, odnosno da je prevladao Dositejev jezik. Takođe imam želju da napišem balkansku "odiseju" - putovanje preko Balkana "od Vardara pa do Triglava", a da prikažem sve jugoslovenske dijalekte, sa tako suptilnim prelazima da se ne bi ni primetili tokom čitanja. Još jedna ideja je i neki prozni ep, ali ne o Kosovu, već o seobi Slovena na Balkan. Vukla bih iz slovenske mitologije.
Naravno, za sve ovo nisam ni približno dovoljno načitana, niti studiram srpski, niti učim druge slovenske jezike, kao ni staroslovenski. Možda jednog dana? Kad internet nestane i budemo oslobođeni ovog rapstva virtuelnom svetu šitpostovanja, u kom sve ima smisla a ništa nije bitno?
Serbian is not dead!

CAn have some example of this made up differences?

Ja sam izdao dvije zbirke poezije. No, vremenom sam se u nekakvom ničeanskom revoltu (onaj momenat kada pjesnik ustaje protiv vlastitog duha) odvojio od pjesništva. Mislim da ima preko dvije godine otkada sam zadnji put napisao pjesmu. Sada pišem nešto što bismo mogli nazvati "teorijskom" knjigom, premda se tu radi više o filozofiji, ako bih morao odrediti bit. Svakako mislim da ću na kraju uraditi kako sam i kazao, napisati i izdati na "našem", a onda prevesti sam na njemački i vidjeti dalje. Ja bih svakako mogao pisati poeziju i na njemačkom, i na engleskom, ali mislim da je čovjek u poeziji i umjetničkoj prozi tjesnije vezan uz maternji jezik. Svaka "pjesnička" ideja koja mi je ikada došla u glavu na njemačkom i engleskom je bila nekako drastično odvojena od onih na maternjem jeziku. Ne znam kako to nastaje ali imam osjećaj da je to gotovo stepen one Pessoine šizofrenije; samo što bi ovdje na svakom jeziku poeziju ipak pisao neko drugi.

Za sve što si kazala imam samo jedan savjet, a već si ga prekršila, nemoj pričati o svojim planovima. Kad god sam entuzijastično pričao o nekom svom projektu, ubrzo sam odustao i izgubio hrabrost. I naravno, rad, zvuči isprazno ali meni je dugo trebalo da to shvatim. Ja sam pjesnički samo čitao i stvarao impulzivno, tek sam docnije, kad sam pokušao stvoriti neku cjelinu, shvatio da nema čekanja na inspiraciju i muze, nego samo stvarati, ma koliko da je loše i onda dorađivati, dorađivati i dorađivati.

Lijep pozdrav iz Bosne.

>German surely is a "major" language for me since it covers like 200 million speakers worldwide

lol no it does not, L2 speakers don't count

Apart from in the case of English of course

why would it be different, because more english 'L2' speakers essentially fluent?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_standard_Bosnian,_Croatian,_Montenegrin_and_Serbian

Judge for yourself.

I will eat.
Croatian: Ja ću jesti.
Serbian: Ja ću da jedem. (da + present tense of the verb jesti).
You can use both of these in both languages, they are perfectly understandable, but if a Serb were to say Ja ću jesti, it would sound kind of posh, and in Croatian it's the norm.
Actually, come to think of it, Croatian is more posh sounding to me as a Serb, so a good comparison would be British and American English. It's basically dialects of the same language.
Also, Croats make up a lot of words instead of borrowing (we would say fudbal for football, they would say nogomet - noga is a leg).
They use old Slavic names for months (so do some Western Slavs, I believe, although they differ), we use januar, februar.
They say kemija, Krist; we say hemija, Hristos (chemistry, Christ). Because they are Catholics, they were more influenced by Latin, and we by Greek.
They say kaj, we say šta (what)
Et cetera, et cetera...

I speak Romanian and Cioran pretty much did exactly that, fucked off to Paris and wrote the rest of his work in French. Some other authors did the same also (Eliade, Ionescu). The only discrepancy I see with this is the "patriotic" side of it, I'm writing books for the masses rather than the place I was born. In the end I am pretty sure international praise helps one's career at home. Publish in both languages.

Iz Bosne ili IZbosne haha? :)
Znam šta mi pričaš, kod mene ista priča, ali vremenom sam shvatila, većina ideja koje imam su samo trenutne, a one koje nisu trenutne, stoje mi "tu negde", vrte mi se u glavi mesecima, pa i godinama, formulišem ih svesno i nesvesno, dograđujem, nadgrađujem i odbacujem, ponešto zapisujem, ali s vremena na vreme - i to ne zavisi od mene da li će i kad da se desi - nešto me uhvati i drži celu noć, i retki su mi ti trenuci koji nisu rad, već čisto nadahnuće, je li.
Da l' to išta vredi ------ nisam pametna desu.

Yea. Seems like the way to go. Should also help abroad if you're already published at home. That is if you're not in that foreign country yourself. I probably would only write in German if I lived there.

Iz Bosne ipak.

Trebalo bi da vrijedi, postoji to vrenje, nekakva umjetnička trudnoća ako tako hoćeš. Nekada se stvari samo počnu same izlijevati i plesti u nekakvu cjelinu. Čudno je to sve. Ne sjećam se ko je to kazao, uglavnom, parafraza bi bilo nešto poput: "Nije veliki umjetnik onaj koji skače na svaku inspiraciju, nego onaj koji čeka veliki trenutak inspiracije" Tako to nekako ispadne, ako čovjek vjeruje u inspiraciju per se.
A vrijedi sve, imam neke svoje stavove u vezi sa time. Bitno je da čovjek materijalizira svoj duh kroz umjetnost. Tako mi se čini.

Hah, kad sam spomenuo ono za umjetničku vrijednost, više sam ciljao na Tomića. Zar ti je Bakićka toliko loša? Čitao sam njezin "Mars" i nije mi loša knjiga, barem na estetskoj razini. Sad, istina je da prilično blatantno iznosi svoju ideologiju, ali, poslije Gundulića i Dostojevskog, ne mogu odbaciti pisca samo iz takvog razloga.

I Bakićka je završila samo na kambodžijskom forumu za trgovinu gume, i to jer sam njenu knjigu ugrabio besplatno i trebao nešto za čitati u tramvaju, da bude manjeg formata. Ti napiši nazive svojih zbirki ovdje pa ćete opet biti jednaki. ;^)

my native language is tiny (far smaller than any mentioned itt) and I write in that language primarily but the idea is to translate it all to English eventually

>is not a major world language
Neither is German, outside of Western Europe it pretty much irrelevant. And with some balkannigger language, there is a chance to hit a niche, The White King from Hungary did pretty well, despite the language being even more of a niche. Or you can aim for the biggest market possible with good ol' English.

Or you could roll both ways and see the translation as extra step in revision. As a German (and Russian) speaker, I am writing in German since it's easier for me but going to translate it in English and spam mostly English agents.

Are you writing about a crime story in a German village/town? A political manifesto about scary brown people? If the answer to both is no, the situation is pretty sad.

Far smaller than the balkanized ones? What is it user, basque?

My dumb nationalist parents raised me speaking Welsh and screwed me out of widespread literary acclaim. I've published a couple stories in English but it still makes me angry

Icelandic, even Basque is a major language in comparison

Ma Bakićka je standardni proizvod ovog vremena, isto kao i Tanja Stupar-Trifunović i slični "umjetnici". Za mene je to ispraznost, baruština čije vode malo uskomešaš da izgledaju dublje.

Ali ja sam beznadežan slučaj, ja čitam Rilkea. Kad mislim na moderno pjesništvo više mislim na Gottfried Benna nego na Celana. Reakcionista klasični =)

Za mene su najbolji BH pjesnici Esad Ekinović i Špiro Matijević. Prvi je antologijski pjesnik, a ipak obojica sunovraćeni ispod naslaga šunda. Teška vremena.

Kakve su bre to kambodžijske gume??

Jašta. Zato umetnost i jeste đavolja rabota, a umetnik antihrist, jer se približava Bogu na nedozvoljen način i stvara, kao Bog.
Recimo da, što se tiče umetničkog dela, nema umetničkog bez inspiracije, a nema dela bez rada.
Pozdrav iz Šumadije :)

Cool. I've read The Blue Fox and it was forgettable but certainly not bad. Is that any good in Icelandic? What about the Eddas?

Aren't 10% of you writers? So at least the interest on the national level will be relatively high.

A jebiga onda, ja ti ne znam o poeziji puno, jedva shvaćam ovu suvremenu kad naiđem na nju i nisam čuo ni za jednog od ovih pjesnika koje si spomenuo (osim Rilkea).

I haven't actually read any of Sjón's books so I can't say but I can tell you his poetry is among the best of contemporary Icelandic poetry
generally I think Icelandic literature has declined since the mid century era of Þórbergur Þórðarson and Halldór Laxness
the Eddas are a great reading but especially the poetic Edda is so archaic that reading it is a pretty big pain without a glossary as is to be expected of a 1000 year old work - I'm more of saga guy myself though, The Saga of Burnt Njáll is my favorite Icelandic work by far

that stat is misleading to the point of falsehood
this is counting everyone who has ever published something, including novels, theses and newspaper opinion pieces
but still I think it's true that Icelandic literature definitely punches above its weight compared to what the sheer number of speakers would have you believe
unlike a language like Basque or Welsh Icelandic is the only language of Iceland and has an unbroken literary tradition stretching back 800 years and that counts for something