Arguments against giving personifications a universal language (or another method of communicating with each other immediately and without any problem)
(Ok, this was a little clickbaity. First of all, I absolutely donāt intend to say that whoever does it is wrong. Like everything in Hetalia worldbuilding, itās a matter of personal preference and goals we set for our story. Additionally I absolutely think that heavy focus on this matter would be detrimental for the story and unapproachable by audience other than a couple of crazy linguists.
Unfortunately I happen to be a crazy linguist, so hereās what I actually mean by this post:)
Fun linguistic things to consider in the context of Hetalia :D
Now, personally, I feel like the universal language takes away from the naturality of their relationships, *especially* so-called āfirst contactā, but not only that. Language is an enormous part of international relationships through the ages and removing this part from the equation results in the personifications not experiencing this side of their peopleās history.
Sometimes in a story you donāt want two nations to understand each other. It happens. Iād much rather have choice than create a rule that takes this possibility from me.
The question of āwhich languages these two characters shareā is interesting; it silently reminds of their history and points to cultural circles they belong to, as a subtle storytelling tool. (Other than that, deciding that is insanely fun, but this might be a linguist thing?)
Languages can be symbolic for other details of relationships. Think Lithuania speaking outdated Polish, from 19th century at best, because he didnāt have many opportunities to catch-up with the living language after that, now theyāre not together with Poland anymore. [/personal hc, but even if they were, I think heād still lag behind].
Another case, think a weaker country speaking the language of the stronger country, never the other way around, indicating a power imbalance between them.
Think a weaker country [personally Iām thinking a friendās Serbia] absolutely refusing to speak the language of the stronger country, forcing them to seek compromises or use an interpreter or more drastic measures.
The lingua franca, whatever it would be, automatically carries a huge cultural and social influence with it. I believe the personifications should be prone to it too.
Another linguist thing, but I find communication struggles fascinating and endearing. Thereās so much cultural exchange to be drawn from a second language user: which parts of learning are difficult for them, which are easy; what mistakes they make and how are these influenced by their native speech; what words do they choose to use, what do they think a chairās gender is, do they sound soft or harsh or have an accent? If two Slavs talk to each other in English, is it correct English or do they use Slavic pronunciation and grammar to make it easier for themselves, causing a distress for each anglophone that hears them?
Another linguist thing, but a lot of pairs of countries that technically donāt have a common language can probably communicate with ease anyway. I want to see them go wild. I want to see them make a mixtape out of their French and Latin to talk to an Italian, I want distant Asian countries to talk to each other in English that no actual English person would understand, I want to see Latin America NOT understanding each other despite theoretically all speaking Spanish. And I want to see two distant countries find out that their only common language is something completely unexpected theyāve studied out of boredom.
I want to see the poor couple of nations without decent linguistic skills SUFFER.
Some of you speak like not having a common language was an unconquerable obstacle that would destroy all the fun and be a giant problem in the storyline. But I donāt really see how? Our ancestors did it. They travelled, they met other nations and they had to learn how to communicate with them. Some of them saw the opposite thing happen: they used to understand their neighbours without problem, but as the nations found themselves under different influences, the languages drifted away from each other until the similarities became unrecognizable. People across the ages have been learning languages, travelling and communicating. There are teachers, translators (my friend Laurynas says heād like to see translators acknowledged), interpreters, etymology, lingua franca and body language all for them to use. I am not 25 yet and I speak 4, with a certain pain I can communicate in 6, and I could probably visit 100 countries of the world without worrying about the language issue at all. My nations are 100 years old. I just donāt think they need additional help. They'll slay :D
There were a couple ideas Iāve seen pro-universal language that I liked, so thought Iād share:
One, as beetroot said, being able to communicate with one personification doesnāt mean the countries wouldnāt have to learn languages, as the rest of the society wouldnāt be able to understand it. Therefore, most of these āfun linguist thingsā would appear anyway, just not between personifications. For me itās a bummer, although acceptable. For someone else it can be more than enough.
Two, a quote from my friend Huku:
āUniversal language is also a thing that helps them identify each other, which is a cool trick. It explains why, upon finding a personification in a swamp, the nation knows that this child is a personification and not some random mortal. Besides, nations from distant cultures also find it hard to communicate initially, because maybe the language is universal, but the context is foreign, the metaphors unreadable, the wording strange.ā
Three, at first I didn't like morgenlichās version that the language ācanāt be written down because of magicā, but after seeing a suggestion that it wouldnāt be an actual language, just a mysterious way of understanding each other, the idea sounds more approachable to me. Cheers!
