Apologies if this is not the correct community for this question, happy to post elsewhere if that is the case.
In English, it feels common place for fantasy novels to use Latin inspired words for their spells or magic languages - unfortunately Harry Potter is the only one I can think of off the top of my head, but I’m sure there are more! Sci-fi can also fall into this ‘trope’ using Latin themed titles or names - such as “Augustus”, “Primus”, military titles, names etc.
Is this common for other languages in Europe to pull from Latin for their fantasy/sci-fi books? Do novels in the eastern hemisphere pull from dead/uncommonly spoken/ritualistic languages for this purpose? Does one languages pull straight from other living languages?
Is Sanskrit used in South-Eastern Asia? Are there extinct Chinese dialects that live on in the fantasy/sci-fi genres? Do novels written in an Arabic language use a dead sister language from the Arabic continuum? Do books in South American pull from the wealth of languages spoken before European colonization? Do languages with multiple alphabets (looking at you Japanese, but would love to learn about other languages with multiple alphabets) use only a specific alphabet for magic spells? Is Swahili used for magic words in Somalian media?
I’m not looking for answers on these questions explicitly (not that they wouldn’t be appreciated), just giving examples of the theme.
A notable (English) exception I recently read - A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine - which uses names from the native language(s?) of the Americas, primarily Aztec if I’m remembering correctly.
Interesting! Names of old Germanic gods (Odin, Tyr, Hella, etc.) or typical German names (Klaus, Sabine, Angela, etc.)?
According to TVTropes (Gratuitous German, AoaB examples page) it looks like they lean less on German names and more on nouns like Angriff (attack) and Leidenschaft (passion). Japan particularly seems to like choosing German as the gratuitous foreign language.
Japan and Germany were allies in World War II.
That’s why when anime takes place in a foreign land, it’s either outright declared to be Germany, or it’s heavily implied to be Germany. Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan) appeared to be Germany until the country was named… in season 3 which was 5-6 years after the show started. At the end of season 3, I should add. Fullmetal Alchemist was set in a country that was based on Germany. Their head of state was called the Fuhrer and the whole thing was set to resemble Nazi Germany. SPYxFAMILY takes place in Cold War-era Germany, except East Germany becomes Eastonia and West Germany becomes Westalis. The capital? Berlint. They’re not even hiding it. Then you have The Saga of Tanya the Evil where a cruel Japanese salaryman dies (is murdered) and he is reincarnated as the little girl version of Hitler, plus magic. The country is called the Fatherland and it’s very obvious what they are going for. Oh and of course she’s leading the charge to take over the world. To be fair she is called Tanya the Evil, so they aren’t glorifying her actions… but the Japanese creative empire we all love is a bit weirdly comfortable with Nazis and Nazi-era Germany… less weird when you realise that historically, they were allies in that war.
Funny that they’re both our allies now… but while anything Nazi related is strictly forbidden in Germany, it’s practically celebrated in Japan, to this day. Fullmetal Alchemist came out in 2003 (the anime, anyway). SnK, 2013 or so. Tanya the Evil was around that time. SPYxFAMILY is new and new episodes are coming out weekly. Though to be fair their show is post-WWII and Eastonia (East Germany) is portrayed as the enemy, and Westalis (West Germany) is seeking peace, though they’re using the exploits of their top spy (the main character’s adoptive father) to do it.
While you are right in general, Fullmetal Alchemist isn’t an example of glorifying Nazi Germany. The country is a military dictatorship, they committed a genocide while conquering a neighbouring region and are not portrayed as the good guys. The war and genocide was shown to have long lasting bad effects both on the victims and the perpetrating soldiers. And the leadership is literally working for the big bad.
Just wanted to clarify, as this is one of the few examples where they play the Nazi card straight instead of going: “nice uniform and marching music”.
it’s interesting seeing people examine a work, confidently working out the most surface stuff while completely missing the forest behind it
Godwin’s law
I don’t know what names are typical, but they certainly aren’t using actual norse gods. All the characters, gods included, have german-sounding names, but they’re mostly long enough that I doubt people use them routinely in real life