Work Text:
Marcille, for one, thinks she makes a great interpreter, no matter what anyone says. Whatever Laios thinks, she does her work to the best of her ability.
"I'm just afraid," Laios says, "that I'm missing the, ah, tone in what our elven guests are saying. You make everything sound so friendly and nice- which isn't bad, I just. You know I struggle with.... tones."
Marcille prides herself on her work ethic and culture. She's not like Kabru who'll go on and on in Elvish, conversing with guests until Laios's original statement is lost, she can stay focused.
And she translates words faithfully! What Laios doesn't understand is that Elvish has a lot more formality cooked into it, depending on what pronouns or honorifics you use. Translating Elvish is an art form all on its own, since it's so different from the language tallmen speak on the Northern Continent. There's no proper way to convey those intricacies without sounding completely bonkers, so she has to use workarounds to translate the same meaning.
Kabru chooses to simplify things completely when he translates, which sure, is the quickest way and maybe the easiest for a non-Elvish speaker to digest, but translation is an art form. Marcille makes sure to keep the inherent beauty and sing-song nature of Elvish intact while keeping the meaning similar.
Laios still insists with his new position, he should at least know the basics of Elvish to converse with their guests. Marcille concedes that perhaps he should. At minimum, he could learn the greetings, thanks yous and you're welcomes.
"You're in luck, Elvish is quite easy to learn. It's intuitive, with consistent internal rules. You'll get the hang of it in no time," says Marcille, who was raised in a bilingual household and learned both languages since birth and has a huge advantage over Laios, who has been monolingual his whole life.
Unsurprising to many, Laios does not pick up Elvish quickly or effortlessly. Marcille tries jumping straight into vocabulary, but learns there are certain sounds that only exist in Elvish, meaning Laios has no idea how to make them. She takes them back to start at the alphabet, the very bascis, and works up to writing full words, practicing at each letter and what sounds they make.
Marcille is taken aback at how hard it seems to be for Laios.
“The way you roll your r’s are completely wrong. It’s continuous and less guttural than you’re doing, like this,” Marcille gives an example of Elvish’s softer r sounds.
“The sound I’m making is exactly the same as what you’re making,” Laios says. He doesn’t have a keen ear for the differences.
“You’re saying ruh like you’d say buh, with your lips. I’m saying ruh like you’d say luh with the tongue pointed onto the front of your mouth. Think of how the sound changes with tongue placement.”
“The letters were easier to learn than this,” Laios scratches his head, “at least with those I just had to memorize shapes. Sometimes the letters changed depending on if they were at the end of a word, but this is beyond me.”
“You’re the one who wanted to learn Elvish.”
Laios’s head sinks, “Should I ask Kabru instead? Maybe as a tallman he knows how to explain it better…”
“No, no- just give me a moment to think of how to explain this,” Marcille says.
It can’t be that hard to teach someone new sounds right? But maybe that’s her problem, she’s viewing this as any other lesson. This is Laios she’s trying to teach and the best way to get him to understand new topics is to-
Marcille’s face scrunches up, “Okay- think of it like this: you know how mermaids have modified mouths that can communicate in their own language but also mimic human song? Imagine how they position their mouths when making trills.”
For Laios, who spent many months practicing how to mimic mermaid songs until he could sing it just like them, this makes things click in his brain. Marcille has listened to him speak at length to whoever he can get to listen to explain the biology of demihumans (and at repeated request, has asked Marcille to learn the melody of the duet with him but she refuses! Not until he reads all of The Daltian Clan so she can have someone to rant about her hobby to as well.)
Laios’s face lights up, “Oh, that makes complete sense!”
Of course, it only takes a monster analogy for Laios to grasp a new concept.
He still struggles to get the right sound of his mouth after a few more attempts, but it’s progress.