Foreign Words and Italics
I'm finally catching up
Dear friends,
I'm very excited about an upcoming Soy/Somos: El Cuentista, Henry Suarez. Henry is Dominican American and likes to tell stories. He's rapidly creating a body of work. I'm thrilled to have met Henry. He's a father of three young daughters, a husband and tech guy with and a passion for writing.
He's also a lot of fun. I hope you enjoy Henry. His story will be in your mailbox in a day or two.
I've decided to adopt a practice that most Latino writers of fiction have favored for a while--to not italicize Spanish words. I know I'm a little late to the party.
The standard in publishing in the United States has been—foreign words are set in italics. The change from "roman" type to italic announces to the reader that here comes a foreign word. Don't trip on it. Pay attention. This standard began to change several years ago for books of fiction where the characters live in both the worlds of English and a native tongue like Spanish. To the character in the story the non-English words are not foreign.
In my memoir At the Narrow Waist of the World I thought long and hard about this issue. I am fully fluent in two languages, and my language of choice is Spanglish. I discussed the issue with my publisher. At the time, the final decision was up to the writer. In my memoir there's a fair amount of Spanish woven naturally. I felt it was essential that the memoir be understood by English speakers, which would be the vast majority of readers. So we retained italics for Spanish and were also careful that the context would help clarify the meanings of the Spanish. Those who've read the memoir have agreed—they got it all. But I do think it's time I venture into this new understanding.
So as of El Cuentista, I've done just that. No italics for “foreign” words. And I have the cheat sheet that I've often used, "Spanish Words of the Day." Some "foreign" words may even stick to you.
Abrazos!
See you soon!
Marlena
I like the rationale for not using italics. It makes sense, in that for the writer, Spanish is not a foreign language, any more than English is. That said, I like the idea of a cheat sheet, to help those who don't know Spanish to appreciate the writing. Great idea!
I love the non-italics rule. So updated with our current times. Go for it!