Nino asked Richard Swan:

Been loving grave empire, though 1 question has been burning me since the first trilogy. Was there any reasoning in picking dutch for Kasarsprek? It always catches me by surprise when I read it.

Richard Swan Hi Nino, I like to use real languages because it gives me an opportunity to slip little easter eggs into the novel (for those who feel like translating them). Because the Kasar have a close relationship with Sova and because Sova is a proto-Germanic society I wanted to give them a Germanic language to speak. Dutch is quite a guttural language with some sounds pronounced in the back of the throat which I thought would fit the lupine mouth well. Dutch is also reminiscent of Afrikaans (which of course is derived from Dutch) and which is evocative of southern African nations which does a nice job of fixing the Kyarai linguistically and geographically in the reader's mind.

flag