The Translation Convention in fan works.
- In Aeon Entelechy Evangelion, the use of untranslated nazzadi language is increased, but thankfully it can be understood from context.
- In Aeon Natum Engel, it's established that the official written language is the reformed-english, but we otherwise see anything that is written (computers screen's, Rei's notes) as normal english. Also the Migou conversations are translated for our benefit. Almost everything else is untranslated, from German to R'lyan. Most evident in chapter 15b, where Loyalist Nazzadi are speaking in their native language.
- In A New World: Story of a lost Shinobi, everyone's speech is in English, at least from our perspective. However when Naruto lands in Earthland, he is The Unintelligible (implied to be speaking Japanese). Levi manages to start working on making a dictionary for him via rune magic (the runes hear what he says and try to find the closest word that fits) and Naruto spams dozens of clones to either study with her or listen to everyone talk and work out the language. At first all he talks in is broken English, but by the time he can speak "Earthland", he's already crammed 3-4 years worth of studying the language thanks to clones and Levi's dictionary.
- Chapter four of Bait and Switch (STO) has a conversation between two Bajoran characters that is written in English but stated to be in Kendran dialect.
- Besides the Will of Evil: The language spoken by the main characters is specifically stated to be its own language, Equestrian, translated into English. This includes character and place names, which are "translated" from their in-universe "real" forms to give the same impression in English as they'd give in Equestrian. Likewise, the languages and names of the red deer, mule deer, whitetails and elk are presented as the Romance languages (respectively Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and French) and those of the caribou and moose as Dutch and German in order to give an idea of their linguistic relation to each other. Laewtil, the language the deer constructed for common use among each other, is represented by Quenya, one of the languages of J. R. R. Tolkien's elves, interspersed with some Sindarin words. The author specifically references Tolkien's use of this same trope in The Lord of the Rings as inspiration.
- The Sheikah language in Blind Courage is Arabic, while Hylians use English. Gerudo also speak a different tongue from Hylians, but it's not emphasised.
- In Chrysalis Visits The Hague, whenever ponies speak Equestrian (which sounds unintelligible to humans), it's reciprocated in normal English, occasionally in italics.
- Code: Pony Evolution has a strange one. Since the story takes place in France, all the French is translated to English. However, "Fancy" is translated into... French.
- Justified in A Crown of Stars as everyone is using some sort of alien universal translator.
- In Daughter of Fire and Steel, it is understood that Kryptonians speak their own language during the flashback scenes.
- In Death Note II: The Hidden Note: The characters in the first two and a half chapters are assumed to be speaking Japanese.
- A.A. Pessimal uses this trick in his Discworld fics. Where Rimwards Howondalandian characters appear, if they are in a context where they are speaking Morporkian (English), their spoken words are rendered with a distinct accent - marked by a convention where most instances of the vowel "a" are replaced with "e", a representation of the quirk in South African English that tends to flatten vowels. (The author accepts that to try to do this consistently with every quirk of South African accents would be impractical - this serves to illustrate the convention). Some White Howondalandian characters, not at home with the language, might also speak Morporkian in a way that reflects the way Vondalaans (Afrikaans) constructs sentences, possibly with an ocassional justnow or shame or ja-nie thrown in where appropriate. When speaking Vondalaans, however, their speech is presented as if it were perfectly normal English (Except where a Morporkian or other character is listening who does not understand what they are saying, when it becomes Afrikaans). Phrases like jou bliksem! are perfectly understood, however. Some concepts are universal.
- Dominus Anulorum, a Latin language fanfilm of The Lord of the Rings uses English to represent elvish, leading Gandalf to open the gates of Moria by saying "Friend" in English.
- Several subtly different variants on this trope are employed in The Dragon King's Temple. When we're in the perspective of the SG-1 characters, English is rendered as English while Asyuntian is rendered as phonetically transliterated Japanese (not because Asyuntian actually is Japanese, or even related to it in any meaningful way, but simply because the author spoke Japanese well enough to play games with it and had neither the time nor the talent to create an entirely new language a la Tolkien). When we're in the perspective of the Asyuntian characters, however, Asyuntian is rendered as English while English is phonetically transliterated according to "Asyuntian" rules of pronunciation (since the Asyuntians don't speak English).
- In Fledglings, despite the use of real-world languages, according to Word of God they're merely being translated as Earth languages partially for ease of comprehension, partially to hint at their connection to the old world.
- A Force of Four: Badra is an alien woman from Hator, and her three allies Kizo, Mala and U-Ban are Kryptonians. Yet still, all of their conversations are rendered in English.
- Fractured (SovereignGFC), a Mass Effect/Star Wars/Borderlands crossover becomes this once Translator Microbes are developed. Speech from asari, batarian, salarian, et. al. (which were specifically noted to be incomprehensible by the Trans-Galactic Republic) is always rendered in English, but only after the Translator Microbes is it noted that the newcomers also understand what is being said. Linguistic barriers are not mentioned again.
- A metaphorical use in From Bajor to the Black, where the author uses US Marine Corps lingo as a translation convention for the Bajoran Militia, to draw a contrast with the Navy-influenced Federation Starfleet. The author's notes cite the trope by name (the author is a troper).
- In From Behind Bars, "lion-Latin" is the Classical Tongue of lions. It's actually Swahili. All the Animal Talk is also translated into English.
- Harmony Theory: There are at least three languages in the fic. All three are represented by English in the fic. A switch in languages is represented by writing the language which is spoken less in that scene italics.
- Hellsister Trilogy: In the 31st century the galaxy's common language appears to be English, at least from the reader's perspective.
- When characters in the fanfic it feels more like a memory are speaking French, their dialogue is rendered to the reader as italicized English.
- I've Got Your Back depicts Octarians as speaking Yoruba and Inklings as speaking English.
- Kara of Rokyn's main setting is Rokyn, a world settled by Kryptonian refugees. And still their speech is always rendered in English.
- New Vegas Showtime: Japanese is rendered as English in [square brackets]. One chapter inverts this, with English heard by Morgana (who doesn't know English and the English alphabet) transcribed into katakana.
- In A Prize for Three Empires, alien speech is always rendered in English, even when aliens from different races are speaking with each other.
- Racer and the Geek: Used in chapter 3
. As it turns out, Telny and Keffiyeh were holding a conversation in a language other than Equestrian, as revealed by Goggles asking Telny what language he was using. It is later revealed to be Zebrische, which is the zebra language and spoken in Zebricy. This is a massive plot point. - Rise of the Minisukas: Since the Minisukas only communicate by saying "Idiot" over and over, their strategic meeting in the ninth chapter is translated from "Minisukese":(The following scene has been translated from Minisukese in order to improve clarity and reduce confusion. Any confusion or lack of clarity that remains is either intentional or not our problem. Best Wishes- The underpaid translators.)
- Characters in RWBY: Scars speak Common Tongue, which is seemingly English. The native tongue's of the kingdoms are other real world languages, such as Old Atlesian being German.
- All the characters in Warriors of the World speak using a Common Tongue called New Runic. The entire fanfic is in English.
- The Servants of Ungoliant: Ungoliant's minions speak three languages: Renorin (the Common Tongue of the inhabitants of Mórenorë), Gongon (the language of the Gongs), and a third language generally known as Melkoric (a language primarily spoken by the creatures of Melkor, hence the name), when communicating with each other. The latter is the one that is translated to English for the audience's sake, since it is the language that is the most universally used.
- Springaling: Springtrap is only physically capable of making hissing sounds akin to his jumpscare noise in the game he's from, but is perceived as speaking fluently while in the company of the other undead characters and the Nightmare animatronics, who are imagination-based beings.
- Enlightenments is written in English, but the characters are being translated from the fictional languages featured in the source material. The fic explores a few expansions on the fictional languages:
- Like in canon, Dormin's archaic dialect is translated as Flowery Elizabethan English.
- Both featured languages (Wander/Yorda's and Ico's) have sets of pronouns that are only used for divine entities. The closest written English can get to expressing them is capitalizing pronouns related to Dormin and other gods, which all the characters do... except Wander, unless he's either concentrating on being respectful or temporarily overawed. It comes from his being a Nay-Theist.
- Wander's writing system seems to be syllabic.
- The Mountain and the Wolf: The Wolf can speak any language, but whether that language is understood by the viewpoint character seems to depend on whether he wants to be understood:
- One Rousing Speech is heard in Westerosi, Valyrian and a few languages beside, he's able to speak to Missandei in the language of Naath, but whenever he talks to his demon-possessed ship the words are never clarified.
- The Wolf is seen laughing to a song in Bretonnian (aka French, and not from Warhammer but the French series Le Donjon de Naheulbeuk) but Tyrion realizes no one else on his crew seems to understand it.
- There's also a single untranslated sentence with Scandinavian characters that keeps being said to his hapless assistant as a Running Gag.
