Hi writingcafe! I've looked around and I can't find much on dealing with language barriers (in an old-world fantasy setting specifically). Would you suggest treating the character similar to a mute until they can learn the language? Any bit of advice you can give would be fine. Thank you for your time- you do great work!
Well, first, it’s best not to refer to non-verbal, mute, and non-speaking people as “a mute” since it’s an adjective, not a noun.
Anyway, language barriers are great in fantasy because they’re so rare. At least at large, they are. Faraway places may have different languages, but many fantasy worlds have massive areas in which everyone speaks The Common Tongue.
So I will answer your question (look at the last bolded point), but I’m also going to take this as an opportunity todiscuss language barriers in conlang.