What do you call it?

[quinara]

There was an interesting post I read on fanlore this morning about how the latest news (that 'fan fiction' has been added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary) from otw_news should affect Fanlore, which while part of the OTW is supposed to be self-reflective of fandom, rather than looking in from elsewhere (so, the question is, is 'fan fiction' actually the standard way people write the term in fandom, or is it interchangeable with 'fanfiction' or is 'fanfiction' actually the norm - note that that's actually a separate issue to 'fanfic').

I don't agree with khellekson that "fan is not a prefix. Turning the two words into one elides the active work of the fan by making the entire word about the artwork"; I think fanfic is practically an entirely different process to 'fiction', with a different start point, goal and end point, so having an entirely different word makes sense. But that's just a difference of opinion - what I found more interesting was the general squee that 'fan fiction' was now in 'the' dictionary. I hadn't realised it wasn't!

But that would possibly be because, for me as someone in the UK, it's been in 'the' dictionary, ie. the OED, for five years. (I know that says draft, but various other places say it was added properly in December 2004; please correct me if you think I'm in error.)

Besides finding it a little peculiar that apparently US English speakers were without any point of legitimate reference at all before the addition of the term to MW, this got me wondering, in relation to Fanlore and fandom in general, what do people in non-English-speaking fandom and indeed people in English-speaking fandom for whom English isn't their first language call (what apparently is properly referred to as) 'fan fiction'. Do you compound or not? Is it always a loan word or do you have your own terms (this probably sounds ridiculously naive, but despite my FF icon I've never really been involved in fanfic/discussion for a non-English fandom)? Is there another convention elsewhere in the world?

And what do people do more generally? I'd love to hear from my flist and any random passers-by.

Comments

[yvi]

The parts of German fandom I was in used 'Fanfiction'. And I really couldn't care less whether it's "fan fiction" or "fanfiction". Being German, I have a certain leaning towards compound words, but that's it. Maybe I just don't get the subtle nuances of whether it gets to be a compound word or not?

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan-Fiction lists several variants.

[inalasahl]

Besides finding it a little peculiar that apparently US English speakers were without any point of legitimate reference at all before the addition of the term to MW
Well, it's been in other US-ian dictionaries for years, too. And the Merriam-Webster is not the de facto dictionary in the small specialized circle I have a little familiarity with (Catholic publishers), but I will concede that I know nought about what mainstream publishers use.

I also don't see why Transformative Works and Culture, the peer-reviewed academic journal, and Fanlore, the open-to-all wiki, need to match their spellings just because they are both projects of the OTW. It seems to me they have different purposes.

(Here from metafandom of the future.)

Via metafandom

[solesakuma]

Spanish-speaking fandom always used it as a compound (fanficción)*, but mostly stuck with the shortened forms - fic -. The REAL issue is gender, actually. Most people in in my experience use a masculine form - el fic - but other people use the feminine form.

I've always seen it as one word, really.

* Separated, in Spanish, makes no sense and should be 'ficción fan'. Since 'fanficción' is a translated loan word, it had to be a compound in order to make sense.

Via metafandom

[christycorr]

Brazilian fandom represent! We use 'fanfiction' too—well, wait, no. Actually, we use just 'fanfic;' it's considered a feminine noun ('a fanfic'). We rarely use 'fic,' and occasionally 'fanfiction.' I still find it odd to switch from my default 'fic' to 'fanfic' when talking to other Brazilians, but there you have it.

I've never used the term 'fan fiction,' though I suppose that is what I'd be expected to do if I were to become an acafan.

I agree with using 'fanfiction' on Fanlore, anyhow. It's how the English-speaking fandom refers to it, and that's where Fanlore's editors come from; the OTW's policies for TWC don't necessarily inform what we do at the wiki, since the two projects' goals are separate. [This is just my opinion, though, I'm not speaking on any kind of official capacity or whatever.]

[cesy]

I'm interested to see the TWC bias to US rather than UK English flagged up so clearly by this. I know that several parts of the OTW have a policy of using US rather than UK English in certain places, but it doesn't sit so well with the international outreach aspect for me personally.

[(Anonymous)]

i was hoping for at least one response from the, er, asiatic side. or any other culture where the roman letters are not usually used. one can dream :D

[katta]

Well, keeping in mind that it's still a word used by very few Swedes, and even fewer who aren't involved in English-speaking fandom: it's still fanfic or fanfiction. Not fan fiction (Swedes tend to compound words more often anyway), and no Swedish terms.

[java]

Just my gut-feeling, but mostly I've seen fanfic called 'ficci' in Finnish fandom circles. It's a loan word, obviously, it's just adapted to suit our language [very few words in Finnish end with a consonant]. It should actually be written 'fikki', because there is no double-c in Finnish.

Articles and academic studies about fanfiction use the word 'fanitarina', which is 'fan story' in English, and 'fanifiktio', 'fan fiction'. 'Fani' is an older loan word, as is 'fiktio'.

[bochan]

Here from metafandom@LJ! *waves* :)

I'm Dutch, and I call it either fanfic or just fic - apparently it's called fanfictie in Dutch, though I must admit I've never actually participated in Dutch fandom. Sometimes I say that I'm reading a story (verhaal), without specifying that it's fan-written instead of published.

When I got into fandom - which is over ten years ago, time sure flies - I immediately went for the English-speaking parts. Dutch TV doesn't believe in dubbing (except for the shows meant for the youngest kids), so most of the things I came in contact with were English to begin with. (My first fandom was BtVS, which I used to watch on the BBC. Ah, exciting times...)

If I had to choose between fan fiction and fanfic(tion), though, I'd go for the second. Dutch is another language where words get smushed together a lot, so for me the compounded version just makes more sense.

(I'm not even sure if there actually IS an active fandom here in the Netherlands - by which I mean where people discuss stuff in Dutch instead of English. I've met a handful of other Dutch fangirls, but they were all members of the English-speaking part of fandom. I think one part of it might be that some people tend to look, I don't know, down on Dutch shows and gravitate towards the English ones... I know for a fact that I've caught that mindset in myself several times. The same with books and in particular manga - they've started to translate those into Dutch the last couple of years, but I don't want those, I want the English translations... and I know I'm not the only one.)