Rewrite

Tim Murray

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Loved the thread on super hero powers. This question concerns introducing a new language interspersed into english. IE: These are nerutes (nuts) from the Anean continent. What is the best way to give a definition in english and not disrupt the flow?
 
Call them nuts. Even if they aren't really.

If it's got four legs and you shear its coat annually and make balls of wool, call it a sheep. The Europeans did this when they went to Americas. Loads of plants, birds and animals with similar or identical names are not actually even related in some cases to the European named one.

Alien:
"These we call Tree nuts in English and these we call bush nuts because they are like your legumes."
1st Human:
"Legumes aren't like nuts"
2nd Human with Biology expertise:
"Never eaten peanuts? They are not actually nuts, but legumes. Anyway this is all nuts, because these so called tree nuts and bush nuts haven't a scrap of Earthly DNA. As our Alien host says, they'll remind you of Earth's nuts and peanuts, probably lacking in vitamins and amino acids that work for us. But the protein, fat and carbohydrate is probably digestible. They'll work in recipes needing nuts. We'll need our supplements. We'd die of malnutrition if we tried to live on the alien foodstuffs."

If you drink a hot herbal infusion, it's called "tea" here even if not actually tea. Similarly anything roasted and ground that's not actually really coffee is called dandelion coffee, acorn coffee, chicory coffee or ersatz coffee or even just coffee.
 
If you've got someone who needs a translation, then it's easy -- "What are those nut-like things?" "They're called nerutes, the fruit of a deciduous tree from Anean"

If not, but you've two people, then something like "Have some nerutes," said Xi. Ye took a handful of the small brown nuts.

If only one person, then eg Xi looked at the nerutes and decided she'd finished with her diet - the golden nuts were just too tasty.

Basically, see them, call them, describe them, in any order you want.
 

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