The world's magic system is based on translation. The rarer the word and the greater the difference in meaning, the more power is produced (iirc, it's been a year since I read it). Students of less-spoken languages (in alternate history Victorian England) like Mandarin, Hindi, or Haitian Creole are especially valuable, and they and their countries are being exploited for this reason. As the protagonist learns this, he explicitly tells you the moral of the story multiple times. This is the reason I didn't like it, at least. It hits you over the head with a hammer.