How do I develop a language?

[Techno-Druid]

I know it's a strange question, but how do I create a simplistic language? I mean I'm doing it for the book series that I'm about to start on and I need tips and/or possible help with how to develop a simplistic, but still very fleshed out language that some of the "races" in my story could speak (most of them are beast-races). I Mena I watched these videos to help me, but I seem to have trouble intermixing my lore with any possible language I could come up with.



Any advice?

[Torgent]

One simple was it to just do direct letter replacement. So A becomes u, B becomes l. That's a very simple way though and won't yield amazing results. You can also refer back to latin/greek words and change them slightly in a manner that seems to fit your universe. So beasts would use a lot of G's and F's and S's in my opinion, so keep a theme in mind when changing words.

[Techno-Druid]

One simple was it to just do direct letter replacement. So A becomes u, B becomes l. That's a very simple way though and won't yield amazing results. You can also refer back to latin/greek words and change them slightly in a manner that seems to fit your universe. So beasts would use a lot of G's and F's and S's in my opinion, so keep a theme in mind when changing words.

Thank you for your advice.

[Deleted]

Here's my take: don't develop an entire language. handwave the fact that everyone understands everyone away using translators or a global language and just create a couple of words for stuff like Yes, No and some profanity. You can have the major speech in English (or whatever language you write in) and let the characters use these words for spur-of-the-moment exlamations.

The problem with developing your own language is that it slows down the reader when reading the plot. It was done for Avatar, GoT and Star Trek because those were visual entertainment and the audience could understand the gist of the language, or even get subtitles. It was done for LotR because Tolkien was a linguist and it added to the immersion.

[Vanyali]

Don't do most of the things suggested They'll work for a few words, but not a language - especially not one you want to use anywhere in complete forms.

First, you want to decide how you want your people to SOUND.

To use LoTR:

Elves tend to use a lot of sliding sounds - /l/, /r/, /s/ .. they trill, for lack of a better word, and seem much more smooth.
Orcs tend to use a lot of hard stops - /t/, /p/, /k/ .. they're hard words, and there's no unnecessary sound.

Using apostrophes make it weird; people pronounce those in different ways. Is ther'nal [ther?nal] [ther-un-nal] [ther-ah-nal], for instance? That messes with the flow of words and makes it require a pronunciation guide.

maybe express things in unconventional ways, like saying "one who buys" in your made up language instead of "buyer."

nixx was on the money with this one, though - mess around with how they express things. mess around with words - do they use "the" words, or is it implied? is it gender qualified? hell, is it even the same subject verb object that we have?

you'll also want a great deal of linguistic knowledge (and general grammatical knowledge) before you start - you'll run into things that you had no idea existed because you grew up using them.

you need to take into account what words might come from another as well - if you have the word 'tree', baby tree will probably incorporate part of that.


https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

That's a language I've worked on and off for a while, though it doesn't have any phrases in it (those are somewhere else, iirc). But you can see some of the grammatical structures that I've had to make (and I'm missing some), as well as a way of doing opposites and counting




..i like languages

[Deleted]

What happened to the good 'ol point and grunt?

Maybe a few hand gestures for added benefit!

I swear some of you people and your moonrunes.

[Jester Joe]

..i like languages

Neeeeeeeerrrrdddd

I'm kidding, that's rather impressive actually.

What happened to the good 'ol point and grunt?

Maybe a few hand gestures for added benefit!

I swear some of you people and your moonrunes.

For beasts I'd imagine that can get rather far honestly. I mean, just look at dogs. Different pitches and noises, but generally the same, a bark.

But if they have multiple beast races, that can get repetitive and seem bland and uninspiring.

[Vanyali]

Neeeeeeeerrrrdddd

I'm kidding, that's rather impressive actually.

.

I get bored really, really easily >_> And I was making a character for a game.. that I never joined... and ended up with an entire race and language and creation mythos..

tbh i still don't know how that happened

[Alydael]

Developing a language for your book is a unique opportunity for you to really showcase and define one of the cultures in your book. Think of how words might have similar meanings, but different connotations or slightly different translations (and what that states about the culture). Also consider words or phrases that might not have a translation and what that would imply. Don't just breeze over it, make it count.

[Jester Joe]

I get bored really, really easily >_> And I was making a character for a game.. that I never joined... and ended up with an entire race and language and creation mythos..

tbh i still don't know how that happened

I'm just imagining "Whoops, I tripped and accidentally made a language"

I never would have thought I'd be surrounded by so many fucking nerds on a video game forum.

It was my final sanctuary.

[Mayhem]

Thank you for your advice.

replace a with e, i with u, o with a, e with i and u with o

thenk yao far yaor edvuci

just a very simple example

[Elim Garak]

Find a linguist who will provide you with their expertise in the matter and explain how languages were formed (the real ones) this will help you develop your own. Or if your books is something serious - the linguist can even assist you. A good example of artificial languages is "West of Eden" series by H.Harrison.

[Deleted]

There must be alot of how tolken developed his work, as he did it with that in mind.

[Obelisk Kai]

Look if you wanna do this, do it right and start with this.

http://www.zompist.com/kit.html

[NeerDeth]

Watch Caveman[1981]. A very simple foreign language movie that never needed subtitles.

[Vanyali]

I'm just imagining "Whoops, I tripped and accidentally made a language"

i wanted cool phrases!

and it went downhill from there...

[Deleted]

If you really want to make an interesting language then you should study the basic grammatical properties of multiple languages (morphological types etc) to understand what can be done. With only background knowledge in English and exposure to other fantasy languages it'll probably just end up looking like a derivative of one of these.

[Aliessil]

Don't bother, they're a pain in the ass to read. There are exceptions:

1) For names, places, etc
2) For objects / concepts which don't exist in our world
3) When two or more of your characters are talking, and there's another character present who doesn't understand them (even then, your reader still has to go through the hassle of translating, or you have to do it for them).

The rest of the time, make do with HOW your characters use the language, as others have suggested.

If you have to write something that looks vaguely like another language, you could think about chatenig - mxinig teh ltteres aornud so taht tehy aer ni teh wonrg odrer. So lnog as teh frsit nad lsat ltetres aer crorcet, teh barin sikps oevr tehm petrty qiuklcy. The hard part with that is, auto-correct is surprisingly good at spotting the jumbled letters and correcting them for you.

[Techno-Druid]

Does culture have a significant affect on language?

My ape (well bonobo) race is matriarchal and pacifistic with females playing a large role as leaders and priests, while males play a more prominent role in hunting and construction. Architecture-wise, they live in forests, where they live in gigantic interlocking tree houses that connect to docks below which allow travel from tree to tree above the large rivers (the area they live in is based off the Congo).

The bear race lives a more simplistic lifestyle where they build no homes, but instead decorate and renovate caves or dig large burrows. I want them to take a lot of influence on ancient Scottish-Irish culture, such as druidism and war paint. They also don't really where clothing, but instead hats/hoods made from animal hide and most of their food is based off fish, honey and meat (eaten mostly raw).

The other ape race (this one based off chimps) is more nomadic and gladiatorial. I loosely based them off the Mongols and Arab tribes (with a little inspiration coming from orcs of WoW). The only domesticated animal they keep are horses and war is a staple part of their lives with tribes regularly waging war on each other for claim to land and the rule of people (by people I mean chimps) and horses.

There are also crows, dolphins, gorillas, orangutans and wolf-men, which I haven't really fleshed out.

[Deleted]

Does culture have a significant affect on language?

It is debatable whether or not language affects culture or culture affects language. A simple example might be the fact that in Japanese there are different grammatical forms depending on the level of politeness required (e.g. a king a speaking to a peasant would be vastly different than the reverse, with gradations in between the social levels). Is the language like this because the Japanese are culturally more aware of social standing, or are they more aware because of these linguistic distinctions?