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Creating a new language/alphabet

Less searchable M0rd4nt

22:37 / 23.05.03

Okay, so I've been working on this fantasy novel and I got a bit carried away. I want my own language with its own alphabet-- y'know, like Elvish. Only seeing as how I'm not Professor of Ancient Languages at Oxford, I have only the sketchiest idea as to how one would go about it.

I want the finished product to be a plausible, realistic language, with a belivable grammatical structure. (Oh, and it has to look cool on a T-shirt.)

Can anybody give me some pointers?

22:50 / 23.05.03

I started writing a language when I was running a fantasy RPG. My major motivation was that I couldn't be arsed thinking up names, and I hate the "random jumble of syllables" approach anyway (Sythlogarnak the Yomchakka drew his sword, Fraglonostules...) It didn't have its own alphabet, but I started with a basic list of nouns and verbs that had a consistent sound to them, put them on index cards and started sticking them together. Each time I needed a new grammatical rule I'd basically just make one up, as long as, again, it sounded right according to the pronunciation of the existing words.

It got quite addictive and by the end I had I think three geographically different languages, differences between ancient and modern versions, you could take guesses at the history of a place or person by looking at how the name was put together... not that I imagine anyone actually noticed, the bastards.

Anyway, I'd say start small and work upwards. I don't know how anthropologically correct that would be, but trying to set things out completely before you have any need for things will mean you end up with inconsistencies when it comes to actually using the words in conjunction with each other.

22:53 / 23.05.03

By "consistent sound" I mean that I had a set of syllables and "word bits" in mind for each language, and vague ideas of word length. One, IIRC, had a lot of vowels followed by "r" and another consonant, "morn", "tarn", "barl" and tended to be limited to two syllables or so per word. Another had long compound words with lots of "l"s. Sounds cheap, I know, but it worked for me.

23:42 / 23.05.03

Mmmmmm. Hate to be the wet blanket here, but creating the language after the fact—as window dressing—strikes me as a bad idea. Professor T, let us remember, devised the languages first, and created the stories to go along with them.

There are other ways to suggest a fantastic or alien culture—by using various levels of diction, poetic techniques like kennings, puns and wordplay, ritualized language, and so on. All of these will do the job more effectively than a half-assed made-up language: and let's face it, unless you're going to do ten years of study of linguistics, you made-up language is going to be half-assed.

Gene Wolfe's massive Book of the New Sun successfully conveys an entire culture—more than one, in fact—in words you could find in the OED. Even the names of people and places are genuine names from history and legend: there's not a single made-up word in the whole thing, yet it is a triumph of imagination.

RThere's a chapter in Orson Scott Card's tackily-titled How to Write Fantasy and Science Fiction that deals with this very subject: I'll see if I can dig my copy up this weekend...

03:20 / 24.05.03

How about esperanto? I'm assuming 99.99% of humanity wouldn't be able to recognise it, and it probably sounds cool.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

10:37 / 24.05.03

Fridge: yeah, that sounds like the sort of thing I've been doing. I've got a collection of syllables, mostly derived from Latin-based languages, and I'm working on the grammar.

Baz: Ooh, neat idea. But 99.99% just isn't enough. I demand nothing less than global incomprehension.

Jack: This isn't an attempt to stick a language over the top of an existing story. I began with a rough (very rough) framework for the beginning of the story, which is your standard-issue "bunch of Earthlings go Narniaing off through a mystic gate" deal. I also had a basic idea of the history and character of the people, and the kind of world they'd find on the other side. However, I've only "blocked in" the picture so far; the language isn't window-dressing, something plastered over the top to pretty things up. It's there to lend depth and richness to the culture I'm building. I want to put as much detail as possible into the world the story is set in, even if I don't use most of the background detail in the actual novel.

Seriously, I've tried the techniques you describe to create the feel that I'm looking for, something I'm actually pretty good at (having always been more of an atmosphere-monger than an ideas bunny) and it just isn't quite enough somehow. If I have to study linguistics for ten years to get this right (or twenty years, or thirty) then dude, that's just how long it takes.

14:00 / 24.05.03

I kinda have a language with my best friend. It came about from wanting to talk about private stuff in public situations, so it just evolved (quite quickly) through connotations (random stuff: Susan wears a green leotard. Green=envy. en-V. Susan= *making 'V' shape with hands). A lot of it was signs which wouldnt suit if its for writing, but most verbs, and lots of other words were spoken. Structure didnt change really, unless we were afraid of being understood by others.

It wouldnt have come about without having another person to bounce off of, as well as secrets to hide. So i dunno how viable it would be for you to try talking to someone else when making it up, but i think it'd help.

Pirate Ven Will Teach You To Lambada (The Forbidden Dance)

00:59 / 25.05.03

I used to create alphabets using weird designs I seemed to draw a lot when I was a wee tiny lad. I never actually did anything with 'em, so they were just there to look cool, I guess.

09:02 / 26.05.03

Creating a language sounds like a fascinating project!
Though creating a different alphabet might make it harder to publish - I'm not really sure...

Are you trying to create an Earth-like language, or something completely exotic?

It's worth checking out books/web pages on linguistics - there are certain patterns languages tend to follow.

I'd start with the smallest components and work outwards -

What sounds occur in the language, e.g. retroflex/labial consonants, is the language tonal, etc...
What combinations of these sounds are valid? e.g. can 'p' follow 'k'?
How words are made up - Check out isolating, aggluntinating, or fusional languages, though very few languages are purely one type.
Word order (Subject Verb Object, VSO, SOV, etc)
Is word order fixed, or is the function of a word indicted by inflection? Are there prepositions or postpositions?
Certain features tend to go together e.g. SVO's tend to have prepositions, SOV's postpositions.

The language will be influenced by it's history - e.g. influence of invading races, migration, etc. There are some interesting studies trying to work out the culture & environment of the original indo-european people by comparing shared vocabulary among modern indo-european languages (e.g. words relating to horses, trees, animals etc.)

10:00 / 26.05.03

Or you could just invent a bunch of words that sound right, and drape them over the basic grammatical conventions of English, or as my mate Furzle the moon-elf always says, wingnong farushta kalavalef, shitoofka rushalahong Glay.

Or maybe you could use Ouranian Barbaric, or Enochian? I don't think they're copyrighted, they are both grammatically correct, and it would a be a nice nod to actual real-world magickal systems, and would lead to the requisite charges of corruting the youth from right-wing Xtian fundamentalists, or as Furzle calls them, hef-thwilop Zticboi sphinctulamos. Y'know?

Hef: olamos digoofka rushalahong Furzlerush, noi?

Less searchable M0rd4nt

17:04 / 29.05.03

velvetvandal-- Actually, I sort of considered using an existing magickal language, but that wouldn't be in keeping with the whole DIY culture thing. Plus... well, you know magick. Wouldn't want the book to start leaking into real life.

Anyway, I've been doing some searching of my own and... holy crap, there's tons of imaginary langages out there. Making up languages (conlanging, or glossopoeisis) is a whole subculture unto itself.

These are just a few of the sites out there:

Scattered Tongues
Pegasus' Nest
How To Create A Language

And this is fun to play with: The Alphabet Synthesis Machine