Creating the Right Language

[writeshiek33]

I am dusting my dream book idea which happens to be my first one which is 230 years ago. Now that I look at it, one element I am struggling with is creating the right language for the antagonist culture. They are a tribal empire.

What that true empire but same time divided into tribes as well. Now they are humanoid based, but have dual plural element. Males are dragon-like & hot blooded while the female are cobra-like and cold & calculating.

Now I realize the story needs for them to have plural language that fits them. I know that masculine and feminine sides must represent the characteristics of the culture, but what I am stuck

 

[The_Murky_Night]

I'm a conlanger, meaning I make fictional languages as a hobby, so I'd be happy to help with this. I am, however, a bit confused; what do you mean by "plural language"?

 

[writeshiek33]

well the culture that i am creating is divided into male and female as male being dragon based humanoid and female snake/cobra humanoid so the language so i mean the language is one for male parts and one female parts yet at the same time the whole culture would understand most of everything some parts would private that the other gender would not understand hence creates struggle.

 

[chrispenycate]

Why is it important that males and females understand each other? Humanity seems to have advanced quite a distance without this necessity. A language each and a very limited set of crossover terms, like 'where's the beer' would seem adequate

 

[WooHooMan]

Let's try Yin and Yang and go from there.

Yang is masculine and is associated with heat, positivity, activity, passion, emotions, the day, openness, a sense of belonging to this world and the cardinal direction of south.
Yin is feminine and is associated with coldness, negativity, calmness, apathy, logic, passiveness, the night, hiding things, death and the cardinal direction of north.
So any words related to the above gets gendered.

I'd also wonder if the different biology would effect how they speak. Female words may involve hissing or sounds that males can't produce while male words involve roars, growls and other sounds that females can't produce. That could be neat.

Is this helping or what because I'm not even really sure what you're asking.

 

[Miskatonic]

Creating an actual language with real rules is a huge undertaking. My advice would be to base it off of a language from our world and adjust accordingly. At least following the grammatical rules will make it feel more authentic.

 

[Bropocalypse]

Creating a language that has parts that are not understood by the other half of what is otherwise the same group... Normally I would say that is massively infeasible. However, you do have the benefit of not working with humans, here. It wouldn't be beyond reason that with sufficient sexual dimorphism, one sex would be able to speak and hear in a range that the other might not, and likewise the other way. Otherwise, you'd have to come up with another good excuse as to why one sex is unable to learn the language of the other.
Of course, this runs into the issue of just how separated from human speech it would have to be: If you're okay with these creatures speaking in a pitch that humans can't detect, great! You don't have to elaborate on it much more than that. If they speak in ranges that humans can hear but others of their own species can't, you'll have to be careful with how you work that in.