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Naming Things

When you're naming things in a fictional world, there are several ways to go about making things up. Sometimes you make stuff up as you go along (à la GRRM's Dothraki vocabulary). Sometimes you methodically and painstakingly craft every detail to give it internal consistency (à la Tolkien's Elvish vocabulary). And sometimes you allude to the outside world that orient your readers in the fictional world (à la Howard's nations and people-groups). Which of these methods do you usually use, or which would be your ideal?

In Camlann, most of the nations and the noble families are named after people or places in Arthurian legend or Celtic mythology. The name Camlann itself is taken from the location of King Arthur's final battle. After these initial important references, though, we moved to a looser method of name creation; basically trying to match the "feel" of the key names we'd gotten from the legends, without worrying about attaching the new names to particular real-world myths.
 

Ireth

Myth Weaver
Since most of my current WIPs take place wholly or partially in the real world and deal with real-world mythology, I use names from the relevant myths and languages (primarily Celtic). My Fae duology is full of Irish and Welsh names, while my vampire novel has mostly Scottish ones. I've recently tried making up a language of my own for names of people and places in another story, but it's tricky and I haven't made a lot of progress with it yet.
 

Wanara009

Troubadour
When you're naming things in a fictional world, there are several ways to go about making things up. Sometimes you make stuff up as you go along (à la GRRM's Dothraki vocabulary). Sometimes you methodically and painstakingly craft every detail to give it internal consistency (à la Tolkien's Elvish vocabulary). And sometimes you allude to the outside world that orient your readers in the fictional world (à la Howard's nations and people-groups). Which of these methods do you usually use, or which would be your ideal?

I use mostly the third method combined with the first. Because my world is heavily inspired by the real world, science fiction, and Hindu epic, I guess I can make allusion to known terms. Like using the words 'Keris' or 'Garuda'

I also mash word up to produce new names.

For example, I have a group of animal known as Cursocrocodyliformes (from the Latin "cursor", meaning running) in the West and "Bayalari" in the East (Baya=Crocodile in Javanese, Lari=run in Indonesian).

I also use alternate spelling to make new terms. This happens a lot in the real-world, so I figured "Hey, why the hell not?"

For example: Leviathan= aquatic crocodylimorph, Livyatan=mammalian whales. Another example: Baya=terrestrial crocodymorph with gracile legs, Buaja=Spinosauridae, Buaya=semi-aquatic crocodylimorph similar to what we have in real life, and Buayara=aquatic crocodylimorph.
 

Gurkhal

Auror
I use a mix between the first and second approach. For me I don't really have the time to come up with entire languages although I still want some degree of internal consistancy so I kind of make up what I think that I will be needing for the future, but seldom much more.
 

SilentMinstrel

New Member
From a reader/consumer perspective, I think that the most crucial thing in developing a language is whether or not it fits the profile of the particular race/species using it. It has to make sense for that race to be speaking it, and it has to sound like something that would come out of the mouths of that race. For instance, Tolkien's Elvish has a certain elegance to it, whilst the Dothraki language has a more rustic, harsher feel; both of which are relevant to their respective users. I don't necessarily actually care whether or not the language is completely logical in a linguistic sense (as long as there is some form of consistency), it just has to sound right. In answer to your question, I think the best option to do this is number three. It depends on whether your race is similar to any actually existing ones, but often, certain connotations linked to languages are inherently linked to the people who use it. I really wouldn't bother that much in trying to think of something extensive; improvising things should be able to produce the right sounding words.
 
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