# In need of a working language...



## DTowne (Nov 28, 2013)

I just started on the beginning stages of the second story arc of my planned trilogy which involves traveling to foreign lands and I'm in need of a usable functioning language, preferably nothing currently in use today.
In the first arc I used Hebrew, Akkadian, Babylonian, and Sumerian for people, places, and the occasional smattering of dialogue. I'm looking to do be able to do the same with this new language. Could anyone point in the right direction of something I could use in this manner. Or any other ideas on how to handle this problem?

Thanks in advance.


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## ascanius (Nov 29, 2013)

Following the pattern you already set why not Latin or ancient Greek.  That or craft a conlang.


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## JCFarnham (Nov 29, 2013)

ascanius said:


> That or craft a conlang.


 
_Very_ dangerous words my friend haha

What flavour are you going for DTowne? Various languages will have different feels in the context of your story. I think the first thing you need to do, if you're certain about making it "exotic", is to find a language which is in no way related to the ones you've already utilised.


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## DTowne (Nov 29, 2013)

I don't want it want it related to previously used languages. That's for sure. It is supposed to be from a people that have had little to no contact with those of the first story. 

As of right now. Feel is not extremely important but they are a desert and mountain people.

I would love to do a conlang of my own. I've even looked it up but was utterly confused.


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## ALB2012 (Nov 29, 2013)

Sanskrit or Celtic? Old Irish, Old English?


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## Malik (Nov 29, 2013)

Lojban!

Just kidding. As far as you know.

I vote conlang. Go big or go home.


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## DTowne (Nov 29, 2013)

I thought of Old English, still too similar to English. I might have to check out sanskrit. 

Malik- I guess I'm going. Conlanging is way above my head.


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## Scribble (Nov 29, 2013)

What about Nahuatl? It's the language of the Aztec descendants living in Mexico today. There aren't many speakers... estimated 1.5 million. Due to the geographic isolation, it is quite distant from most languages today, and not that familiar.

To give a flavor of the language sounds, here's a few English words from Nahuatl origin, according to the oracle (Wikipedia): "avocado", "chayote", "chili", "chocolate", "atlatl", "coyote", "axolotl" and "tomato".

Here's an interesting dictionary of words.

A Dictionary of the English and Nahuatl languages


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## buyjupiter (Nov 30, 2013)

At this point, you've used semitic languages which are separate from the Indo-European ones (Latin based languages, Sanskrit based languages to point out the two big branches of *that* tree). Semitic languages are part of the Afro-Asiatic tree, which includes Egyptian, Arabic, and most other languages in the northern part of Africa. 

You could consider a Turkic language from a steppe people. They didn't have much contact with the West or the Mid-East with the exception of those that traveled the Silk Road. A Turkic language would let you use a people who are very familiar with harsher environments, even if they aren't deserts. Kazhars, Seljuks, Bulgars, Mamluks were all Turkish groups. Possibly the Huns too, but that's more up in the air.


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