creating fantasy language

[daydreamer]

in my novel i plan to have a few words and maybe a sentence or two to be in an old forgotten language, what i would like to know is should i spend the time creating a new language or should i wing it and pass of a few made up words?

 

[TheKillerBs]

That depends. Would you find the long, difficult, tedious process of making up a fictional language enjoyable? If the answer is yes, by all means, create the language. If the answer is no, then just wing it.

 

[Steerpike]

Wing it. If you're not going to use enough to justify an entire language, why go to the trouble? Also, unless you really know what you're doing (and maybe you do), I think it is as likely as not that you (or I, or anyone without expertise) would botch it. Better to have a few words hinting at a complete language than to try to actually construct one and make a mess of it.

 

[Garren Jacobsen]

I have to agree with Steerpike on this one. Creating an entire world is a vast undertaking. It's better to focus on a few things, especially those that affect your tale, and go deep into those things. After those few things it's better to have a gloss over everything else that hints at deeper world building.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

in my novel i plan to have a few words and maybe a sentence or two to be in an old forgotten language, what i would like to know is should i spend the time creating a new language or should i wing it and pass of a few made up words?

I agree as well. If you're only intending on a snippet or two of this language, then wing it.

If, however, you're drawn to creating a constructed language, there are some awesome books out there that can provide instruction and inspiration. The Art of Language Invention by David J. Peterson is a great read.

 

[vaiyt]

In a middle point between a full language and just using whatever comes up your mind is a naming language. Creating a language just with enough elements to provide you with consistent looking names may serve your purposes without burdening you with most of the legwork. It's what I'm doing for my world, but then again, I do love linguistics.

 

[daydreamer]

thank you guys so much. i will take it all into consideration.

 

[Smiddlesworth]

In a middle point between a full language and just using whatever comes up your mind is a naming language. Creating a language just with enough elements to provide you with consistent looking names may serve your purposes without burdening you with most of the legwork. It's what I'm doing for my world, but then again, I do love linguistics.

This is exactly what I did. I began with just winging it, but jotted down the created word and its meaning in English. After awhile, I actually noticed I had a lot of words and phrases. Now, since I jotted down all the created words, I reference them when I come up with new words that might have a previous word that used before, that way I have consistency.

Good luck, daydreamer!

 

[Ban]

I would create a basic framework for your language. Decide which vowels and consonants are prominent in your language and establish some basic grammatical rules, such as sentence structure. This way you make sure that the language remains consistent, without having to do a lot of work. A youtuber called Artifexian has some good videos on this, if you want some inspiration.

 

[AndrewLowe]

I would tend to agree with the other posters in this thread, however I believe that it is possible to work within the confines of earth-bound linguistics as Gene Wolf does in Book of the Long Sun. There isn't a single made up word in the entire series--instead, he opts to borrow words from many different languages which he ultimately translates into English/Romance Roots. He accomplishes this by "rough translation." I personally found the whole concept very intriguing.