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New to heavy World building

ok what i have done so far for my comic and wip is look at characters and ask the right questions mentally. never written anything down before. now planning learn basic Latin with help my lit prof brother just enough to construct language if i can using scrivener software. any advice what notes to put down i know sound stupid but never thought of this before
 

Saigonnus

Auror
For any sort of world building, I tend to start small. A village, a tribe of people and ask myself what their values are. Religious? Trade? Military? Transport? Government? Cultural aspects like art, clothing, music, food... what technology level do they have? Money? Magic?

Basically I note down (I use PowerPoint) anything I think is relevant about the culture, including language. Truthfully I haven’t advanced that far with many of my cultures. Mostly because my stories are written in English and I don’t think a reader really wants to learn another language to read a book. Kind of suspends the immersion if you have to look up a word every 2 minutes.
 

elemtilas

Inkling
You don't need to invent an entire language, or rather, foist an entire language, on your readers to give them the feel of its reality and place within the invented world & culture. A naming language --- a relatively short list of key words a/o phrases you'd like to pepper your work with --- is more than sufficient for many fictional works. Especially comix, since you can add in the eye candy of an invented script.

For example, a Latin based language would end up being some kind of Romance language after time and history wear it down and twist it around a bit. So you might get a little list like puella > fouele (woman); hominem > omne (man); draconem > zragne (dragon); gladium > zradiu (sword); iste ille > steile (yes); non ille > nolle (no); amicum meum > migum (my friend); servum tuum> seirvet (see ya!) If you don't layer it on too heavy, no one will feel put out.

Consider as a good example of an invented language in a comic, Herge's Syldavian.
 

ascanius

Inkling
ok what i have done so far for my comic and wip is look at characters and ask the right questions mentally. never written anything down before. now planning learn basic Latin with help my lit prof brother just enough to construct language if i can using scrivener software. any advice what notes to put down i know sound stupid but never thought of this before

You don't need latin to make a language, it does help...a lot though. There are great resources online like the language construction kit for example. Having a firm foundation in grammar is a must. Initally I used scrivner for my languages but keeping the lexicon up to date was a nightmare, I'm using Language explorer now, the only downside is the learning curve is more like a learning cliff, it goes straight up.

Even without a language there is a lot you can be doing to world build such a maps, history, culture etc..
 

ascanius

Inkling
l've used it, well an older version anyway. I can't remember why I was disappointed in it but I went back to spreadsheets.
 

Malik

Auror
As stated above, you need a firm foundation in grammar. Studying linguistic theory will help.

Building a language is more than making up words. You need to learn why words do what they do. Syntax, semantics, nuance. It's great practice for a writer, and I recommend that every author take at least one class in linguistics.

If you just need a few words to sprinkle here and there in your book, then you can handwave your morphology pretty easily. 99.999% of fantasy authors do this, and it's totally fine. There are generators online that will do it for you.

Actually building a functional language to the point where you can begin to develop a society's values and beliefs from it (assuming you adhere to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis) is another matter entirely. You're talking about a years-long effort that usually starts with a major in linguistics, foreign languages, or English with a concentration in sociolinguistics and/or the philosophy of language; or a few years of hard (but fascinating!) study on your own. Simply learning a little bit about Latin will not suffice. I'm sorry, but it won't. Like I said, you're talking about a years-long undertaking.

It took me about three years to build my Faerie language, and that was with the project as my second hobby behind writing. There's a blog post on my site about how I did it, including how I built the accent so that I didn't have to use intentional misspelling or contractions, which is yet another dimension of language building.

I don't want to talk you out of it. Conlanging is awesome. But it's consuming. It's a way of life. Have fun.
 

elemtilas

Inkling
I don't want to talk you out of it. Conlanging is awesome. But it's consuming. It's a way of life.

True that! One reason why I suggest the naming language as one way to go. It's simple to do and gives the sense of a language without actually having to spend years making one.

Also, in my experience of glossopoets and linguistics, language invention leads to a study of and degree in linguistics more often than is arrived at having already gotten the degree.
 
ok i have brother who is lit professor who happens to know have essays by chomsky i might get a degree but can simulate enough basics to satisfy me for now
 
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