Not men, not elves

[Devor]

I went extreme with differentiating my elves/Faerie from my humans by creating a language (a conlang, or constructed language) for them and building a Romanized accent and dialect from it that incorporates some of their native syntax and cadence. It changes the way they speak, which changes the way they appear to think, which makes them feel exotic and alien and sometimes wildly out of touch.

Is there a place where you've talked about your process for doing this? That's the first time I've noticed a real purpose for doing a conlang, and it's got me intrigued.

 

[Malik]

Is there a place where you've talked about your process for doing this? That's the first time I've noticed a real purpose for doing a conlang, and it's got me intrigued.

It's in my blog. Do a search for "conlang." If memory serves, the admins don't want me linking outside of these boards, so use the website link in my sig, please.

 

[Devor]

It's in my blog. Do a search for "conlang." If memory serves, the admins don't want me linking outside of these boards, so use the website link in my sig, please.

Thanks! Will do.

 

[Malik]

You lost me until "Anyway..." Lacking to be as either a copula or substantive verb doesn't make one an Elf or any kind of non-human. Many human languages do this kind of thing: Nahuatl lacks the copula, so they just conjugate their nouns & adjectives. In English, that would be like saying "The car reds" rather than "the car is red". We call that ANADEW (a natural-language already done it except weirder), and is a good thing to keep in mind lest we become too proud of our linguistic confabulations!

Definitely this. What it does is it takes the elves out of a Western / American mindset. When I said "alien," I probably should have said "foreign." And I know that E' is kind of the wheelchair ramp of conlangs, but I wanted to keep the whole thing readable. E' laid the foundation for a language that I build a dialect and accent from without relying on intentional misspelling, italicization, and contraction.

Re tense markers: don't they have verbs apart from be? Or have they dispensed with verbs entirely? For what it worths, the Daine (a long lived race of The World, but probably not as long lived as your Faeries, conjugate the subject or agent of the verb. Possibly it's because they do have such a long view of the things in the physical world. Realistically, probably not, but it's something they could believe about themselves!

They do have verbs other than be, but getting rid of be made tenses much simpler. I played around with conjugating subjects when I was building the language, but it made an unreadable mess of the dialect when I tried to Romanize it. In the end, I did away with the conlang entirely and just had the elves speak in Aeolic verse using E', which accomplished everything I needed a language to accomplish. But then, the language didn't have to accomplish much; my books are mostly swordfights and boobs.

The lyrics in this video trailer are in my Faerie conlang, which is probably the only time (outside of one chapter title) that I'm going to use it.

 

[Malik]

Thanks! Will do.

Totally did not realize you were a mod asking for a link.

 

[Usurper]

Definitely this. What it does is it takes the elves out of a Western / American mindset. When I said "alien," I probably should have said "foreign." And I know that E' is kind of the wheelchair ramp of conlangs, but I wanted to keep the whole thing readable. E' laid the foundation for a language that I build a dialect and accent from without relying on intentional misspelling, italicization, and contraction.



They do have verbs other than be, but getting rid of be made tenses much simpler. I played around with conjugating subjects when I was building the language, but it made an unreadable mess of the dialect when I tried to Romanize it. In the end, I did away with the conlang entirely and just had the elves speak in Aeolic verse using E', which accomplished everything I needed a language to accomplish. But then, the language didn't have to accomplish much; my books are mostly swordfights and boobs.

The lyrics in this video trailer are in my Faerie conlang, which is probably the only time (outside of one chapter title) that I'm going to use it.

Oh snap, didn't realize you were a properly established author. Guess I have a senpai now.

 

[Malik]

Oh snap, didn't realize you were a properly established author. Guess I have a senpai now.

Well, let's just see how Book II does before we going using words like "established."

But thank you. I've had an interesting couple of years.

 

[Usurper]

Well, let's just see how Book II does before we going using words like "established."

But thank you. I've had an interesting couple of years.

Well I've just started on my very first story, so that's well enough for me.

 

[elemtilas]

Definitely this. What it does is it takes the elves out of a Western / American mindset. When I said "alien," I probably should have said "foreign." And I know that E' is kind of the wheelchair ramp of conlangs, but I wanted to keep the whole thing readable. E' laid the foundation for a language that I build a dialect and accent from without relying on intentional misspelling, italicization, and contraction.



They do have verbs other than be, but getting rid of be made tenses much simpler. I played around with conjugating subjects when I was building the language, but it made an unreadable mess of the dialect when I tried to Romanize it. In the end, I did away with the conlang entirely and just had the elves speak in Aeolic verse using E', which accomplished everything I needed a language to accomplish. But then, the language didn't have to accomplish much; my books are mostly swordfights and boobs.

The lyrics in this video trailer are in my Faerie conlang, which is probably the only time (outside of one chapter title) that I'm going to use it.

Curious: How does removing "be" make tense simpler? The Daine language I've been working on has thirteen simple tenses. It's also zero copula (meaning no X is Y type of "be") Anyway, water under the bridge. If E-Prime does the job you need, then I couldn't wish better for you! It's not the tool for me by a long shot, but we each use the instruments best suited for our tasks!

Nice trailer, by the way; I'll definitely look into it. Though twas a bit light on the boobs aspect of your book. Or was that a deliberate selling point? Tell someone they write about swords & boobs, send them skipping of to Youtubeistan and then leave them hanging??

 

[elemtilas]

Well I've just started on my very first story, so that's well enough for me.

Good luck with it!

 

[Night Gardener]

Well, you could start with aesthetics (cosmetic) visual differences, and that's going to be part of the equation.

But, I will say to all the haters you think are out there tripping over things looking too similar (or lacking originality ) in fiction one thing: convergent evolution.

The universe and lifeforms hit on the same ideas over and over through different evolutionary survival strategies. Powered Flight being a prime example.

You could call Vulcans from Star Trek "space elves". And that these space elves are not the woodland Middle Earth Elves. They're humanoid, have pointy ears and tolerate humans, but clearly we accept that they are distinctly different things beyond similar pointed-ear cosmetic forms. And now that I've offended people in 2 fandoms and genres, I'll continue:

In my current WIP, I'm not featuring any elves or dwarves, etc. But, I DO keep a journal of fantasy race/ creatures for fun. I hope to use some of them one day, but I just like stockpiling imaginary things.

Where do I start? At the evolutionary idea of just what the heck it is, to explain WHY the heck it is.

Why are your not-elves dark skinned? Was it to block certain UVA or UBA rays? Does their pigmentation help absorb from different spectrums of light? Are they nocturnal, and darker pigments serve as camoflauge?

Think of their skeletons. Are they jointed the same as humans? Do they have extra range of motion to help them climb or grasp? Denser bones? Lighter bones? Same number of phalanges? Tails? Jaws that can disarticulate? They have sharp fangs... what did they evolve to eat? What is their predation style? Speed? Endurance? Ambushing? Solo hunting, pack hunting?

What's their average muscle mass to body fat ratio look like? Why? Do they have more ventricles in their hearts? Bigger lungs? More nerve bundles? Higher or slower metabolisms? Do they use water more efficiently to stay hydrated?

Do they have larger eyes? More cone or rod cells? Can they see in infrared or UV? Superior night vision? Perhaps too sensitive to daylight. Maybe they could be diurnal specialists.

And those pointy ears... do they pivot like a cats? Why would they be stationary? Could the pointy ears have something to do with cooling or warming blood? Are the lobes extra large? Can they hear more frequencies of sound?

I could literally go on for hours. I'm electively stopping here.

Think of the not-elf as a living, breathing thing. Biologic, derived from evolution. It lives in a place, a world, an ecosystem, a habitat: It would have been influenced by the biodiversity around it. Was it a generalized or niche specialist? The answer to those questions can help inform your decisions on how these creatures left the pre-society wilds and build a common culture, an identity.

Imagine giving one an autopsy. What notes would you be taking if you were seeing this species for the first time? Or maybe the thing was mashed together through magic from other equally living things. Not just a veneer or costume over a human. If you build a creature that is readily alive in your mind, it's easier to write about.

Then, create its history and culture.