Create Fantasy Languages: Part One

One common feature of a lot of fantasy world’s (particularly more epic/high fantasy) is that they contain at least one invented language or glossopoeia. These languages can give a world greater depth and realism, although poorly constructed languages can end up just sounding/reading like gibberish or a clone of Sindarin and Quenya. The tradition of inventing fictional languages owes much to Tolkien who was passionate about languages from a young age.

However, I myself am not a linguist nor even bilingual. As such, I always presumed that I would leave the detailed construction of languages within my world/s to people with a lot more experience. After all, Tolkien had a passion for language, and IMO, every author should endeavour to write about what they already know. For me that is cultures, social theory, history, and ecology. To attempt to force the creation of language seemed artificial and like a feeble effort to walk foot steps Tolkien. It seemed to me that it was better to have barely conceived languages than poorly conceived ones.

However, when I started this blog and researching more of the world creation resources available, I came across Holly Lisle’s ‘Create A Language Clinic.’ And I couldn’t help but think ‘what self respecting world builder wouldn’t at least try to create a new language/s.’ Especially as I began to browse through her book, I felt assured that the process was easy and not nearly as time consuming as I had imagined.

The following steps are an excerpt from her book. They give a rough approximation of the time that each step should take. Lisle also points out in her book that it may not be necessary to work all the way down to step 9, but instead that you may only need to do as many steps as will be useful in your writing.

Language Creation Steps

1. The sound of the spoken language (15 min)

2. The history and background of your language (3 min + updates)

3. Easy proper names (30 min)

4. A workable short list of nouns and verbs, adjectives and adverbs, pronouns and conjunctions (1 hr)

5. Rudimentary grammar (1 hr)

6. Complex proper names (15 min)

7. Complete sentences (1 hr)

8. A workable written language (2 hrs)

9. A reasonably speakable language with a minimal acceptable vocabulary and writing system. (3 wks working several hours a day on it).

Before beginning her book I already had the some ideas about the Clarndor language. I knew roughly what the language should sound like and had already named many characters and animals using those conventions. I was yet to create a definitive list of the sounds in the language or an alphabet to symbolise those sounds. Basically all I had was a list of nouns that I felt sounded like they belonged to the same language.

Here are some examples

Personal Names: Cworrfumja; Craazcorr; Oordcvass; Aurrucvarr; Chorlcuu; Woohrrdrol; Mrraacchuur; Flaarchuur

Clans: Carczarc (wolf); Carrc (snake); Cuurnf’durr (bison); Forrlcuu (eagle); Lorrtundrru (heron); Lurri (rabbit); Moundrrac (large weasel-like predator); Mulrrucarl (mammoth); Orrlarnc (goat); Plarrcmerdi (deer); Pooruc-arrl (wooly rhino); Pruucuuc (giant sloth); Rorru (bear)

Places: Falarhruu; Tulaarn

Gods: Orrucuu; Felicaarn

Other: Cszlarc (dragon); Garrc (troll); Rortrral (human); Scourrc (vulture-like creature)

From this base vocabulary I will work through the above steps (at least to step 5 initially) and write another blog post about my experience.

Continued in Fantasy Languages: Part Two

(Disclaimer: please respect my intellectual property and don’t reproduce it without my expressed permission. I share my work in good faith and in the hope of inspiring others to create their own worlds.)