Create Fantasy Languages: Part Two

As the name suggests this post continues on from Part One. Originally I only intended to make one post about creating languages but as the word count grew I realised that I would have to extend it over a number of parts.

In the previous part I talked briefly about the role of invented languages in fantasy and introduced you to my own language: Clarndor. At that point Clarndor was very much a work in progress (as it will likely be for many years) comprised only a few nouns. From there I wanted to work through Holly Lisle’s book Create a Language in order to flesh it out a little.

The first step was to take the words that I had already created and break them up into the core sounds that make the language. I ended up with 37 sounds in total. The book recommends around 30, but no more than 60 sounds in total. In order to create these sounds you want to imagine what the language would sound like. As the Clarndor are a race of humanoid felines, the sounds tend to be hard, rolled or drawn out. Basically, I try to imagine the sounds as pronounced by a particularly articulate large cat.

Basic sounds of the Clarndor language

Vows: a; aa; e; i; o; oo; ou; u; uu

Consonants: C/k; ss; F; G; L; M; R; rr; W

Blends: ch; cw; cr; cv; sc; hrr; chuur; arrl; rn; nc; pl; pr; rrc; rl; rd; tu; cw

I haven’t added any unique sounds to the list. I imagine most of the sounds are unique to their language. If you try to imagine a large cat making all the sounds above, pretty much every sound ends up being distinct from its English equivalent. The precise pronunciation is something I plan to work on at a later date. At this stage, it is more a matter of simplifying the language so it doesn’t look too absurd on the page, and readers can approximate the sounds in their minds. I guess you could say that this is more of an Anglicised version of Clarndor. If you have ever tried to learn another language you will appreciate how different the sounds can be to your native tongue. Even when that language shares the same alphabet and some of the same vocabulary it can be difficult learning the new sounds. Also while the Clarndor have borrowed some words from their human neighbours, the language’s origins are distinct from all human languages.

Continued in Part Three

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.