I was really bored in high school. I spent a lot of my classroom time daydreaming or doodling. One of the quirkiest ideas I came up with was in my 10th grade science class, where I decided to invent my own foreign script.
I didn’t plan out any words or grammar structure, just what the alphabet would look like and what letters would be necessary. The result was a series of weird characters that only I could read, which one of my friends dubbed “Jacquelynese”.
The idea of a made-up language stuck with me, and I decided to take it even further when I was writing Soul Seeker to create foreign words and phrases. I really enjoyed the challenge. (I always love creating things from thin air.)
There is a long history of fantasy and sci-fi writers creating their own languages, which I discussed in this earlier post on WaywardScribe.com. If you’re one of those people who find that invented languages enhance the realism of an alternate realm, you’ve probably thought about creating your own.
- How do you want your language to sound? (Gutteral, fluid, staccato?)
- What letter sounds will be most prominent?
- What letters can you eliminate?
- Are there any special letters you want to add? In Russian, there are single letters that represent combinations such as ‘sh’ and ‘ch’. Or maybe you want a different letter or special accent to represent different vowel types (long and short).
- How long do you want your words to be? German is famous for combining words to make single, multi-syllable terms that will twist your tongue and leave you breathless, but hopefully not in need of Herzkreislaufwiederbelebung (CPR). :P
Online Tools
There are tools out there for those who are looking for more help or a way to automate the process. Here are a couple I found:
This is a very simple cipher tool. Put the words or phrase you want to translate into the Translate This box and click the Translate button. The site will convert your words into something fantastical sounding using the model text.
This is a basic fantasy name generator. (It doesn’t generate a foreign language, but I though I would include it, since it’s a useful worldbuilding tool.) If you click the Enter link at the top of the page, a popup window will open with a few different name generator options. You can click on the part of the name you don’t want and advance to the next option. This can be a good launching pad for inspiring your own creature or geography names.
Do you use invented language in your writing? Are there any online tools that you’ve found useful?