Gabrielle here!
Soda, pop, coke. Three different names for a carbonated sugary drink in the same language. However, with just one word, a listener can tell where a person is from. If someone says “soda” they probably live on one of the U.S. coasts, if someone says “pop” they probably live in the central U.S., and if someone says “coke” they’re wrong. And just like in the real world, language can communicate a lot of information about the characters and world to the reader. But what do you do if your story takes place in a world different from our own? What happens when our languages become irrelevant? Well, you make your own. But languages are beautifully complex systems that are always changing; how are you supposed to do that with just a laptop in your sweatpants? The same way us writers do everything else; with grit and just a touch of insanity. So today we’re going to walk you through one of the most interesting, but also potentially tedious, parts of worldbuilding to make the process a little easier.
Today’s Focus
Now while we could dive into the different ways you can use language to show character differences and personality, that fits more in with lessons on diction rather than lessons on worldbuilding. So today we’re going to specifically talk about building a language from scratch. We’ll eventually touch on those things, but that topic deserves its own post. But even if you aren’t planning on creating a brand new language any time soon, some of these principles still apply to creating unique words, phrases, or slang for your world. Got it? Good.
When to Make a Language
As our worldbuilding series has hopefully demonstrated so far, no two stories are going to have the same worldbuilding needs, even within the same genre. So how can you tell if your story constitutes its own language? First, look at your genre. Not all fantasy or science fiction stories even need their own language; if your story takes place in the real world at all, you’re probably good just to invent some new jargon and slang. But if your story is meant to be a unique world with unique cultures, having a unique language could be beneficial.
Consider what having a unique language will accomplish for your story. Will it provide opportunities for you to richen your world? Are there different groups that language differences could highlight? Will it create new opportunities for symbolism or contribute thematic weight? Even if it makes sense for there to be unique languages in your world, it doesn’t mean it makes sense for your story for you to spend time developing a language. Language building shouldn’t just be for realism; it should richen the overall storytelling.
How to Start
Not all of us want to be the next Tolkien and create whole language families from scratch. Some of us might want to be the next Tolkien, but really don’t have the time right now or even know where to begin. Luckily, there’s a way to still create a language that has internal consistency but doesn’t require you to have a degree in linguistics: start with a preexisting language. As I mentioned in my post about settings, the best place to begin is with what already exists. But I don’t start with just one language; typically, I’ll find a language family that I like the sound of and pull from there. Typically, if I’m already basing an environment off of a real-world environment and I need to build a language for that location, I’ll just pull from the language groups that already exist there. By pulling from a language family rather than a single language, you can still have a consistent sound without having it sound like “Italian, but a little to the left.”
Another tool to use is to create words that act as “bases” for your language. Maybe you create a word very similar to the Greek word for “man,” and then you build a lot of words that relate to that one (boy, father, brother, etc.) off of your original word. This can be especially helpful for showing continuity and how ideas connect. For example, if peanuts are the main staple of the culture’s diet, maybe the word for general food is the same as the word for peanut or a variation of that. Then different words relating to food would likely be based off of the word for peanut.
Also, consider how the symbolism of the world and culture may differ from the symbolism of the real world. Does a specific animal, plant, or celestial body represent something specific in this culture? In one of my WIPs, storms are very symbolically important in one culture and are associated with unity. So the word for family directly connects to the word for storm to reflect that cultural idea. When you’re planning a language, consider the unique values and needs of your world to create a system that best reflects the people that populate your world.
What’s the Most Practical?
Now even with those principles, it can be easy to get lost in the weeds of worldbuilding. Not everything is going to get used, and it can be discouraging to spend hours on something for it to never appear on the page. With that in mind, what should you focus on when you’re creating a language system? To answer that, consider what the characters are going to be most directly interacting with, and there are three big areas to consider.
First, there’s names. What are the naming conventions of the language? Are there certain names or sounds that are popular, or associated with a particular gender? Does this vary depending on the region of your world? What are the most popular names? What are considered “normal” names? Do certain names have meaning? Since names are a great place for symbolism, this can be a place for you to play around with some fun thematic ideas. Creating a system for naming characters of a culture can quickly demonstrate cultural unity, and, as a bonus, it makes it easier to name characters who only pop up once or twice.
Second, keeping with the theme of names, how are different locations named? The names of locations often reflect something about the physical geography of the location (“Watertown”), something about the people who live there (what do they value?), or something about the location’s history (what happened in this location?). The first option is the most common, so that’s probably going to be the most common name in your world (and quite frankly the simplest), but if you have a couple of key locations, giving them names based on the second two categories can highlight their importance and assist you in communicating information about the world.
Third, think about different kinds of dialects. This is going back to the whole soda/pop/coke debate. How does the language change in different locations? Are there popular kinds of slang? Are there types of jargon that will pop up in your story? Can the change in language foreshadow or reflect a conflict in a story, or can it be a chance for humor and characterization? This is a useful question to consider, especially if you’re going to be moving through the world or you’re dealing with characters from very different backgrounds.
A Final Word
Language is complicated. Creating one is even more complicated. It’s not going to be perfect, and it doesn’t have to be. Most of the time, an original language is not the meat of a story. Is it worth doing, especially in high fantasy and science fiction, yes, it absolutely deepens the world. But audiences aren’t expecting a perfect language; they’re expecting a rich, enjoyable world. And if you put thought and care into your process, it’s going to turn out that way even if the grammar gets a little wonky at times. That’s all I’ve got on language, but I hope you join us next time when Emily talks about dealing with magic systems and technology in your story.
In the meantime, bee brilliant!
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