Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
How do you use linguistics in world-building?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="pawsplay" data-source="post: 5577482" data-attributes="member: 15538"><p>Here's an easybake method for creating a fake language for naming purposes.</p><p></p><p>Step One: Pick a real language to steal from</p><p>This is a pretty easy step. It is important, because it is going to help you decide quickly what sounds to include or not include.</p><p>Step Two: Decide what phonemes are present in the language</p><p>For instance, Japanese does not make a meaningful distinction between "r" and "l" using various sounds halfway in between, so a fake fantasy language would use only "r" or "l" (or maybe one at the beginning of words only and the other in the middle of words, or whatever). Feel free to add or subtract a few sounds from the language you have stolen. </p><p>Step Three: Look for patterns</p><p>How many syllables? Where do stresses usually fall, at the beginning of words, or the end (or is it a mostly unstressed language)? </p><p>Step Four: Apply linguistic drift</p><p>Pick similar sounds, and see what happens if you start replacing one sound with another. Adjust to taste. For instance, a hard "C" is similar to a hard "G." What if took Spanish and started replacing hard Gs with hard Cs? Guillermo would become... Kiyermo. That's pretty fantasy sounding. Let's keep going. Guido -> Kido. Gonzalez -> Konsales. Ta-da! </p><p>Step Four: Regularize spellings</p><p>Since you probably aren't going to invent a new alphabet to go with it, standardize spellings, hardcore. For instance, in our fake Spanish language, hard Cs are always spelled K, and the "i" is always a Spanish "i." Feel free to add weird apostrophes or dashes, but decide what those marks mean and stick to it. </p><p>Step Five: Invent a grammar</p><p>Loosely, this means figure out how to pluralize, and how to use the name of the country or the language as an adjective. In English, you would say one Spaniard, two Spaniards, Spanish, and Spanish. In Japanese, the same word is frequently used without an explicit pluralization and as a compound word, rather than distinctly what English would consider an adjective or noun. In Arabic, djinni is singular, djinn is plural. Pick a few simple rules, and stick to them.</p><p>Step Six: Make Stuff Up</p><p>Using the available phonemes, other words as examples, and our invented grammer, add a few unique words. </p><p></p><p>The result will be a usable fake language. Keep in mind I am assuming a non-tonal language, and it's up to you whether you want to use rules that transform words rather than using suffixes and prefiexes to conjugate them or make them into different parts of speech. For a standard fantasy world, I wouldn't bother with anything fancy.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pawsplay, post: 5577482, member: 15538"] Here's an easybake method for creating a fake language for naming purposes. Step One: Pick a real language to steal from This is a pretty easy step. It is important, because it is going to help you decide quickly what sounds to include or not include. Step Two: Decide what phonemes are present in the language For instance, Japanese does not make a meaningful distinction between "r" and "l" using various sounds halfway in between, so a fake fantasy language would use only "r" or "l" (or maybe one at the beginning of words only and the other in the middle of words, or whatever). Feel free to add or subtract a few sounds from the language you have stolen. Step Three: Look for patterns How many syllables? Where do stresses usually fall, at the beginning of words, or the end (or is it a mostly unstressed language)? Step Four: Apply linguistic drift Pick similar sounds, and see what happens if you start replacing one sound with another. Adjust to taste. For instance, a hard "C" is similar to a hard "G." What if took Spanish and started replacing hard Gs with hard Cs? Guillermo would become... Kiyermo. That's pretty fantasy sounding. Let's keep going. Guido -> Kido. Gonzalez -> Konsales. Ta-da! Step Four: Regularize spellings Since you probably aren't going to invent a new alphabet to go with it, standardize spellings, hardcore. For instance, in our fake Spanish language, hard Cs are always spelled K, and the "i" is always a Spanish "i." Feel free to add weird apostrophes or dashes, but decide what those marks mean and stick to it. Step Five: Invent a grammar Loosely, this means figure out how to pluralize, and how to use the name of the country or the language as an adjective. In English, you would say one Spaniard, two Spaniards, Spanish, and Spanish. In Japanese, the same word is frequently used without an explicit pluralization and as a compound word, rather than distinctly what English would consider an adjective or noun. In Arabic, djinni is singular, djinn is plural. Pick a few simple rules, and stick to them. Step Six: Make Stuff Up Using the available phonemes, other words as examples, and our invented grammer, add a few unique words. The result will be a usable fake language. Keep in mind I am assuming a non-tonal language, and it's up to you whether you want to use rules that transform words rather than using suffixes and prefiexes to conjugate them or make them into different parts of speech. For a standard fantasy world, I wouldn't bother with anything fancy. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
How do you use linguistics in world-building?
Top