Developing Languages

[Viktyr Gehrig]

Zompist's Language Construction Kit

There are really a ton of resources on the Web for people who enjoy language-craft, either for fantasy and fictional purposes or for more mundane tasks. Just run "constructed langauge" on Google.

I'm trying to learn Loglan, but not for any gaming-related purpose. You should check it out; it's a powerful language.

 

[Ferret]

I've given it thoughts. I might try it out...

 

[Maerdwyn]

I made a very basic root-based language (like semitic languages), in which every relate word has the same three letter root.

root for "Write" = LMN
"ylaman" = "write" the basic verb form, the root with "y" before and "a"s in between.
"writer" = mulamen (a word signifying a person who does something will always be made using "mu" plus the root letters with "a" and "e" between them)
"scroll" = lamin (basic noun for the root is always the root with a "a" and "i" structure)

etc.

Didn't go too far, and just made up new roots as I needed them. I used helper words at the beginning of senteces to signify tenses, and nouns and pronouns to instead of conjugating infinitives. Related words like calligraphy were mutations of the basic noun: "larikmin"

 

[shadow]

Cool! I'm a linguistics graduate student, so I'm naturally somewhat of a language geek. I've been thinking of developing my own language for my setting for sometime. The only thing preventing me is lack of time. still I've come up with some basic phonetic rules and naming conventions for the different languages.

 

[Michael Morris]

The purposes of the languages throughout the Dusk setting isn't so much to present them in any finished form but to highlight the inter and intra racial changes of the setting. Way too many settings forget that language is an ever evolving thing, particularly when writing is largely absent. I'm not so much interested as in what words are in use but how each language has arrived to be in use and why.

In play I use this by making players keenly aware that pronounciations change with area. I allow players to make untrained knowledge checks to note when they might have encountered an odd pronounciation of a word.

For instance, Dalze - capital of Dalsundria. People born in and around the city pronounce it "Dolls" Those to the north say it as "Dollz" To the west it's Dollzuh, and Duhlzee, Dahulzee, Dahlsee and so on aren't unknown.

How can this be important in a campaign? Well, if an NPC claims to hail from Ultan, but pronounces the word Dahlsee which is the manner used by Milicsundrians in the north, then the players should be suspicious.

Someone asked about Celestial, Draconic, Infernal and whether Liternanin was to be found along them or if it supplanted them. The answer is the latter - they are supplanted and further aren't to be found in the setting. Clerics and wizards each know Liternanin at the beginning of play because spellbooks and religious texts are written entirely in this language. Indeed, the presiding "common tongue", Dalsundri, doesn't even have it's own alphabet and must borrow Liternanin characters when it is transcribed.

Racial languages follow a similar fate. There is no "Elven." There is "Silvani", and this is a beautiful flowing language devoid of gutteral constanants - it's only constants are b, p, s, t, n, m and c. Tolnen is the language of dwarves, hon-raesa is a blended language between silvani and dalzendri used by half elves of the kingdom of Hone Rae.

Language also denotes social strata. The Telzoan islands where conquered by the Dalsundrians 1000 years ago and invaded by the Malchani a century later. Most of the nobles still speak Malchani not unlike the Norman nobles of England spoke French for nearly 400 years in preference to the tongue of the rabble.

Cuolshan is an unusual case. This is the "secret" language of druids in Telzoa, though the truth is it isn't so much secret as lost. It also has written runes which are uncovered from time to time throughout Telzoa. These runes and what they mean are somewhat well known to outside groups, but no one knows what the language actually would have sounded like - except the druids.

 

[Michael Morris]

Vulgo duermo ic luz ri caldul
Asrul anki soovan ash gri lazdul
Consa ciersa ta consa cartha sana sean
Dulce reaz, wi aliz rean

And so began the first session in 1995

"Forged in Death and Bathed in Blood
For them art slain the great armed flood
Control their power, Control the world
All desire answered, All dreams unfurled..."

I've since moved from wanting or stressing the importance of a single great artifact in the setting, though technically the crown of the nine exists somewhere within the setting. Those high powered sessions of old actually occur in the future of the setting's current timeline.

I digress. Back to the topic at hand - language. The above passage is from Talisan, or the language of power. Few alive aside from the first and a handful of dragons know the language in any coherent form - even most of the gods are ignorant of it's grammatical structure and rules (primarily because they are mortal usurpers not alive at the time of the language's use).

Talisan is important because it contains the evocational words of power used in arcane magic. Legends say the language cannot be spoken without releasing magic in objects, people, places, things. This is highly improbable, especially since some basic words in Liternanin do come from Talisan.

Numbers for a start. Un, Dec, Tri - from which spell circles are named: Untasic (1st level), Decandic, Trilinasic. These prefixes are also borrowed and used in silvani.

Talisan also gives the setting it's planar names - Aborea, Valrea, Shunrea, Balcridea and Sodrea. Some of the elder gods likewise have Talisan names - Pektos and Oralea. Their names stand out somewhat oddly against the Liternanin names (Tean, Chiantu, Rosalynn, Cuane, Poen) Dalzendri (Matacha, Kepho, Senda, Sekoon) and Cuolshan names (Tiania, Sere, Damnisu). It's a little hard to illustrate in spellings since pronounciations are important.

Oh well, so much for today's ramble. I think next time I'll talk about special languages.

 

[Hand of Evil]

The only thing I did was the old pig latin trick, just replaving th "ay" with something like "Tal". It really did not work out.

For words which begin with a single consonant take the consonant off the front of the word and add it to the end of the word, then add ay after the consonant. For words which began with double or multiple consonants take the group of consonants off the front of the word and add them to the end, adding ay at the very end of the word. For words that begin with a vowel, just add yay at the end.