Have you designed a language?

[Man in the Funny Hat]

I've created a few alphabets but only one actual language. It wasn't so much creating actual words but deciding how/why the words were put together out of syllables and thus creating a unique "sound" for it.

Heck, I'll just tell ya:
Words in this language are all made up of two-letter syllables and most have at least two syllables. Each syllable, as a rule, must have one letter in the same position in common with at least one of the other syllables. So, you'd get spoken sentences like, "Allalalama rokono tilitili ubuntu manala kebebu midiwidi wakawaka waka." A very rhythmic, sing-song language.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

Just a few words and phrases, but I did design an alphabet or two.

In one case I wrote a page long message for the players (calligraphied on faux parchment) and handed it to them. I swear they translated the darn thing faster than I wrote it!

 

[Jhaelen]

Never languages, but lots of different alphabets.

 

[Aeolius]

I enjoy babbling on in nonsense languages. I have been known to ramble on in mock-ixitxachitl (lots of popping noises, to simulate the stingray-like mouth opening and closing), mock-locathah (half-gargled nonsense words), and mock kuo-toan (a bubbling language, based on the sound one makes saying "Blibpoolpoolp"). I never bothered to properly develop the languages because:
1) The PCs tend to magically translate such languages into Common or Aquan anyway
2) I enjoy babbling on in nonsense words, which leads to
3) My wife tends to tell me to shut my trap, when I am carrying on in mock-ixitxachitl

 

[steeldragons]

Simple question... How much have you played around with designing languages?

Sounds like I'm about as much as anyone else. Words and phrases...getting the "sounds" of a particular language down. The most I've worked on any has been my world's elf language (followed closely by a dwarven tongue and runic alphabet)...For the elves, I've gotten as far as some grammar and syntax, pre- and suffixes, that sorta thing.

Also have done some work on a language of arcane magic and the tongue used to cast "divine" magic...an ancient/no longer spoken language of a fallen empire...akin to real world Latin, that is the language of spellcasting/"invoking" for the priests/clerics.

For the most part, I come up with a phrase/spell and then just save it to a "language index" file I keep so that when I'm writing my "Tales of Orea" Story Hour fiction, I am consistent.

I'm no J.R.R. Tolkien, by any stretch! hahaha. But have always found linguistics fascinating and do like to incorporate a modicum of validity/consistency to the languages of my world to really give/get an "immersion" feel in play. I've never had any complaints...yet

EDIT: I've also devised a system of "naming conventions" for surnames among the human population....various prefixes that of descended from various language branches to give the characters from different nations an added sense of "nationality" to their characters...and a general "sound" to their first names.

For example, humans from the southern kingdom generally ALL have a surname of "Kar [whatever]". This means "son of" as in, literally, "the son of [their father]" or father's father or might be "son of [wherever they're from], a.k.a. "native son of [this particular countryside/thane's land]"

Example 2: the prefix of "D' " used in the northern human lands...is borrowed from the elvin prefix to denote a river...literally, "flowing from". In elvin, the river "D'Alevia"= "Flowing from or the River of Life." But in the northern kingdom of Grinlia (where elves are all but gone), the man named "Stelak D'Ensior" directly translates as "Stelak flowing from (the blood or location of) Ensior."

--Steel Dragons.

 

[GameDaddy]

Quite a bit actually.

One of the best free apps for this is Langmaker 1.1 available as a free download here:
Download LangMaker 1.10 Free - An utility for creating model languages, or systems of related languages. - Softpedia

I haven't had much luck getting this app to work on my Vista, but it works well on older Win 98/2000 and NT PC systems and is the single best app around... generate about 1000 new words in your custom built language, and it will auto-generate an impressive 5,000+ word translation dictionary for you.

Also this might be of interest...
Clarkesworld Magazine - Online Science Fiction and Fantasy : Linguistics for the World-Builder by Brit Mandelo

 

[the Jester]

Quite a bit in high school, with a completely homemade language.

A bit subsequently, with lots of thought given to bits of linguistic elements in game.

 

[Thunderfoot]

Usually I use real world languages that my players are unfamiliar with, however I have on a couple of occasions taken basic human speech patterns and rules and crafted ancient variations of languages; one was the centerpiece of an entire campaign based on this simple clue:

Een ehr sulden, Een erh galt
Een ehr hooten, Een ehr kalt,
Een dar shonder dagd mittgard Zheen
Und vohn mittenhock, Feer maks Een.

That was what they got AFTER they decoded it from Dethek runes. (A puzzle within a puzzle that was actually a riddle, they both loved and hated me for that one.) But as you can tell it takes lots of little things from different languages and mashes them together with a few choice nonsense words here and there to really kick them in the teeth.

[sblock]What the riddle breaks down to:

One of silver, one of gold
one of hot, one of cold
one that shines like the midday sun
and all together five makes one

It was a weapon that was created by five very unrelated looking working parts (a silver rod, a gold ring, a fire forged spike, an ice forged shuriken and a rather large diamond) Similar to the rod of seven parts each one had special abilities on their own, but when assembled created a pretty kick ass mace. Of course the difference is, each of the objects had nothing in common unless you knew the poem/riddle and each would function without the other in such a way that you could own one and never realize it was part of a larger whole. [/sblock]

 

[ThWatcher]

Have you tried the word/language generation rules in one of the older Traveller books. (I think it was in one of the first hardback revisions.)

I'll try to remember to dig out my old Traveller books to post more details.

 

[Cor Azer]

I've only really crafted words (mostly root words) of ancient/dead languages, never syntax. Primarily, it's used to give a similar feel to various place names in my game worlds (one time the players even figured out they needed to find a city because one recognized the ancient word for city in the quest's destination).