This language creation is one of the hardest things I've ever done! Ack!

Have any of you done it? Any suggestions on easing the pain?

My only suggestion for easing the pain is to consider how much you really need to have that language written out, how much you can get away with simple descriptions, and how many words you really need. If I was reading a book about China, for example, I'd expect a few words that just can't be translated, or are more flavorful in the original language - same goes for fantasy things. But if that said book holds more direct sentence-to-sentence translation than is necessary, I think a lot of readers will lose interest. So, save everyone trouble and make as little as you can get away with? ;)

Here are a few online thingies that might help:

The Language Construction Toolkit
A Naming Language
The Lexical Semantics
Langmaker.com's Resource List
Conlang Generators

Choose one of the below S= Subject V=Verb O=Object

S V O

S O V

O V S

O S V

V S O

V O S

After deciding structure you then need to decide how the more complicated things like the role culture is going to play in your language. Culture has a large role in determining how connotation vs denotation play out in a language. The cultures that allow very little "deviance" are also those that do not have much connotation, in what ever it is they disallow deviance.

Without meaning anything political here, the Qu'ran is a perfect example of a major cultural object upon which there has historically little deviance because it is not technically supposed to be translated out of Arabic.

The power of maintaining this kind of information/cultural hygiene is that it keeps the "map" the same. Heinlein mentions this in Stranger in a Strange Land and its a fundamental truth to understanding other cultures. Humans cannot "think" without language or at the very least it is impossible to communicate our "thoughts" with out language; which in my opinion amounts to the same thing.

Getting back to language construction. A culture that has a lot of verbs is typically seen as a very busy active mobile new cultures without as much of a tie to "things" while a culture with a lot of nouns is generally seen as a culture that is much more sedentary. These cultures are generally well established and have developed ritualistic practices surrounding the use of at least certain nouns (religion, politics etc).

I'm not sure that it will be 100% complete, but I do expect to do a vocabulary of over 1000 words and devise a reasonably full grammar. For publishable fiction, devising an alphabet isn't very practical.

Those are some very interesting points, Matt. Thanks for bringing them up.

One of the other considerations is the positioning of adjectives and adverbs to their objects and how verb tenses are handled. I think for my own ease of writing I may go with a grammar a bit similar to that of Spanish. It's a language I'm reasonably well acquainted with which is an obvious advantage, but at least somewhat different from the English grammar which I'd like to avoid.

In spite of them being contrived, I am pretty forgiving about it if it isn't way overdone. I think where people go wrong is when they try to make languages sound exceptionally foreign. But, then, if it's supposed to be very ancient, it should sound pretty doggone foreign.

Robert Jordan's cognates drive me nuts, so I would recommend using real foreign languages to come up with cognates. That isn't to say you can't grap a root here and a suffix there. But mess 'em up good, because I know for sure the people from two rivers were no where near Spain or Mexico, so they shouldn't be wearing "algode," which is an obvious cognate of Spanish "algodon."

In my own work, I simply don't use any non-English terms unless I absolutely have to. And, yes, I think they all sound a bit contrived. If I ever get a PhD in linguistics and ancient languages, I might try incorporating more.

I don't mean to discourage, though. I think creating a whole language would be a lot of fun. And if you find it satisfying, put it in your story. Most will probably be forgiving about it if the story is good--and maybe you'll "wow" us.

Anyway, Because I enjoy the subject, I've rambled here for five paragraphs without giving you the slightest hint of assistance toward what you requested.

That probably means you are much further ahead in the game than I am.

I guess I will leave you one thought that I believe holds a certain wisdom: Language is not logical, and it is not math. (Though it has some logical elements in it.) The "rules" get broken a lot. So be fluid and have fun with it. Let the words live a little, and don't be afraid to allow the meaning to be obscure. One of the more common reasons for difficulty with foreign languages is the figurative language, so enjoy some flights of fancy with the symbolism.

Also, look at a few oddities in some of the real languages. Intonations in Navajo are very different from most, and it doesn't signal a question with a higher tone. (Nor does Japanese.) Does it have a lot of subtle sounds, like Greek, or are they very simple, like Spanish and Japanese. Are there some very unique attributes, like the pops of the Kalajari Bushmen or the odd L with a slash (you'll do better to look it up and read about it than to hear my explanation--it gets even more unusual when combined with a t.)

A few things I'm doing (sort of) are studying hand gestures, body language, and adages of other languages. (Particularly Japanese and Navajo.) I look at the word for word translations of the adages along with their meaning (In Japanese, a "sitting duck" is called a "carp on a cutting board"), then I try to form something in English that is similar, yet different. I'd like to explore a language that is not Indo-European. (The language of the Basques, I think, is one.)

Personally, though -- If it wasn't giving me a lot of pleasure, I probably wouldn't fret too much about it. I'd find other ways to show the culture is speaking another language.

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...the odd L with a slash...

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