#Con langs

[inky-duchess]

Fantasy Guide to Creating Your Own Language

When writer's set out to world-build, language has a huge role in creating new cultures and lending a sense of realism to your efforts. A world and people just feel more real when language is involved. As the old Irish proverb says "tír gan teanga, tír gan anam”. A country without a language, is a country without a soul. So how can we create one?

Do Your Homework

First things off, you should start by studying languages. Nobody is asking you to get fluent but it's important to understand the basic mechanics of language. You will start to see certain tricks to language, how verbs are conjugated and how gender effects certain words. It will be easier to make up your own when you know these tricks. For example, in Irish one doesn't scold but "gives out to" - "a thabhairt amach". In German, numbers are arranged differently to the English with the smallest digit arranged before the tens for example 21 - Einsundzwanzig. By immersing yourself in an array of different languages (I recommend finding ones close to how you want your language to sound), you can gain the tools necessary for creating a believable language.

Keep it Simple

Nobody expects you to pull a Tolkien or channel the powers of David J. Peterson (hail bisa vala). You're not writing a dictionary of your con-lang. You will probably use only a handful of words in your story. Don't over complicate things. A reader will not be fluent in your con-lang and if they have to continually search for the meaning of words they will likely loose patience.

Start Small

When you're learning a language, you always start with the basics. You do the exact same when writing one. Start with introductions, the names of simple objects, simple verbs (to be, to do, to have for example) and most importantly your pronouns (you will use these more than any other word, which is why I always start with them). Simple everyday phrases should always be taken care of first. Build your foundation and work your way up, this is a marathon not a race.

Music to the Ears

If your creating a new language, you're more than likely doing it phonetically. Sound is important to language and especially a con-lang because you want to trick your reader into thinking of a real language when reading the words on the page. I suggest sitting down and actually speak your words aloud, get the feel of them on the tongue to work out the spelling. Spellings shouldn't be too complicated, as I said before the readers aren't fluent and you want to make it easier for them to try it out themselves.

Also when you're creating the con-lang, it's important to figure out how it sounds to an unsuspecting ear. If a character is walking down a street and hears a conversation in a strange language, they will likely describe to the reader what it sounds like. It might be guttural or soft, it might be bursque or flowery. It's always interesting to compare how different languages flow in the ear.

Writing in Your Language

Now that you've written your language and created some words, you will want to incoperate them into your story. The way most writers do this is by italicising them. As a reader, I generally prefer authors not to go too overboard with their con-lang. Swathes of con-lang words might intrigue a reader but it can leave them confused as well. It is better to feed con-lang to your readers bit by bit. In most published works writer's tend to use words here and there but there are few whole sentences. For example in A Game Of Thrones by George RR Martin, has actually only a handful of short sentences in Dothraki despite the language being prevalent throughout the book. Daenerys Targaryen pronounces that "Khalakka dothrae mr’anha!"/"A prince rides inside me!" and it's one of the only sentence we actually see in actual Dothraki.

There's also nothing stopping you from just saying a language has been spoken. If you're not comfortable writing out the words, then don't make yourself. A simple dialogue tag can do the trick just fine.

Know your Words

I do recommend keeping an actual record of your words. Make a dictionary if you want or a simple list of words you need. This is one of the most entertaining aspects of world building, have fun with it, go mad if you like. Also here's a short list of questions you can ask yourself about language in general which might help your juices flow.

[polishmothman]

i miss him man

[thepoggersdilemma]

you said if we wanna see any of the ships from the poll to send an ask and maybe you will respond.

anyway lang and pheonix. are you inspired? lang and pheonix.

let the dragons / wolf rplayers kiss pls pls pls

[neatnete]

[mangoassassin]

the squad :3c

[galli-halli]

RINGE 🫠

Diese zwei Ringe an Jokos Finger machen mich f e r t i g.

[365dressestome]

2024 Favorite Red Carpet Dresses 209/366

Rebecca Ferguson Wore Helmut Lang To The ‘Silo’ Comic-Con Panel

[bondilluns]

a poem i wrote in my conlang :3

[Dai nâmi-ompâl veirâ / zuêl zûldam den torpâ / râpkanlia ôzeck dêba / den sal·llîdeck, den makêla.

Atiêltey gêxa urnei / jarkâi êsbrin sui sil·llei, / nam zul·laike lest ufêlrim / tându blôgu yrdânte veirim.]

[springbeans-art]

AHHH I didn't quite make it in time for Hua Cheng's birthday in my timezone but uhhh happy birthday to the most guy ever!!! He gets the best gift he could ask for :^)

[stephenlang-slang]

Stephen lang, Rachel Nichols, and Jason Momoa at the San Diego Comic Con 2011.

[cryptic-clowns]

More stickers!! Making them for my upcoming con!

[kenisle]

every time scott lang appears in someone else’s movie all he does is show up, look confused, make goofy jokes, smile, baffle everyone, and be extremely useful

[stephenlangdaily]

At Comic Con in New York, 2011

[whispers-of-gallifrey]

Looks like I started making my Lang cosplay at the right time

[stephenlangfans]

Stephen at the "Terra Nova" panel at Comic-Con 2011 with a smile that's beyond gorgeous!

[mangoassassin]

TGCF buttons!! :3