#its always been something that interested me tbh i used to make up fake alphabets all the time but never really got much farther | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

voidimp · 1 month ago

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honestly as someone who never really got into lotr but independently also came up with the idea that the most sensible way to handwave everyone in a fictional setting speaking english & using terms that would have no reason to have originated in that setting is to just pretend its all a translation/localization of whatever language theyre actually speaking, it was such a relief to learn that tolkien also did that. like oh ok so im not crazy for wanting to do it that way. or like, maybe i am, but at least in the same way that a wildly successful fantasy author was, so i think im good

#like it just makes sense!! yeah you COULD go through & nitpick english so you take out all the loanwords & words with religious origin etc #anything that wouldnt make sense in the setting youre writing for. words relating to places that dont exist there. you COULD do that #(& iirc there are some authors that HAVE done things like that which is incredible i love that)#but its so much easier to just be like. well these are not the actual exact words they were saying. they were not speaking english #bc why would they be?? why would this fantasy world have english At All. even if u call it by a different name. u know??#why would they come up with the same sounds and the same alphabet and the same grammar and everything #it just makes more sense for it to not actually BE english to begin with!!!#i would love to eventually make up all the conlangs in my various settings but unfortunately i do not have the time & energy for that rn #so im just using real languages as stand-ins. which does mean i will either need to learn them or get someone to translate for me lmAO #but im fine with that. also learning more languages would make it easier to make a conlang anyway bc u have more knowledge of #language structures besides english & u can use that to add more variety..... maybe someday ill get to the point where i can do that #its always been something that interested me tbh i used to make up fake alphabets all the time but never really got much farther #they werent all exact 1:1 w a-z either like some combinations would have their own character or id omit some #god okay anyway i gotta go to work #oopsie i made the wrong word italic. i fixed it tho

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