How To Create A Language For A Fantasy Novel

5 Tips for Creating Believable Fictional Languages Gone are the days when you could speak gibberish in a movie or a novel—think Princess Leia's scene negotiating with Jabba the Hutt in Return of the Jedi—and pass it off as obscure, exotic fictional languages.

Today, when your characters speak fictional languages, your audience expects these languages to sound real, with natural-sounding vocabulary and an authentic flow and syntax. Blame authors like J.R.R. Tolkien, who spent many decades fine-tuning Quenya, Sindarin, and the other languages in his epic fantasy trilogies.

But Tolkien wasn't alone. From Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels to HBO's Game of Thrones, using believable fictional languages helps readers believe in your mythology and immerse themselves in your world.

And unlike HBO, you don't need to hire a team of linguists to start creating your own language. These five tips can help get you started.

1. Find Inspiration in the Real World

There's a reason many of the most popular fantasy languages were created by linguists. For example, David J. Peterson created the languages in Syfy'sDefiance, CW's Star-Crossed, and more recently, HBO's Game of Thrones where he invented Dothraki.

Fictional languages are more believable when they're rooted in something our culture or society has heard before. Linguists and authors often draw inspiration from real languages in order to invent something new. In Lord of the Rings, Sindarin was inspired by Welsh, and Quenya was based on Finnish. In A Clockwork Orange, Nadsat was inspired by Russian slang.

Expose yourself to other languages, including non-Indo-European languages, like those from the African subcontinent. If possible, learn other languages, or at least study how they construct their grammar and syntax. The goal is to get used to new sounds and new ways of arranging words so your fictional language doesn't sound like just another spin on English.

2. Modify the Sounds

Star Trek's Klingon uses sounds found in actual human languages, but mixes up how they're combined to form something unique. As you craft your new vocabulary and build a dictionary of words, break the mold and find new and unusual ways of pronouncing each vowel or syllable.

This all comes down to how your tongue and lips move, or what linguists call your "place of articulation." Take the letter "r." In French, this letter is said with the tongue compressed in the back of your mouth, whereas in Spanish, the tongue moves forward to just behind your front teeth. It's the same letter with utterly different sounds!

Playing with sounds can help you rearrange letters in ways you wouldn't think possible if you were using traditional English pronunciations.

And don't forget: you're building a fantasy world! Does the monster or alien have a different type of tongue? Do the elves or goblins have a different facial structure? These things affect language. By modifying the language to reflect a character's culture or physical shape, you can make your entire world more believable.

3. Add a Secondary Language

There's no such thing as "English," at least not in a true sense. Many common English words are stolen or borrowed from other languages even though we use them in everyday conversations without batting an eye. You see this even in the writing and publishing world. For example, "genre" comes from French.

Once you've established a new root language based on a real-world language, incorporate slang and words from other fictional languages in your world. This adds color and flavor to your fictional words, and it also mimics what happens in the real world.

4. List Your Vocabulary, Slang, and Common Phrases

Don't get so bogged down in creating a fantasy language that you lose sight of your end goal: writing compelling fiction and drawing readers into your fantasy world.

As you create common phrases and develop common words like "hello" and "yes," jot them down in a translation journal:

Keep a thorough list of invented words. Don't think, "I'll do this later." This is how language creators get mixed up and miss key details or create noticeable inconsistencies.
List all words and common phrases in alphabetical order. Consider further grouping them in categories like "geographical places" and "curses." This lets you quickly look up what you've used in the past. You could even turn it into a glossary in the back of your novel for your readers' benefit.
Add each word or phrase to your word processor's spell-check tool. This helps you avoid typos or punctuation mistakes that jar the reader out of the experience.

5. Find Like-Minded Authors

Developing a believable language for your fantasy world takes practice and time. Learn from other authors who have done it successfully. Brainstorm with writers who are in the trenches and going through the same problems and exercises as you.

Many writing groups offer support for language-building. The Language Creation Society brings together authors, TV script writers, and other creative minds who are building new dialects for books, TV and movies.

Finally, don't forget to have fun. You're the author. You are the master of this fictional world. Just as you do when creating characters, build a language that inspires you. Your readers can sense the passion and joy you put into your language, and this helps make every word more believable.