This is the ultimate fantasy world-building resource book. There are many topics for you to think about for your world! Climate, fashion, laws, even etiquette. Use this book to organize your information, think about topics you haven't thought of bef...
I have once been told that if I am not a Linguist or Tolkien, I cannot have a fantaser langwag.
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ERMAHGERD she has a FANTASER LANGWAG. She's nert evern a leengweest purrfresser. (for more on this, check my article "Did you make up your own language?" which is near the end of this book )
I think it's fine to have a fantaser langwag. As long as it makes sense in context. You might not create entire sentences because it can hinder readability, but sprinkling in a few words wouldn't hurt, if you want to do it.
There is, however, a way to have a fantaser langwag without writing it out. You can imply through character interactions.
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A man came up to me, smiled, and made squeaky noises through his nose. I leaned toward Maria.
"What did he say?"
"That's basically 'hello'," she whispered, "You should bow."
I bowed, and he bowed back.
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So, this proves you can have a fantaser langwag behind the scenes. Below are some questions about language for you to consider but do check out the article as well :)
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Yes, you might be writing in English (or your native language) but do your characters speak your language?
I write in English. A majority of my characters do not speak English. And you? ;)
How many languages are there?
As a side topic, you might have fun thinking about migration. In our humble history, our languages massively changed through migration. We didn't like staying in one place. We walked around a lot. That made a lot of languages merge and made some disappear.
Maybe your characters' species or race came from somewhere else? Maybe their ancestors did not speak the language as it is now? Maybe, somewhere somehow, the language evolved when migration happened and the species or race expanded their territory throughout the world?
Wars can also change language. Politics. Religion even. But all this, of course, is not necessary to think about unless you need it for your story or you'd like to do it for fun. Because even talking about it, I can tell it's going to be a trip down the rabbit hole :P
How many different languages does your world actually have? Consider our own planet Earth. If you go to Google Translate and look at the long list of languages to choose from... if you wanted to do it, you could actually go that far for your world.
Not a must, of course.
What's the inspiration / origin?
What I mean is, what inspired YOU to create this language? Some people take inspiration from Hindi, Chinese, Russian... Some people take a historical language, perhaps from Ancient Greece or the Viking Era. Many people mix languages together to create some kind of awesome sauce franken language.
In terms of population, how widely spoken is that language?
When you figure this out, you can also get a sense of where your characters stand. Is their language something common or one that stands out as a rarity? Language differences can also be a source of miscommunication and discrimination. It can be isolating. If the characters go to a part of the world where their language is not widely spoken, what would that be like?
Have you been to a foreign country where you don't speak that language? I have. It felt like I was isolated speaking my own language in my head while outside was this swarm of foreignness.
I had this sense of feeling lost until I found someone who spoke my own language. That was a huge relief.
Related to feelings,
What does your character feel about their own language?
Are they proud? Ashamed? Insecure? Or do they not care? Do they want to speak other languages?
Does the language have dialects?
Are characters with different dialects seen in a certain way because of it? For example, it's a common awful stereotype to consider people from southern U.S. to be largely uneducated because of their dialect. I really, really, really like dialects. They are probably one of my most favorite things about the English language.
And it's fascinating how one single country can have English in various flavors. This was due to migration and how the country was divided back in the day.
Like southern U.S., if some dialects are seen in a certain light by others, could it be that way in your world? In one of my worlds, people from the north speak in a clipped way. "They. Talk. Like. This." and are made fun of. But from their perspective, the people in the south slurring their words together sounds strange and almost like another language to their ears.
Dialects can play a part in discrimination and can affect how your character sees the world or themselves.
So, wait, do you HAVE TO talk about dialects? No. You can go on without addressing it if you want. But consider it. It's an interesting element to include in your world building :)
