Have you ever tried to invent a new language

[Miss Chicken]

or partial language ?

Maybe when you were a child, or maybe for a scifi/fantasy story you were/are writing.

I am currently reading "In the Land of Invented Languages" written by Arika Okrent who has a Ph. D in Linguistics and who has also managed to earn her first-level certificate in Klingon.

The first sentences of the book are

Klingon speakers, those who have devoted themselves to the study of a language invented for the Star Trek franchise, inhabit the lowest possible rung on the geek ladder, Dungeons & Dragons players, ham radio operators, robot engineers, computer programmers, comic book collectors -they all look down on Klingon speakers. Even the most ardent Star Trek fanatics, the Trekkies, who dress up on costume every day, who can recite scripts of entire episodes, who collect paraphernalia with mad devotion, consider Klingon speakers beneath them.

The author states that she has discovered over 900 languages that people have invented. The earlier one that she has founded documentation of is the Lingua Ignota of Hildegarde von Bingen, a 12th century German nun.

I think that those 900 languages are only the tip of the iceberg and that there are 1000s of such languages that have been lost and are languishing unseen.

Between the ages of about 10-14 years I started to create a language. I filled about 4 exercise books up with made up words. If I remember correctly I only used about 15 or 16 letters of the English alphabet and I never really got around to grammar. Nothing exists today of my efforts. My exercise books were thrown out decades ago.

If you have had a go at such an endeavor tell us about it, please?

 

[captcalhoun]

i invented a country called 'Algrad' as a kid and invented a written language for Algrad, which was more-or-less just a buncha squiggles and symbols and had no spoken equivalents. it was more like a cypher code or something than a real language.

 

[Miss Chicken]

I also remember devising a number system in which the names of the numbers were based on prime numbers.

I can't remember the words I used so I will make new words up

1 = ran
2= vil
3 = dat
4 = vilvi (2 x 2)
5 = ros
6 = vilda (2 x 3)
7 = kur
8 = roda (5 + 3)

Every prime number had a total new name and every non-prime used variations of the prime number words. (hopes this makes sense to people).

I would have been about 11 years old when I did this. I worked out what all the prime numbers under 1000 were and then worked out all the names of numbers up to 1000. It took me quite a while to do and I was quite pleased with my work.
However I took it to show my teacher and I was disheartened when he told me I should be working on real maths.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

I have enough problems with English never mind a new language.

 

[Goliath]

The closest I've come to inventing a new language was coining a few words for Saxembergish--a creole language spoken on the imaginary South-Pacific island nation of Saxemberg.

Saxemberg was founded after 1814 by Bonapartist refugees fleeing the fall of the French Empire and its satellite states. It was basically French with a lot of francised German loan words.

So, for example:

Lid (pronounced 'leet') = song (from German 'Lied")
Lidier/Lidière ('leet-yay'/'leet-yare') = singer
Hir ('eer') = army
Hirier/Hirière('eer-ee-yay'/'eer-ee-yare') = soldier
Chouar ('shwar') = native, black person (offensive) (from German 'schwarz')
Linxe ('leenks') = left
Linxiste ('leenks-eest') = leftist

Etc.

 

[Dukat's Major]

Yes. In fact, I'm in the process of developing one right now.

Here are some examples (might seem strange, but they were developed for a novel so are necessarily in that context):

EXAMPLE 1

Adim eloriatis za apea
tralina ridesian antenasi;
adim ayn u'arei jaire retainki
esia, en ko, piya kedra, teri'are.

TRANSLATION:

Only on such a morning could I
breathe with shuddering gasps;
only when the rain pounds on my
chest, or you, sweet lover, lie on it.

EXAMPLE 2

Ula manito zosara, ilya id ilmo
Imakira ur tiat reardilo aso,
Imakira ur dr'Aerd Ajisila,
Imakira ur ombir milimila.
Ula manito zosara, ilya id ilmo,
Ayn Briya meletar ur kelo
Yaraka lis rejanis,
Zosara yasin i mosun,
Im risyarios,
Risyarios.
Lapos asaebrila,
Lapos rekalb'sila
Risyarios,
Risyarios.

TRANSLATION:

Dark deep end waters, blue and black
You are my (male) lover's hair
You are the great Coal Mountains
You are the Purple Berries.
Dark deep end waters, blue and black---
When Briya sinks to kiss the other
Side of The Planet,
End waters below and above
Are inseparable,
Inseparable.
Glint of stars,
glint of cites;
Inseparable,
Inseparable.

SOME COMMON PHRASES

(note --- I include the pronunciation parenthetically)

Hello ........ rirda (reer-dah)
Farewell ....... salna (sahl-nah)
Please ....... ki (kee)
If you please ....... eyaki (ay-yah-kee)
Thank you ....... nefiko (nay-fee-koh)
Good morning ....... eden riatis (ay-dayn ree-yah-tees)
My dear ....... asojia (ah-soh-zhah)
I appreciate it ....... olepa ka (oh-lay-pah kah)
You're welcome ........ milyaka (meel-yah-kah)
Do not worry ....... rostala'ros (roh-stah-lah-rohs)
Trust me ........ denaka'o (day-nah-kah-oh)
I'm sorry ........ Ima doale (ee-mah doh-ahl-ay)
As you wish ....... Si tiola (see choh-lah)

VERBS

Verbs come in seven cases (four declensions, a few which have variations).

Some examples:

Declension: 1st-a --- to create: filatar

I create ................ fila
you create ............ filka
he/she/it creates ... filara
we create ............. filira
you (pl) create ...... filakira
they create ........... fili

Declension: 3rd --- to think: etale

I think ................. etena
you think ............. etala
he/she/it thinks .... etalka
we think .............. etenam
you (pl) think ....... etalam
they think ............ etalkam

NOUNS

Nouns also decline, depending on how they start or, in the case of two-letter nouns with a vowel ending, how they end.

Some examples:

Soft consonant start --- us: raim

in us ........ araim
of us ........ asiram
for us ....... aniram
to us ........ amiram
with us ..... adiram
from us .... omiram

Hard consonant start --- it: ka

in it ....... arka
of it ....... reka
for it ...... raka
to it ....... erka
with it .... rika
from it ... orka

NUMBERS

zero ..... eno
one ...... im
two ...... en
three ... am
four ..... aym
five ...... um
six ....... oani
seven ... om
eight .... oyim
nine ..... sen
ten ....... ino

(twenty, thirty, etc --- take on as their ending the number of tens. Twenty-one is imen, thirty-one is imam, forty-one is imaym, etc).

COLORS

blue ........ ilya
green ...... lona
red ......... arta
yellow ..... abri
black ....... ilmo
brown ...... kosana
purple ..... ombir
white ...... riand
orange .... esta

A FEW MORE PHRASES FOR GOOD MEASURE

Rirda, karlandi, olepa reko milayas --- "Greetings, respected lady, I appreciate your hospitality."

Ayaya, nefiko, Karuji, r'inendilos as asirko. Olepa ka jio eyir diyaka. --- "Yes yes, thank you, Leader, for your consideration. I appreciate it more than you know."

Ifulna! Ifulna, min emar ko? Min? Min, ifulnana? Ifulna! --- "Grandmother? Grandmother, where are you? Where? Where, eminent grandmother? Grandmother!"

Yara'o ermanito zoko, ria'an eyese elkya ur banolor asiram drandaris. --- "Sink me to the watery deeps, those so split to bring the rest of us together."

 

[sbk1234]

Shortly after the TMP came out, I tried making a Klingon language. I think this was before Marc Okrand really did it, or if not, I wasn't aware of his. I tried basing it largely on the handfull of words said in the first movie, however, it ended up being a lot more similar to the Ringo Starr movie, Caveman.

 

[Chaos Descending]

Yeah, it was back in my freshman year of high school when I was taking Latin. One of my other classmates and I came up with our own stuff. It wasn't very good, and I lost the notebook that we kept everything in. Found out later that someone else had come up with basically what we were trying to do. That language is called "Interlingua" and can be read about here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interlingua

 

[scotpens]

When I was around twelve, a friend and I invented a slang or jargon that we called “Kaiserian.” (Don't ask.) All I remember of it is that wole meant good and bole meant bad. It was largely based on certain English words including wholesome, boisterous, consistency, and Kaiser -- words which we inexplicably thought were funny.

Yep, we were weird.

 

[RJDiogenes]

I did this a couple of times when I was ten or eleven and first getting into Hard SF. I don't remember any of the details at this point.

I also plan to make up a language of sorts for an alien race that I've created. These creatures have a physiology that includes four separate voices, so up to four sounds can be made simultaneously. Their alphabet consists of soft syllables, as they have no teeth. I hope to record these syllables and create a computer program that will play them overlapping to simulate the multiple voices. I imagine their language would sound rather musical, although the program won't be able to live up to that since I can't program inflection.

 

[scotpens]

I also plan to make up a language of sorts for an alien race that I've created. These creatures have a physiology that includes four separate voices, so up to four sounds can be made simultaneously.

That's a great idea. Just one of them could do the Beach Boys, the Eagles, or a barbershop quartet!

 

[Miss Chicken]

It is also quite an original idea, I have never heard of such an idea before.

I am glad to see that there are other people who have developed/ are developing or have tried to developed languages.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Yes...even though I haven't got the grammar as streamlined as some of you, I do have a version of the Cardassian language that shows up sometimes in my fanfic.

The grammar isn't THAT awful to learn (though I think when it starts getting into places where subordinate clauses are required in English, it gets kind of odd). What is a little odd is the redundancies in the language. Since Cardassians don't hear as well as humans but their voices are the same, it seemed to me the language might have certain redundancies built in to make sure the grammatical data comes across.

 

[RJDiogenes]

I also plan to make up a language of sorts for an alien race that I've created. These creatures have a physiology that includes four separate voices, so up to four sounds can be made simultaneously.

That's a great idea. Just one of them could do the Beach Boys, the Eagles, or a barbershop quartet!

Exactly. In their culture, language, song and poetry all blur together.

It is also quite an original idea, I have never heard of such an idea before.

Thank you.

 

[Miss Chicken]

In the book I am reading the author mentions the language Solresol which

Solresol words are made up of only seven different syllables. These syllables can be represented in a number of different ways — as musical notes of different pitch, as spoken syllables (based on solfège, a way of identifying musical notes), with colours, symbols, hand gestures etc. Thus, theoretically Solresol communication can be done through speaking, singing, flags of different color — even painting.

The syllables are do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si

More info on Wiki

I am now onto the section of the book that deals with Esperanto which is about the only invented language that some people have as a first language.

 

[captcalhoun]

let us know if it mentions Mando'a