Worldbuilding 101: Basic linguistics and faking a conlang

Three strategies that don't involve getting a Ph.D.

Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash

Introduction

Welcome to Worldbuilding 101, my new series for speculative fiction writers! When you need to make shit up but you’re not quite sure how, just turn to these posts.

Today, we’ll be talking about a category that will come up a lot in this series: languages. Languages are an essential part of building secondary worlds. Now I’m not saying you need to be Tolkien and create working languages or write poetry in those languages for your book.

However, if you’re like me and you want to come up with names and made-up words that sound consistent and realistic, then you need to pay attention to the underlying “language” of your text.

Later in the series, I’ll talk about conlanging—that is, making up a full constructed language—for those who want to do the dirty work. For those who just want some names and words, try these three easy, quick techniques.¹

The techniques

(1) Make a phonological chart

The hardest but most accurate way to start a baby conlang is creating a chart of phonemes. Phonemes are the sounds that makes up words—not the letters, but the actual sounds. For example, “assurance” is roughly made up of the phonemes “uh” “sh” “u” “r” “a" “n” “s”.²

Why is this important? Because real languages are limited in what phonemes they use. For example, American English doesn’t use glottal or pharyngeal (throaty) sounds like Arabic does. Mandarin doesn’t always distinguish initial “l” and “n.” Italian doesn’t really have a “zh”³ Words with these sounds are going to sound foreign to native speakers.

You can use that to your advantage! Think about how you want your language to sound. Then, in whatever notation will make sense to you later, write down all the sounds you want to include in your language. Make sure to exclude some too!

Now, combine these sounds to make words. Here’s how I do it with a very limited set of phonemes. Notice how the words sound like they could all come from the same language.⁴

Example

Let’s say I’m doing a very limited-phoneme language. I’m going to include:

Vowels: cat, let, pit, roe, clue

Consonants: B, K, L, M, S, T

Possible Words: bast, kos, lek, muto, kist

(2) Start with something real and mess it up

This technique is helpful if you need to create something based on a real language, but still want the secondary-world fantasy vibes.⁵ It requires a little research and finesse, but is well worth it.

For this technique, it helps to be somewhat familiar with the language and how it sounds, how it forms names. You don’t have to speak it. I don’t, for example, speak Old Norse, but I used a lot of ON names in one of my books. But read up on the pronunciation, the phonemes. Get a feel for how it sounds. Listen to it spoken, if you can.

Then make a list of words you like. Now, using your knowledge of sounds, create new words that match the form of the words but use different sounds. It’s always worth Googling your names too, just to be sure you haven’t invented something, er, untoward.

I think this one is best understood in examples so…

Example

I used this technique to create the Italian-esque world of Citerna in Godkillers. “Citerna” itself is a made-up Italian word, a portmanteau of the real Italian words “cittá” and “eterna.” Many of the names are entirely made up but have similar sound structure to real names: Evario, di Medanzo, Veralento, Vemia, Zaputella, Conciatta. Compare to real Italian names and words: Evandro, Alonzo, di Vecchio, Vero, Lento, Saputello, Concetta.

You know who else did this? George RR Martin. Brom, Sansa, Eddard, Catelyn, and Walder are all just slight variations of common Anglo-Saxon names. “Ser” is just Sir. Casterley, Winterfell, and Harrenhall all sound appropriately Middle English.

(3) Do some keyboard smashing

This one is fun, and probably the easiest to understand and accomplish. It’s great if you want to create a language and names that sounds really unique. Maybe you’ve even tried it before in a fit of desperation.

So how do you do it? Literally, smash the keyboard. I’ll wait. I’m serious.

Now, make a word from what you’ve smashed. Simple.

Once you’ve collected a list of words/names you like, then you can use those words as models to create similar words, and so and and so forth. So, what does it look like?

Example

Smash: aorljkig

Possible words: Ar Lakig, Orlaj Kig

Smash: b[oielmwr.,

Possible words: böelmawr

Smash: c,xiufwe,

Possible words: co xiu fowe

That’s a wrap

These are just a few of the techniques that I use to mimic a conlang. What’s the benefit of doing this? Your names and words sound consistent and real, instead of sounding (1) all like modern English or (2) totally inconsistent and made-up. It’s that kind of attention to detail that adds to the richness of your speculative world.

Tune in next time for more Worldbuilding 101!

1. I’ll preface this by saying I do not have a Ph.D. in linguistics, just some conlanging experience and a friend with a Ph.D. in linguistics. Ymmv.

2. I’m not going to get into the International Phonetic Alphabet today but if you want the real symbols used to distinguish phonemes, they’re here.

3. Yes, I know I’m vastly oversimplifying here. Walk with me.

4. There are other rules, of course. Which phonemes, for example, are allowed to be next to each other. Which phonemes are allowed to start or end a word. But I won’t go into that in this article.

5. Of course, you must be sensitive when doing this. Don’t just pick a language because it’s cool. Respect the people who speak it, the people it’s for. But if you’re basing your culture off this people, hopefully you’re already being careful about that decision.