Fantasy Language Creation for Fiction Writers

Tolkien wrote copiously about his elfish language, even including dictionaries and grammar guides in appendices of his books. There are organized groups who get together regularly and speak nothing but Klingon, a language from the Star Trek universe. There is no mistaking why the fandoms are huge. Fantasy writers create new worlds, new races, and new people. Creating a fantasy language adds verisimilitude in fiction works, something that fans obviously crave.

If you are a fantasy fiction writer, you will not be wasting your time creating a fantasy language for your chosen race of beings. Of course, how extensive your dictionary and grammar texts are is based on what you need for your story. Most fiction writers can make do with several well-placed phrases and exclamations. (Fantasy curses are a favorite of readers!) Creating the basics of a fantasy language can be quite simple.

The Foreign Language Method

One of the easiest ways to create a new fantasy language is to borrow rules and words from existing languages. Of course, you do not want your dwarven warriors actually speaking Norwegian or whatever. You can instead try combining two languages, using words backwards, or scrambling the words completely.

For example, your desert cat-people might like to greet each other with "Nobour gat!" Nobour is a reversed version of the French "Bonjour" with the "J" subtracted. "Gat" is the reverse of the German "Tag" which means day in their common greeting "Guten tag."

The Alphabet Method

Another easy method of creating a fantasy fiction language is by using only part of the alphabet. Effeminate garden elves might use a lot of soft J's, S's, and L's. War-like trolls might focus more on the harder sounds of G's, K's, and growling R's.

If you decide that your Pookus people of Kalkachoo speak mostly with H, R, P, K, and the vowel sounds of O and A, they might mutter "Horpa Arpok" to their neighbors in the morning.

The Gobbledy-Gook Method