As I continue down my list of suggested topics for writing articles, I come to one that fills me with more trepidation than even the one about religion. This time, my fear comes not from offending anyone, but from a total lack of expertise in the subject matter! What is this topic I’ll be bumbling my way through?
Language.
I took exactly one linguistics course ever. One. And that was probably 15 years ago. Maybe 20. I’ve never developed a language for any of my worlds, and I have very few real qualifications to write anything on language creation. (I did take three years of high school Spanish, if that means anything.)
So with that disclaimer, let me dive into this topic headlong and see what happens. Linguistics is an enormous field of study, so I can pretty much guarantee this will be a multi-week series. As I write, I’ll also include web resources that I think might be useful for those authors looking to do further research.
Language in Fantasy
Before I start making a fool of myself with this topic, let me give a few opinions about the role and use of language in fantasy. First, I am not a hugely picky reader when it comes to fantasy language. I find it quite easy to suspend my disbelief and allow the author to just tell me about different languages without those languages being on the page. I don’t quibble over accents or dialects, and I don’t mind the random apostrophes our genre enjoys. As I come at this topic, keep in mind that I don’t have high expectations about foreign languages in my reading.
All that said…I think there are some things we should consider as we create our worlds. Some of these are quibbles I’ve heard repeatedly from other spec-fic fans, so even if they don’t bother me, I think they’re things to consider.
- Random capitals, punctuation, and compound structure. I hear this complaint all the time. “What does the apostrophe stand for? It should replace something. Did you throw the capital in there just for fun? What’s with the compound word there? You couldn’t separate those?”
- Accents for the Lowborn, but not the Highborn. Some fantasy readers say that authors tend to give accents to the lower classes of society, but not the high. I think this may be true, but I think there are reasons. Our stories tend to follow those of higher birth, and to write an accent for a protagonist all the way through a book would be taxing on both the author and the reader. And by the way, I think the books that follow those of lower classes on their rise to power tend to have less distinction in accent between the classes. We write the voice of the protagonist, and the others fall in place around that voice because the protagonist never thinks he/she has an accent (no one does). I think another reason this is true is because, to some degree, it’s historically accurate. The lower classes of society probably do tend to have more distinctive accents than those of a higher class. There are many reasons for this distinction that I won’t go into, but I think it’s fair to say the distinction is there and acknowledge it on the page.
- Made up names that don’t seem realistic. This is probably the most subjective criticism I hear. It really is something very personal to the reader, I think. But it’s something to keep in mind as you write. If you can’t believe the name could actually exist, your reader probably won’t either.
I don’t think every fantasy book has to include a brand new language, and even if it does, I don’t think you have to be a linguist to write enough words to make a new language believable. In fact, I have a few cautions about writing a new language that don’t involve the actual science of it.
- Don’t be so focused on language that you forget the story. I think this is a trap that many spec-fic authors fall into across the general worldbuilding category. They get really wrapped up in the worldbuilding—mapping, creating languages, building magic systems, etc.—and forget to tell the story or build the characters. Remember that the story is the key thing. If the story is good, most readers will forgive you for random apostrophes. I know I’ve tried to read books with exquisitely crafted worlds that have flat characters or non-existent plots. These books feel “gimmicky” to me—as if they tried to sell me on the world rather than draw me into it through good storytelling.
- Don’t let yourself be distracted by the language (or any other element of worldbuilding). This one goes hand-in-hand with the previous one. I see many budding fantasy authors really focused on building the worlds and not actually writing anything. “But it took Tolkien twenty years to build Middle Earth,” they’ll say. To which I answer, “You aren’t Tolkien.” The thing is, any element of building a world can very quickly become a distraction, an excuse, or a self-defeating tool to avoid doing the actual writing.
- Don’t get too hung up on the naysayers, picky linguists, and grumpy fantasy fans. Please don’t throw things at me. You know they’re out there—the folks who get irritated about everything in the genre either because they think it’s all been done or because they think they can do it better. Listen, if those readers want to write their own stories, they are totally capable of doing so. If you want to throw in random apostrophes and capitals, go for it. It’s your story. You tell it the way you want to tell it, and don’t let yourself wallow in worry about what other people will say about the way your characters talk.
With that, I think I’m ready to dive in! I think the best place to start building a new language is with real-world languages. Next week, I’ll look at some of the basic language families and what I think we can use from them to build our own new languages.
In the meantime, here’s a very timely link about the creation of Dothraki for HBO’s treatment of A Game of Thrones.
