A note to the writers of the world...

[conuly]

If you're going to include fantasy foreign words in your work, please try to remember that there are other ways to mark a plural besides simple suffixes.

For example - and this is just off the top of my head! - you can leave plurals unmarked, you can add a prefix or an infix, you can change an affix, you can use full or partial reduplication, you can use mandatory measure words, you can have the unmarked word undergo a systematic phonetic change (think "goose, geese" or "foot, feet"). And of course, as in English, sometimes multiple systems can jostle together.

For an advanced move, consider or having dual, trial and/or paucal marking in addition to simple singular/plural, or marking the singular instead of the plural either for all words or only words of a certain semantic group (ie, those things you don't expect to see just one of, like birds or children or candies or worries).

If you intend to write entire sentences, ask yourself if it might make sense to mark words other than or in addition to the noun, and if plural marking must be obligatory.

*****

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Comments

[shadowkat]

You really have to be a linguistic to make up a language effectively. I tried to make up my own and gave up. Although will state that you are correct, various languages do not use suffixs for plural. Some do it vous or aux. French singular tu, plural vous, and of course formal vous. But it's hard to remember, if you don't think like a linguist.

[conuly]

Are you familiar with the Language Construction Kit?

[shadowkat]

No. Didn't know that existed.

[conuly]

Oh! Well, I love it so much. I printed it out several times in adolescence and rushed to buy the new expanded edition when it came out, in print and on kindle. The original online version is still free at Zompist.com

[shadowkat]

It's amazing! So much fun. I may have to buy it. Thank you!

[conuly]

There is also an advanced LCK now, and a syntax construction kit as well. But run through the online edition a few times first.

[conuly]

Also, let's be real, most writers don't need to come up with a full language. They need to come up with a handful of words (please, everybody, just subtract entire classes from English phonology, don't try to add mysterious sounds you don't know how to define!) and, at most, a few phrases or sentences. There are free computer programs which can generate that output for you.

[shadowkat]

There are free computer programs which can generate that output for you.

This, I did not know existed.

However, I did know you don't need a full language, just a handful of words -- and consistency. The biggest difficulty is consistency. You don't have to do what JRR Tolkien did which is basically create a whole language -- but he was also a Professor Linguistics at Cambridge or Oxford (can't remember which). And remember the rules to the language you've developed. If you are using an apostrophe to silence a consonant, keep using it.

Fantasy and Sci-Fi writing requires a great deal of attention to detail that most genres don't. Because if you create a world/build a world -- you have to be consistent.
I know I tried to write two sci-fi novels, with world building and got a bit stuck. Will go back eventually, but the world building can get aggravating -- not the building itself, the need to keep track of and remember all the little details that readers often take for granted, but writers can't.

[conuly]

Hardly anybody is going to be Tolkein. You'll note that whenever people really are invested in their fantasy world having a complete alien language, they hire professionals to do it.

[shadowkat]

True. Tolkien created the language first, the story second. Most people do the opposite. Actually I think he created the stories in order to play with the language and the world. Also the language he created? It's actually a recreation of ancient languages from Great Britain or the Celtic languages -- so he based it on an actual language or used an actual one as a model.

Everyone else hires professionals to do it. Or they do as you suggest, just use a few words and phrases here and there.

[conuly]

Also: https://www.frathwiki.com/Software_tools_for_conlanging

Some of those are dead links, and a large number of the others are freemium, but what do you want?

[shadowkat]

Wow. Just Wow. Thank you -- for showing me that. I've book marked the Language Construction Kit for later use.

I developed an alien language for a book I was working on -- which was a sort of hybrid of a couple of other languages. I just came up with some nouns, pronouns, verbs, and phrases and interspersed them. Decided didn't need to go overboard, since I made the story first person pov and the narrator couldn't speak the language well, and barely understood it.
That sort of let me off the hook a bit. There are ways around it, as you state.

I've read a lot of books where the writer attempts to create another language and fails miserably. Game of Thrones hired linguists to create the languages they used (GRR Martin is NOT a linguist). I think they actually hired the same guys who created the Klingon language for Star Trek.
I liked what Farscape did, which is use a translator -- so they didn't have to, and just create a few words here and there. That's clever.

Also read a lot of books in which writers attempt dialect and fail miserably. Dialect is really hard to pull off. I don't know many writers who can do it.

The problem with genre is you run into a lot of writers who try to pull off really hard things like a full made up language or dialect, and they can't do it. They aren't linguists like Tolkien. They don't understand how complex language is -- and how most languages are often built off of or hybrids of others. Or how the sounds work.

[conuly]

Dialect can be done correctly, but too many people don't understand the dialects they're working with, and then it's just pandering at best, outright insulting at worst.