As an aspiring novelist, I have known for a long time (and ignored for about as long) that eventually I would need to address the need for other languages in my fantasy world. Although there are plenty of good fantasy works that find ways to get around it, I know my world will not have the realism I want without each race having their own unique language. The problem is that I had no idea where to even begin going about creating fictional languages. Then The Art of Language Invention was recommended by a group of conlangers I discovered on the boards for National Novel Writing Month. My wonderful siblings gave it to me for Christmas, and I started reading it sometime in late January.
Although it is written in an entertaining way, The Art of Language Invention is not light reading. I have a good grasp of the way my own native language works, but I easily became lost wading through the terminology and details of languages in general. If nothing else, I needed some knowledge of IPA, which I do not have and probably should have looked up. Most other terms are explained the first time they are mentioned. Chapters go through the sounds, words, grammar, and orthography of creating a believable language. It is detailed, yet I have no doubt that there was more the author left out than included. In short, I knew that creating a language would be a lot of work; however, I did not understand the vastness of what would be required.
For now, I will likely set aside this book and ignore my need of languages in my fantasy world for a while longer. However, eventually, I will probably be picking it back up and going through it slower and making notes along the way. Either that or I will be taking the advice given to "writers and would-be writers of fantasy and science fiction reading this book" and seeking a conlanger willing to put up with my detailed requirements to create the languages for me.
No comments:
Post a Comment