Language Construction Kit Book

[crystalswolf]

Okay, this is the first thread I've ever started here. I LOVE the language construction kit and just found out the guru for people like me is publishing the information of his beloved site, with more goodies. If you want to what I'm talking about here is the site that I worship

[Lady Rainbow]

AWESOME!!!! thanks for the link!

[crystalswolf]

You're welcome! Can you tell I love language making?

[justTripn]

Here is the quick and easy way to make up a language: steal from a really obscure language that no one is likely to know, change a few letters. Voila! For purposes of fanfic, good enough.

As for conveying alienness I like the recommendation to be really careful of english-language ciches or sayings coming out of the mouths of aliens. I always notice this mistake in Star Trek and it bugs me. I have a book of Thai proverbs and there are some cool ones. Here is the one for "To go looking for trouble": "Go look for lice and put them on your head." There was a real cute one meaning "falling in love after it's too late to do anything about it." Something about a beautiful tree and an old ax, lol . . . Use really unusual metaphors or sayings to convey alienness.

In trying to translate Thai songs I find that the initial translation straight out of google is like a string of words adding up to nothing. It's because the grammar is so different and because of the metaphors. There was one song that I thought I understood all the words, but it wasn't making sense. There was a line that as far as I could tell said, "Let us experience ???? together." And the missing word looked like "loneliness." I asked my Thai facebook friend what it means and she said it meant, "Let us experience loneliness together." See the boyfriend and girlfriend were separated and looking of towards the horizon and missing each other. So I couldn't understand that sentence simply because it's not something an English speaker would say. And there is so much like that. Thai songs always have people "with tears flowing inwards" (crying on the inside) and people left with "one hand clapping" when they are abandoned by their significant other. Make up stuff like that for your aliens.

[justTripn]

Here is the quick and easy way to make up a language: steal from a really obscure language that no one is likely to know, change a few letters. Voila! For purposes of fanfic, good enough.

As for conveying alienness I like the recommendation to be really careful of english-language ciches or sayings coming out of the mouths of aliens. I always notice this mistake in Star Trek and it bugs me. I have a book of Thai proverbs and there are some cool ones. Here is the one for "To go looking for trouble": "Go look for lice and put them on your head." There was a real cute one meaning "falling in love after it's too late to do anything about it." Something about a beautiful tree and an old ax, lol . . . Use really unusual metaphors or sayings to convey alienness.

In trying to translate Thai songs I find that the initial translation straight out of google is like a string of words adding up to nothing. It's because the grammar is so different and because of the metaphors. There was one song that I thought I understood all the words, but it wasn't making sense. There was a line that as far as I could tell said, "Let us experience ???? together." And the missing word looked like "loneliness." I asked my Thai facebook friend what it means and she said it meant, "Let us experience loneliness together." See the boyfriend and girlfriend were separated and looking of towards the horizon and missing each other. So I couldn't understand that sentence simply because it's not something an English speaker would say. And there is so much like that. Thai songs always have people "with tears flowing inwards" (crying on the inside) and people left with "one hand clapping" when they are abandoned by their significant other. Make up stuff like that for your aliens.

Now I remember: "To find a beautiful tree when your ax is broken"

[crystalswolf]

I guess I should have written this with the link. Most people that create full languages are different from those that create naming languages. I belong to the first group with the absolutely nerdy (VERY nerdy) love of how languages work and enjoy the act of creating one. Seasoned language creators tend to create a culture to understand the language they are creating and therefore do as you said, create their own saying based on that culture (the author of the posted site created a rich culture to go with his language, maps, drawing diagrams, etc.).

This group tends to worship Tolkien because he was the most well known person to love languages, love creating them and (and I think first) wrote his books to showcase his creations. I, personally, respect his work but do not adore him the way others do.

The Vulcan language effort (http://www.stogeek.com/wiki/Category:Vu ... _Institute) is under this category as well.

Then there are those that create a language for the sole purpose to enhance a story. Klingon before Marc Okrand got his hands on it is an example of this.