One last thing for a basic language remains. The very first thing you learn at school and hum to children.
You guessed it!
The alphabet!
As we're keeping it simple, and basically translating english phonemes to something new, it makes sense to keep the english alphabet and change it. How you want to do this is up to you. Maybe the T's become Z's?
'W' is now written as 'Ou'?
Maybe like me you'll decide that 24 letters is far too many and eliminate some entirely? For example, K, P and F are now all L.
This is what will begin to give your language shape, consider non-standards letters, such as the german ß or french é.
For mine, I reduced my alphabet to
consonants: c, h, l, n, p, r, s, t, v, y
Vowels: a, e, i, o, u
This is where it's tempting to do a swap for swap for every letter and rewrite each sentence with just a letter equivalent - don't do this.
To make your language as natural as possible build it around replacing phonemes as a block. This is because speaking came before writing, so it makes sense to follow our ancestors and to make noises first, and the writing will follow!
Here are some examples:
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phoneme | sounds in example | my language translation
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th | leather | ir
a, ai, eigh, aigh, ay, er, et, ei, au, a_e, ea, ey | bay, maid, weigh, straight, pay, foyer, filet, eight, gauge, mate, break, they | En
k, c, ch, cc, lk, qu ,q(u), ck, x | kit, cat, chris, accent, folk, bouquet, queen, rack, box | Say
Here are the phonemes broken down for 'thank' Th-an-ck
'Irensay'
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p, pp | pin, dippy | Al
ow, ou, ough | now, shout, bough | Ignore/va
r, er, ur, ear, or, our, yr | bird, term, burn, pearl, word, journey, myrtle | So
'Power' P-ow-er 'Alvaso'
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All of my phoneme replacement sounds were made by collecting letters I liked the look of. After doing the same, string a few practise words together and you'll start to know if you like the look of it.
This is where you'll also realise you might need some 'rules'. Notice how I have ignore/va above? Sometimes this is because the next phoneme block starts with a vowel so it looks odd and it's hard to say, so it just gets dropped. Much like use/using, sense/sensible dropping vowels worked well for me.
Your lovely spreadsheet should now have the very basics of what makes the english language split up on it. Of course there is way more to languages, but for now, this is more than enough to create a basic one. So give filling out your phoneme blocks a go, and let me know how it goes! Once you've cracked single words, move onto the next section to put sentences together.
If you're completely lost drop a message in and I'll get back to you :)
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How to write a new language
Não FicçãoAn easy guide to making your own translatable language, as featured in my series 'Magic Rising'. In this guide I'll be breaking down how I created my own, and how you can easily too for all your sci-fi and fantasy needs. By breaking down sentence st...
