One of the most daunting tasks of making a fictitious language is creating the world in which it is spoken. As a conlanger, one does dabble in the art of world building, but where to start? Maybe my experience can help. I am (by no stretch of the imagination) not an expert world builder, but through my conlanging I have been able to paint a neat setting. I will provide links to what I have created thus far at the end of this post so you can enjoy the journey with me, and perhaps this will jump-start my world building to further refine what I have been able to uncover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For me, I dove into the world building arena early on. I wanted to make a unique culture that is not human, per se. Akin to, perhaps, some of the races found in Star Trek<\/em> or even J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings<\/em>. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to make the language feel like an archaeological discovery from a different world. This was the seed I planted to help with creating the culture and to also explain the holes in the language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many words I created were the result of\u2014shall we say\u2014a “gut feeling.” For example, the Lorthoan word (roughly translated) for “dragon” is toshani<\/strong> [to\u00b7\u02c8\u0283a\u00b7ni] n. masc<\/em>. At the time it felt like dragon<\/em>, but I did not want the animal to be anything like what one could find in folklore or stories here on Earth, so I experimented with it. Thus, the toshani was born:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The toshani<\/strong> is a six-legged, diurnal reptile which resembles something you would expect to see if a Spinosaurus<\/a> and a Mosasaurus<\/a> had offspring, just a little smaller. The largest animal described was approximately 30 to 40 feet in length (a system of measurement has yet to be created). The head is nearly a quarter of its body length. Its teeth are knife-shaped to tear through flesh and bone with ease and has the crushing power equal or greater than that of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. With its six legs, it is very agile and can climb up, down, and around rocks at astonishing speed. Its legs are sprawled, much like that of a crocodile giving it the ability to stay low to the terrain. Its outer skin is scaly and armored and has a pattern of red, orange, and tan pastel colors giving it the perfect camouflage for the rocky terrain.<\/p>The Language of Lortho and the World of Dhamashi. (2017, September 13). In CBBForum<\/em>. The possibilities are endless; there are two quotes I live by as a conlanger to which I constantly and consistently refer when I am writing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t. \u2013 Mark Twain<\/em> I believe you, too, can make wonderful stories and culture references based on these two quotes. You have the power to awe and inspire, and I hope that\u2014in some small way\u2014I have done the same for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Language of Lortho and the World of Dhamashi<\/a> One of the most daunting tasks of making a fictitious language is creating the world in which it is spoken. As a conlanger, one does dabble in the art of world building, but where to start? Maybe my experience can help. I am (by no stretch of the imagination) not an expert world builder, but … <\/p>\n
https:\/\/cbbforum.com\/viewtopic.php?p=264881#p264881 <\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
No matter how strange something is… if you give it enough time, it becomes normal. \u2013 Sarah Kellogg (Marg Helgenberger) Fire Down Below<\/em> <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Lortho Wiki<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"