I have been waiting to do this for so long, so I'm really happy that KCB001 requested it!

There are SO MANY languages throughout fiction that nerds and fans have learned throughout the years (I'm lookin' at you Star Trek fans....). It's so fun to discover these new languages and see how they work; however, the question arises for us writers: if we want to include a language, how?

Well have no fear, amateur writer Melody King is here!

Now before I say anything, this is just from my personal experience in writing languages into my manuscript as well as what authors like Jenna Moreci have said on this topic.

I have never written a language from scratch before, but I have mixed and matched languages such as Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and French together to create little bits and pieces, which is common among the writing community. I love to experiment with weird languages that not a lot of people know still exist. Mashing together words from different languages to make a brand new, unique one. 

Writing languages into books is a lot harder than it is to write languages into movies or TV shows because those visual mediums have the ability to utilize subtitles for their audience to follow along. Books don't have that same luxury.

When she was asked about this, Jenna Moreci (who is the author of the Savior Series, which I wholeheartedly recommend) talked about how her characters technically speak the native language, but for readers' convenience is just "translated" into English. This is the most common, and simplest, way authors incorporate language into their stories.

Others, including myself, create a set number of words or phrases in our "language" that we sprinkle in throughout our book. Typically these have some sort of significance, as I love you, goodbye, war, hate, etc. Whenever this new word or phrase is introduced, someone who speaks this language will typically translate it through dialogue so that the readers can understand. For example:

"Planted in the dirt beside a pile of rubble was a black, metal pole. At its top flew a crimson red flag, with golden script reading 'Dìottas.' Under the cursive lettering, the letter "H" was delicately signed.

'Revenge,' Robin whispered."

If you want to have an entire conversation in this foreign language, I would recommend not actually including any lines of dialogue. Instead, summarize it. For example:

"They shot back and forth short quips in their native tongue, trying to find a compromise."

I say this because if you write the entire conversation in this different language, and then put the translation in parenthesis afterward takes the reader out of the book. From experience, I skip any narrative description during these conversations and just focusing on the provided translation.

If you want to be really outgoing, you could look at the map for your world (if you have one...if you don't my map shop is open 😉) and see where different countries or groups live and create languages for all of them (just don't go too Tolkein, try and stick with the bare minimum. As in, if you don't visit a country or meet anyone from a specific group that has a different language until book 3, don't allocate a lot of your time to creating the language just yet)

If you want to create a unique language for your book here are some questions to keep in mind:

1. What does it sound like (does it sound like a romance language like Spanish, French, or Italian or a more robust language like Russian or Yugoslavian)?
2. Does it use characters like Japanese or letters like English or Latin?
3. Is it common or rare?
4. Is it a "dead" language like Latin?
5. How is it read? (Left to right? Right to left? Up to down? Left to Right, down a line, then right to left?)

That's all I have for this topic but please feel free to comment any questions you might have!

Thanks for reading and I'll see you in the next part!

<3 Melody