Good day all. Been a while since I posted a thread. Had a lot come up which pulled me away from writing. But, I'm going to try to get back into it.

So, with that said, I have a question. Is it okay to make up a language for either a character (who is not human) or for any other situation (such as a dark magic spell)? I know many writers default to Latin most of the time when using magic spells for witchcraft/demon lore. And I read somewhere that many writers work with language experts who help them form an "alien" language based on current or "old" Earth languages.

Your opinion, would making one up be okay to do or does that reek of amatuer?

Seems a b it pointless if you're not dealing with the finished product? Wouldn't you just say 'sub-titled' of the like, and then maybe put a note in that it's a unique alien language etc?

Guess it would depend on how much of this 'made-up' language you'd want to use.  Based on your examples there'd be a big difference between characters uttering a few Harry Potter type phrases to cast a spell than whole chunks of dialogue.  The latter would probably be a turn-off to a reader and would warrant sub-titles anyway -- I'd concentrate more on getting the story down and what the characters are saying rather than how it's said -- that could come later.

Hope this helps.

Steve.

If you create a whole language with its own system of grammar and everything, then that's far from amateur. It might not be used and it might confuse some folks, but you'll get a lotta respect for it.

Not amateur at all. As above posters have mentioned, it kinda depends how this language is being used in the film -- are we meant to understand some of it? None of it? Is it highly featured? Do characters start to learn it?

If you have the brains and the time to make up your own language, do it for sure.

Keep this in mind -- the terrorists in Die Hard are "German" and they're just speaking non-sensical gibberish because no-one could be bothered to put any work into it. So the standard for languages in film is not set very high!

I write fantasy.  So this is right up my alley.

Whenever I use Ancient Midranian in my Last of the Guardians script I subtitle it as English.

Example:
(Ancient Midranian)
Itar dominas edura sherin ado.
(English Subtitled)
We must not fail in our efforts.

That's always been how I write new languages in anything.  When I wrote novels I had a simple pronounciation guide at the beginning, which explained what was said and what it meant in English.

So yeah, making a language up is fine.  As long as it sounds realistic and/or you add a subtitle to it.  Mine has hints of Latin in many aspects.

Lee

I think I need to clarify. I read what I posted and I think I described it wrong. I don't mean an alien race comes to Earth and talks a different language. Let me see if this makes more sense:

A character comes across an artifact and inscribed on this artifact is a word, or group of words. The character attempts to read the inscribed words which are not in English or any other known language whether the language is old language or a current language.

I don't mean to actually create an entire language where verbs are conjugated and all that.

Just a minor detail - shouldn't matter if it's a know language, a language where you use a substitution cipher, or one you just plain make up, it will be subtitled on the screen and the vast majority of the audience won't know or care, only that it sounds different.

I wouldn't get too hung up on this detail, or spend too much time on it.

Oh. Well clarified. Yeah for sure, make up your own language. Nothing wrong with that at all.

I wouldn't create the language; it's unnecessary and time-consuming.

Just use subtitles.


Phil

Quoted from Leegion I write fantasy.  So this is right up my alley. Whenever I use Ancient Midranian in my Last of the Guardians script I subtitle it as English. Example: (Ancient Midranian) Itar dominas edura sherin ado. (English Subtitled) We must not fail in our efforts. That's always been how I write new languages in anything.  When I wrote novels I had a simple pronounciation guide at the beginning, which explained what was said and what it meant in English. So yeah, making a language up is fine.  As long as it sounds realistic and/or you add a subtitle to it.  Mine has hints of Latin in many aspects. Lee

yup.

I've been looking at some Star Trek shooting scripts lately and BOY...talk about long pronunication guides.

I would treat made-up languages as I do non-English languages.

If I need an earthly character talking in say, German, I usually don't write out an entire line in phonetic German unless it's a one-word sentence or one simple sentence, and then generally, I italicise it. But if it's an entire paragraph of German or entire dialpgue in German, I tackle it like this:

BETH
(in German)
I know he's been asking for me. What should I do?

MARY
(in German)
Nothing, you twit. Let me do some spying first.

etc...

I'd do the same for a made-up language. That said, I'm not a huge sci-fi or fantasy reader, and realize those folk are more acccepting of alien/ancient languages or names. Me personally, I don't mind strange/alien languages or names so long as they are held to a minimum, but then I may not be your audience. I definitely don't like reading a bunch of names or words in general I cannot pronounce, especially those with apostrophes in them.

Just my preference.