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PariahSociety
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[DASH=cyan]
Parts of Speech
Yes, those annoying things you could never really remember in English class. Sorry to disappoint you, but every language needs them to be spoken or written, so making sure you understand them and their functions is the first step to making a language all your own. Here's a quick run-down of the important ones;
noun- A person, place or thing/object. (Jimmy, store, pen)
pronoun- He, she, it, them, etc.
verb- An action word. (sit, stand, jump, etc.)
adjective- describes a noun and answers the questions "how many?" or "what kind?" (sad, green, flirtatious)
adverb- easy to remember, Ad-verb. It adds to the verb and tells you how the action is done. (Quickly, slowly) Usually, but not always ends in '-ly'. Though, not all words ending in -ly are adverbs, such as friendly, which is an adjective.
preposition- You can literally think of it as position, or where one noun is in relation to another. (on, above, across)
conjunction- joins clauses, sentences or words. (and, but, when)
interjection- short exclamation, sometimes inserted into a sentence. (ouch!, Hi!, well)
These are the basic eight types of words that are needed to form a language. Sure, when you create your own language you can add more parts of speech with their own functions that you have decided, but this can get confusing, so it's always good to touch base with the globally used parts of speech when you can.
Now we get into the importance of thoroughly checking over the words you'll be creating. If you just randomly say one word means such-and-such with no reason for it, it'll be that much harder to remember. Keeping a certain rule for the words you make will explain why they go together in whichever way you chose them to. With this in mind, remember that your fictional language does not have to be put together such as English is to be translated into the same English phrase.
Let's say your created language has a word t'sara, which means quickly. It would make sense that another adverb would somehow be similar to this word, such as quickly relates to slowly in having the last two letters the same. Whether it be that all your adverbs end with an a or begin with the prefix t' is up to you, but having these small similarities helps the language to be more understandable to a non-native speaker, such as another roleplayer would be.
[/DASH]
[DASH=cyan]Let's test it out!
Translate this English phrase into a fictional language, giving a small dictionary of the words you use of course, and why the words are written as they are. Feel free to use my made-up word t'sara and explain how it is an adverb as well as the reasons for the other words being what they are. (Noun, verb, etc..) Try not to make a word-for-word translation.. make up your own rules for the sentence structure and explain them to us!
Languages: What makes a language
There are 3 main ways to communicate between sentient beings: Speech, written text, and hand/body signals.
This first guide will be about developing the spoken language of your fictional world. You'll find everything here, including grammatical gender, regional dialects, accents and slang and we'll even touch down on honorifics. Developing your language as a whole rather than tossing out a few scant words or phrases will better allow the reader to understand the very culture of the peoples within your world and not just how they give and exchange information with one another. Hopefully, you can get this across without teaching a whole new language, but give them the idea of how the communities are run and separated in the process.
Part 1: Speech
Section A
This first guide will be about developing the spoken language of your fictional world. You'll find everything here, including grammatical gender, regional dialects, accents and slang and we'll even touch down on honorifics. Developing your language as a whole rather than tossing out a few scant words or phrases will better allow the reader to understand the very culture of the peoples within your world and not just how they give and exchange information with one another. Hopefully, you can get this across without teaching a whole new language, but give them the idea of how the communities are run and separated in the process.
Part 1: Speech
Section A
Parts of Speech
Yes, those annoying things you could never really remember in English class. Sorry to disappoint you, but every language needs them to be spoken or written, so making sure you understand them and their functions is the first step to making a language all your own. Here's a quick run-down of the important ones;
noun- A person, place or thing/object. (Jimmy, store, pen)
pronoun- He, she, it, them, etc.
verb- An action word. (sit, stand, jump, etc.)
adjective- describes a noun and answers the questions "how many?" or "what kind?" (sad, green, flirtatious)
adverb- easy to remember, Ad-verb. It adds to the verb and tells you how the action is done. (Quickly, slowly) Usually, but not always ends in '-ly'. Though, not all words ending in -ly are adverbs, such as friendly, which is an adjective.
preposition- You can literally think of it as position, or where one noun is in relation to another. (on, above, across)
conjunction- joins clauses, sentences or words. (and, but, when)
interjection- short exclamation, sometimes inserted into a sentence. (ouch!, Hi!, well)
These are the basic eight types of words that are needed to form a language. Sure, when you create your own language you can add more parts of speech with their own functions that you have decided, but this can get confusing, so it's always good to touch base with the globally used parts of speech when you can.
Now we get into the importance of thoroughly checking over the words you'll be creating. If you just randomly say one word means such-and-such with no reason for it, it'll be that much harder to remember. Keeping a certain rule for the words you make will explain why they go together in whichever way you chose them to. With this in mind, remember that your fictional language does not have to be put together such as English is to be translated into the same English phrase.
Let's say your created language has a word t'sara, which means quickly. It would make sense that another adverb would somehow be similar to this word, such as quickly relates to slowly in having the last two letters the same. Whether it be that all your adverbs end with an a or begin with the prefix t' is up to you, but having these small similarities helps the language to be more understandable to a non-native speaker, such as another roleplayer would be.
[/DASH]
[DASH=cyan]Let's test it out!
Translate this English phrase into a fictional language, giving a small dictionary of the words you use of course, and why the words are written as they are. Feel free to use my made-up word t'sara and explain how it is an adverb as well as the reasons for the other words being what they are. (Noun, verb, etc..) Try not to make a word-for-word translation.. make up your own rules for the sentence structure and explain them to us!
Sally ran across the room quickly.
Good luck! :)
[/DASH]Good luck! :)