Besides J.R.R. Tolkien, some other favorite authors of mine who have used languages as integral parts of novels include Jack Vance in The Languages of Pao and Ursula K. LeGuin, in A Wizard of Earthsea. Of course, the Game of Thrones series of novels has some invented languages, and the movie Avatar made good use of an invented language.  Such linguistic devices add a rich authenticity to beloved yet otherwise fictional works.

There are various manuals available that feature or describe linguistic invention. These include The Art of Language Invention: From Horse-Lords to Dark Elves, the Words Behind World-Building by David J. Peterson and The Language Construction Kit by Mark Rosenfelder, who has written additional books on this subject as well. Much of Tolkien’s invented languages are described in a classic, sometimes hard-to-find handbook, The Languages of Tolkien’s Middle-earth by Ruth S. Noel.

As promised at the end of Inventing Languages, Part 1, the rudiments of an imaginary language have been created below. Here are the basic building blocks of Rovitot, a language spoken by a band of roving goblins who appear in my 2018 NaNoWriMo novel, Goblin Ring. 

*Vowels:

æ as in ‘bad’

e as in ‘rake’

i as in ‘see’

o as in ‘dough’

u as in ‘dew’

*Stems:

-rh- = life, alive, breathe (animate)

-tl- = move, walk, struggle

-mn- = fight, defend

-vt- = tongue, speak, speech

-hb- = sleep, rest, still(ness)

-mr- = water, rain, drink

-kd- = make, do, forge

-bf- = food, feed, eat

-zg- = plant (verb/noun), grow

-nk- = dress (verb), clothing

-hr- = arrive, come, go

The stems take prefixes, infixes, which are vowels inserted between the two consonants of a stem, and suffixes; the stems are also used to create nouns, verbs, and adverbs.

*Pronoun Prefixes:

ne- = I

ig- = you

væ- = s/he

on- = it

ro- = we

ub- = they

*Negation: -ut = verb suffix; ut = no; læ = yes

*Noun Suffix: -id = animate, -ot = inanimate

ne-hib-ut = I don’t sleep; ne-hub = I slept; Læ, ne-hib = Yes, I sleep;

ig-bif = you eat; ig-buf-ut = you didn’t eat;

væ-hir-ut = s/he doesn’t arrive; væ-hur = s/he arrived;

on-mir-ut = it doesn’t rain; on-mur = it rained;

ro-vit = we speak; ro-vut-ut = we didn’t speak;

ub-nik-ut = they don’t dress; ub-nuk = they dressed;

Adjustments can be made to the vowels, or to any of the parts for that matter, especially if you find something tiresome. Or perhaps you have created a word or phrase that sounds too much like English! In language creation, as in language learning, our first tongue often causes interference. You may find Rovitot an unlovely language, and that is your choice. The point of this exercise is to sketch out the building blocks of an imaginary language. You have to start somewhere, and complexity develops gradually but should do so only according to your story’s needs. In Inventing Languages: Part 3, we will explore another imaginary language.

Language invention can be an entertaining hobby, in and of itself. However, remember the typical focus of such invention is to enhance your story, not to overwhelm it.