McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Creating words from a new language

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Dresdenus Prime:
I'm looking for two things here;

1. A site or tips not so much for creating an entire language, but just for creating a small number of words. (The language died out with the race years ago, but certain keywords will continue within my story)

2. Is there any place where I can look up a word and find various translations on that word? I don't want to create a word for my fantasy language only to have to sound too familiar to something that already exists.

Thanks!

Lord Rae:
1) Your best bet would be to take a base language you like and tweak it somewhat. That way it wouldn't be a entirely new language and you still get across the basic idea of what you're going for. But I've never created a language or tried to.

2) Wikipedia would be a good place to check and see if its been used. Also just general google searches. Might not be the quickest way but I doubt you will find a place with a bigger database of fantasy information than the internet in general and or Wiki.

Snowleopard:
The following gives you a list of different slang websites but also other language websites.
You can also try a regular Thesaurus.

http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/links.htm

This also looked like an interesting site.

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/

Figging Mint:



--- Quote ---2. Is there any place where I can look up a word and find various translations on that word? I don't want to create a word for my fantasy language only to have to sound too familiar to something that already exists.

--- End quote ---

http://www.wiktionary.org/

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