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I've created an alien language

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#1 supremedalek925

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Posted 06 January 2014 - 06:21 PM

Hello. I'm currently developing a sci-fi game for PC and mobile with an original universe, lore, and cast of alien races.  I'm a big fan of immersive storytelling and complex alien cultures, yadayadayda, so I thought it would be fun to create a unique language for one of my alien species.  I figured that it's a pretty nerdy thing to do, so I thought I'd put it up here so anyone interested can check it out.

 

AbIJL4w.png

 

This is a sample of the written language in its native form.  There is a Romanized writing as well, (think Romanji in Japanese) but I'll get to that later.

The four lines in the image from top to bottom read:

You are a warrior.  (Et seto kartake)

I am not happy.    (Ke-ko seto taret)

We need to be warriors and fight.   (Ket taretov-setov kartake ret kasetov)

Are you angry?   (Res-et takeret?)

 

Now that's all fine and dandy, but it's meaningless without a key.  Fortunately, I planned out the Rosetta stone of sorts from the beginning.

This language has 17 letters.  Romanized, they are Ka, Ke, K, R, S, E, Et, Ta, O, Ov, Od, Da, Ze, Fa, Dru, Ge, and Ho.

And, here is the key!

 

gSPPg6T.png

 

Of course, these symbols and their respective sounds are meaningless without a dictionary being created to give them meaning.  I've already made quite a few words in this language.  Here's a fun idea, if you are interested, why not make some new words for this language?  If I like any of them, I'll put them in the game.

 

Oh, one last cool thing I forgot to mention.  In the first image there where I have those 4 sentences; that is a screen from in-game.  I created an engine that converts the romanized language to symbols!  In the game, if your character does not know the language, you have to decode the specie's messages yourself.  This isn't required of course, but I think it could give the game a lot of personality and decoding the messages may lead you to some secrets!

 

So, that's the end of that.  Thanks for taking a look!    (By the way, I have like 0 bars of wi-fi so this took forever to write)

 



#2 Sethre

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Posted 06 January 2014 - 06:30 PM

>.> I love it. That is all. If you can really develop this and get some big people on board you might actually be able to make a really cool game. 


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#3 SpleenBeGone

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Posted 06 January 2014 - 06:36 PM

This is pretty awesome. I love the way it looks put together.


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#4 Sandy

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Posted 06 January 2014 - 08:52 PM

That's really neat, you've got a creative mind. :3



#5 seakingtheonixpected

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Posted 06 January 2014 - 09:21 PM

I'm kind of curious why the verb 'to be' is conjugated in the last two but 'are' and 'am' are the same.

 

It is definitely an interesting concept and it is very believable (reminds me vaguely of Klingon) though since this will be in a video game the thing you have to be careful of is that it doesn't become to frustrating, as not everyone who is playing a game wants to spend their time double translating.

 

Keep in mind I'm not saying it is something you shouldn't do, just that you'll have to maintain a good balance in order to make it work.



#6 Calvary

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Posted 07 January 2014 - 02:35 AM

Oh man, language creation makes me go weak at the knees. >w>

 

This is excellent, keep it up! Let us know what the grammatical conventions are and stuff, if they're different from English. =3


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#7 supremedalek925

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Posted 09 January 2014 - 02:15 PM

I'm kind of curious why the verb 'to be' is conjugated in the last two but 'are' and 'am' are the same.

 

It is definitely an interesting concept and it is very believable (reminds me vaguely of Klingon) though since this will be in a video game the thing you have to be careful of is that it doesn't become to frustrating, as not everyone who is playing a game wants to spend their time double translating.

 

Keep in mind I'm not saying it is something you shouldn't do, just that you'll have to maintain a good balance in order to make it work.

 

I've got a list of congugations right now and I'm still working out how the linguistics will all work, so that is definitely something I am being careful of.  As for the frustration level in the game, there are several things I am doing to combat that.  One is making the dialogue fairly simple and keeping the dictionary as small as possible.  The other thing is that the game is a D&D style game like Neverwinter Nights and Outlast, so if the player is intelligent enough to learn this particular language, they will be able to read it in English.  The third thing is that the symbol language will only appear in books which serve no purpose but to add to the lore of the universe.  When speaking to inhabitants of this race, you see the Romanji, which is of course faster to translate.  I hope all of this will cut down on the frustration level and make the lore in the game as deep as the player wants it to be for their own play style.



#8 supremedalek925

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Posted 09 January 2014 - 02:36 PM

Hey, everyone! Me again.  I thought that I would post some of the original notes I made for writing this language so you can see the way I kind of thought it could work.  Maybe some of you could even help me improve it somewhat.  

 

Verb endings:

 

I:      Ka

You:     Et

You formal:     Etov

They:     Ovet

We:     Etka

 

Nouns:

 

I:     Ke

You:     Et

You Formal:     Kov

They:     Koves

We:     Ket

 

Verbs:

 

To be / to have:     Seter

 

Masculine sing:     Seto

Feminine sing:       Setos

Masculine plur:     Setov

Feminine plur:       Setovs

 

To speak/ to tell:     Reketer

 

Masculine sing:     Reketo

Female sing:        Reketos

Masculine plur:   Reketov

Feminine plur:     Reketovs

 

To fight:     Kasetöd

 

Masculine sing:    Kaseto

Feminine sing:     Kasetos

Masculine plur:    Kasetov

Feminine plur:     Kasetovs

 

To have to/need to:     Taret

 

Masculine sing:   Tareto

Feminine sing:     Taretos

Masculine plur:   Taretov

Feminine plur:     Taretovs

 

 

Common expressions:

 

And you?     Ov-et?

Is that correct?     Ove Kata?

Are you..?     Res-et

Will you...?     Resov-et

Did you...?     Reso-et

How many?     Rovo

 

Special expressions:

 

Not/false/negative:     Ko

And:     Ret

But:     Öde

 

 

Special characters:

 

A full stop is a simple, small square.

A question ends with a unique symbol.

Dashes are used to link related parts of speech.

 

 

Nouns:

 

Human:     Kokeseta

Language:     Kesov

Roman alphabet:     Kokesov

Planet:   Kerta

Friend/ally:   Etasovet

War:   Karöd

Love:   Kedâ

Spouse:  Kedâsovet

Warrior:  kartake

Spaceship: Fareta

Weapon:   Zetar

Currency:   Kadru

Profession:  Rogedâ

 

Adjectives:          (Plural ends with ov)

 

Happy:   Taret

Angry:     Takeret

Tired:     Tarovet

Attractive:     Ketotas

Brave:     Oves

Strong:      Tarka

Loving:     OvretkaVerb endings:

 

I:      Ka

You:     Et

You formal:     Etov

They:     Ovet

We:     Etka

 

Nouns:

 

I:     Ke

You:     Et

You Formal:     Kov

They:     Koves

We:     Ket

 

Verbs:

 

To be / to have:     Seter

 

Masculine sing:     Seto

Feminine sing:       Setos

Masculine plur:     Setov

Feminine plur:       Setovs

 

To speak/ to tell:     Reketer

 

Masculine sing:     Reketo

Female sing:        Reketos

Masculine plur:   Reketov

Feminine plur:     Reketovs

 

To fight:     Kasetöd

 

Masculine sing:    Kaseto

Feminine sing:     Kasetos

Masculine plur:    Kasetov

Feminine plur:     Kasetovs

 

To have to/need to:     Taret

 

Masculine sing:   Tareto

Feminine sing:     Taretos

Masculine plur:   Taretov

Feminine plur:     Taretovs

 

 

Common expressions:

 

And you?     Ov-et?

Is that correct?     Ove Kata?

Are you..?     Res-et

Will you...?     Resov-et

Did you...?     Reso-et

How many?     Rovo

 

Special expressions:

 

Not/false/negative:     Ko

And:     Ret

But:     Öde

 

 

Special characters:

 

A full stop is a simple, small square.

A question ends with a unique symbol.

Dashes are used to link related parts of speech.

 

 

Nouns:

 

Human:     Kokeseta

Language:     Kesov

Roman alphabet:     Kokesov

Planet:   Kerta

Friend/ally:   Etasovet

War:   Karöd

Love:   Kedâ

Spouse:  Kedâsovet

Warrior:  kartake

Spaceship: Fareta

Weapon:   Zetar

Currency:   Kadru

Profession:  Rogedâ

 

Adjectives:          (Plural ends with ov)

 

Happy:   Taret

Angry:     Takeret

Tired:     Tarovet

Attractive:     Ketotas

Brave:     Oves

Strong:      Tarka

Loving:     Ovretka



#9 gigatime

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Posted 09 January 2014 - 02:37 PM

I'm horrified about how much time you have.



#10 supremedalek925

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Posted 09 January 2014 - 03:40 PM

I'm horrified about how much time you have.

I planned out most of this during the 10+ hour ride back to my uni.

 

Also another thing to note, there was a bug in my symbol generating code so the first image isn't completely accurate but that's fixed now.



#11 supremedalek925

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Posted 09 January 2014 - 03:56 PM

iYJ0Eok.png

This is what (I think) it Should be now if I don't have any more bugs.

 

And as a bonus, here's some in progress concept art of one of the alien species that I've been working on.   (Not the species this this language is for)

UubVxCN.png



#12 The Seldom Seen Kid

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Posted 09 January 2014 - 04:14 PM

UubVxCN.png

I am terrified by this.



#13 gigatime

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Posted 09 January 2014 - 05:15 PM

Yeah no.... Not into this at all. I'm getting more freaked out by the minute.



#14 Calvary

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Posted 10 January 2014 - 01:13 PM

Just me that's turned on then.


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#15 seakingtheonixpected

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Posted 10 January 2014 - 07:55 PM

I've got a list of congugations right now and I'm still working out how the linguistics will all work, so that is definitely something I am being careful of.  As for the frustration level in the game, there are several things I am doing to combat that.  One is making the dialogue fairly simple and keeping the dictionary as small as possible.  The other thing is that the game is a D&D style game like Neverwinter Nights and Outlast, so if the player is intelligent enough to learn this particular language, they will be able to read it in English.  The third thing is that the symbol language will only appear in books which serve no purpose but to add to the lore of the universe.  When speaking to inhabitants of this race, you see the Romanji, which is of course faster to translate.  I hope all of this will cut down on the frustration level and make the lore in the game as deep as the player wants it to be for their own play style.

Well it sounds like you have this thought out very well, I wish you the best of luck, it is definitely a very believable alien language!



#16 Benihime

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Posted 10 January 2014 - 08:59 PM

somehow pink people are less frightening to me than grey people.


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#17 supremedalek925

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Posted 11 January 2014 - 12:14 PM

I just thought I'd share that I finished that picture.

27EgTkj.png

 

There are going to be a lot of character portraits as well as 3D models for the playable races.



#18 Mister Sympa

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Posted 11 January 2014 - 01:14 PM

Just me that's turned on then.

 

Let it never be said that you are of a closed mind.


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#19 seakingtheonixpected

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Posted 11 January 2014 - 09:56 PM

I just thought I'd share that I finished that picture.

27EgTkj.png

 

There are going to be a lot of character portraits as well as 3D models for the playable races.

Well it is definitely a busty race.



#20 The Seldom Seen Kid

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Posted 13 January 2014 - 01:50 PM

27EgTkj.png

Giving it bewbs does not make it any less terrifying.







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