Generally in the sci-fi or fantasy I write I assume there is a common language which is than translated to English. If someone does not speak the common language I generally do not go out of my way to make up a language if the differences are like English to Spanish to French or whatever. I might put in some phonetic gibberish if the other language isn't important. the gibberish might have trends but I won't claim it is any great accomplishment to do that. If the language is very unique and takes great effort to translate I might go into more detail why. But even then I don't always make up more than trendy gibberish
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Why not? I'd say elves speaking Portuguese instead of Ümläütlängüäge (even without a good reason, simply because it's their language) would be a nice contrast. In the Portugues translation it would have to be another language, naturally. Why are you "vehemently against it"?
I am working on a fantasy story (complete with dragon riders, no the main character isn't one...at least not until the third act), were their are elves, dwarves, naga, centaur, giants, and humans. They all have their own language, but I'm not going to "invent" one for them. If the character in POV knows the language, it will be translated in text for the readers benefit. If they don't know it, it will just be said that the character did not understand and has to ask for clarification.
I know I do not have the grasp of language required to use anything other than English.
It depends, I think; I'm incredibly lazy* and mostly only "make" languages for the purpose of names for things, so a resemblance to/base of/blatant ripping off of an Earth language is fine by my standards. It's when you make an entire language based on a different language and proceed to not research the language you're jumping off from enough that it gets problematic. :v Language is complicated!
*Barring the whole "write all English dialogue in IPA" thing, anyway. :v
I'd say go for it as long as it follows understandable linguistic rules. The problem with Paolini's made up language is that it doesn't follow any common or cohesive rules.
I'd advise you to not try to invent an entire language. Something as fluid and complex as a language, I think, cannot be created unless you have Ph.D. in the subject. I just invent a couple dozen words and come up with one or two rules (do adjectives come before or after the nouns they modify, simple things like that). I also have a common language which has been translated into English like distinctvaguens.
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Why are you "vehemently against it"?
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I know I do not have the grasp of language required to use anything other than English.
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*Barring the whole "write all English dialogue in IPA" thing, anyway. :v
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I just invent a couple dozen words and come up with one or two rules (do adjectives come before or after the nouns they modify, simple things like that). I also have a common language which has been translated into English like distinctvaguens.
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When did authors start to use made-up languages in their stories and why? Does anyone know?
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