I wanna name my fantasy world, its locations, towns, items, people, etc consistently. All seeming to have originated from the same language, but I don't want that to be english or any earthly language. Is there a way to do this without having to design a whole new language completely?
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Naming places consistently?
Make names have certain prefixes and suffixes common. Like mountain locations could all end in -kah, Shoreline names start with Prai-, etc. etc.
I wanna name my fantasy world, its locations, towns, items, people, etc consistently. All seeming to have originated from the same language, but I don't want that to be english or any earthly language. Is there a way to do this without having to design a whole new language completely?
What you want to do is create a phonology for your language (and perhaps a little bit of naming grammar).
Phonology
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Choose the sounds that occur in this language of yours. It can be as many or as few as you want, though I would suggest less than the 40-odd sounds we have in English. For example, Hawaiian has only 8 consonants.
TIPS
—> Certain sounds give different impressions to English listeners. L, r, n, s sound soft and Elvish, k, g, ch, sound ‘harder’. Think about what sort of impression you want your language to have.
—> Use names you already have for characters/places that you like when choosing the sounds of your language.
—> Don’t copy all the sounds we have in English if you want your language to sound a lot different.
—> Keep your spelling sensible, and try not to use apostrophes unless you really know what you’re doing. They’re confusing, and no one wants to see a character called Kh’hya’rmne (pronounced ‘charm’ :P). -
Choose how the sounds fit together into syllables. Some languages only have consonant-vowel (CV) syllables (ka, pe, la, na, si, cho), and some, like English, let you squish a lot more than that into a syllable (brink, strength, grasp), and a lot of languages are in between.
TIPS
—> Stick with something simpler, especially if you want readers to be able to read your names! -
Create some words! You get to decide how long you want them to be.
TIPS
—> Different word length gives a different feel. Compare ‘talienkali nalostin’ to ‘tali-en ka lina los tin’ — same syllables, different feel.
Naming Grammar
Like Lavender Owl said, having some common suffixes (or prefixes) is a good way to keep your language consistent. Lots of girls names in English end with -ina, -ette, -elle, etc. Lots of towns’ names end with -borough, -ville, -ton, -town or -shire.
Create some prefixes and/or suffixes based on the sounds and patterns you already decided on, and use them where you want!
- One thing I noticed is ending your words either mostly with vowels or mostly with consonants. For example, most English words end in vowels and Italian words often end in vowels.
- Make a couple of spelling rules, so they look more consistent, even if these rules aren't what English speakers would expect (e.g. Use c at start of words and k in middle of words)
- Think of a meaning for your names. However this might help or mess it up worse
- Use root words from other languages, it might give you inspiration