A Writer's Love

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I discovered this link on my facebook page: Klingon Christmas Carol It seems kinda silly at first, but then as I watched it, my writer’s mind drooled with possibilities. The link describes an acting group who rewrote A CHRISTMAS CAROL making the characters Klingons from Star Trek fame. All the lines were in the Klingon language with English translations on a screen above the stage. The tale is about how Scrooge, now a Klingon, is a coward and is not living up to the Klingon codes and is visited by three ghosts who convince Scrooge that he must become brave in order to live as a Klingon.



What I found interesting was how the writer of A KLINGON’S CHRISTMAS CAROL worked to perfect the Klingon language. He even found the creator of the language Mark Okrand to help translate the script from English to Klingon. Interestingly enough, Mark said the language was basically founded on ‘nothing’. He made up a bunch of noises that would have nothing to do with human linguistics. He broke human laws and basically became the inventor of a new race language. He made up his own linguistic rules and ran with it. Now Star Trek has not only a fascinating alien life form with culture, history and social skills, but its own language as well.

So now the question begs to be heard. Is language THAT important in a fantasy/sci-fi novel? Well according to the lovers of Star Trek, it’s a must. Believe it or not, there are groups out there who SPEAK these languages to each other. They have forums, meetings, conventions that are strictly Klingon. Same with Lord of the Rings. They have Elf conventions, Hobbit conventions, you name it, it’s there. Yet all of them have one thing in common. The language. Folks yearn to learn the language. It makes the whole fantasy real and allows the fan to escape from this world and into a brand new one. Something exciting, away from the ho-hum of this boring world. Now he is part of something bigger and much more exciting. He is now the Klingon, sending secret messages to his Klingon friends. He is now someone to be feared. The same can be said about the Elvin language. Except now the human is an elf, handsome, brave, respected.

Now we all know that Tolkien created the Elvin language. He too was a linguistic and decided the language was essential to the Lord of the Rings world. Several years later, fans of Lord tales flock to the internet to learn a language that a writer invented. Some squabble over the meaning of words, while and others have conventions teaching a made-up language. There are scores of books on the Elvin and Klingon languages. Scores of books that describe how the writer made the language and how you can speak it today. And fans buy them in the millions.

So the result is a language that is important to the sci-fi and fantasy reader. They want it and they want to use it in their everyday life. So how does a little writer like me create a language? Well, I for one cheated. I used this website program: Language maker I like it because I can add more syllables to my words or make the words as simple as possible. Now I have a complete language and am working to create The Maul Symbols, words made up from different symbols that only the Maul understands. Anyway, my language is pretty simple and each time I needed a word, I simply punched in the English word and the program makes me a fantasy word. I don’t have male or feminine words as seen in Spanish, but have a more simple language. It seems to work. Hopefully my readers and a publisher will think the same thing.

So little writer, don’t be afraid to toss in a language or two. It brings spice to your story. Just make sure that you also give a translation to the language. Instead of putting a * next to the word and a translation at the bottom of the page, give some sort of heads up as to what the character is saying. A character says something in his language and someone else asks, what did he say? Or if you are using the character’s pov, you can always say, he said in his native tongue, “Where is the girl?” It works. I also used things like Emer held up the dead rabbit and said, “We will be having jado for dinner.” Well, you pretty much know Jado is Rabbit. The characters can also mix their language with the English language. Just make sure the reader ‘gets the idea’. I for one will also include my own word listing in the back of the book, just for excitement.

Just remember to have fun, little writer. Fun in your special world. Give it all you got and create. Be your own creator.

Oh, and yes, little reader. My employers added an extra employee so now I’m free to write in the evenings without feeling dead on my feet. In other words, I’m baaackkkk!!!