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?
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
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!
