How do I give characters/places exotic names in a supposedly fictional language that don't sound stupid as fuck? All I ever do is add random apostrophes so everyone sounds like Al'ac of House Jin'mo'quan from the land of Fa'tok.
Take some random words from a foreign language and consistently substitute a letter.
Use a real fictional language, like Quenya or Klingon.
Use real foreign languages and just change the spelling?
>>47500227
Yes. Travel to the town of omilette dűh frohmáge
>>47500167
Have you considered using real foreign languages? Urdu or Finnish or whatever sound plenty exotic.
>>47500416
>Finnish
>exotic
mitä vittua?
>>47501258
Pretty much.
I ran a setting with Finnish Dwarves and everyone thought it was a-mazing.
>"Oh they're so cultured!"
>"They have such a cute quaint language!"
>>47500227
Or the pronunciation.
Take German names and say them like you're a Frenchman.
>>47500416
Fuck both of those. If you want shit that is utterly alien, use Welsh.
Welsh is literal Cthulhu speak.
>>47501521
That can be irritating to both dwarves and Finnish speakers.
So you did good.
>>47501258
Any language that isn't romance or germanic sounds exotic to english-speakers
>>47500167
>zippers
>>47502242
>living on the edge.jpg
>>47502228
I don't know whether that's awesome or Fuck you.
I'm gonna go with the latter.
>>47500167
Okay, the easiest way is the following:
First, find yourself a language to base your fictional language on. Languages close to your own native language are easier, since you (subconsciously) know how they somewhat work. Let's pick Old Germanic for this one. The Germanic alphabet is pic related, so everything is limited for these sounds.
Now, make up some words, using these sounds. Use words commonly used in place names, such as "North", "Mountain", "Tree", "River" etc. A useful tool for this could be http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=7174 (how to use it is in the description. Originally meant for DF words, but can be incredibly useful for worldbuilding too. Really recommend it to all worldbuilders). Keep in mind that generally speaking, frequently used words get shorter than rarely used words (brook, land, troops vs. literacy, wanderlust, doctorate)
Cont. in next post
>>47500167
I usually just say nonsense words until I find one that doesn't sound retarded or take random words from other languages and switch a few things around.
Make sure the words actually mean something, though. Write down all the words and their meanings as you develop the language and the culture. That tends to make the whole thing seem more fleshed out.
>>47502320
Fuck that picture triggers me. Why not fucking arrange it into 3 sets of 8. God damn.
>>47502103
I don't know, i don't think it would work too well, at least if you are playing in english. Most "easy" german words would only seem more familiar to english speakers if spoken "as a frenchman", additionally there is a change in vocals from (german) U->Ü and O->Ö which both have no good equivalent in english and may be substituted for [Oi] or something similar by English speakers, making it more something similar to Cockney and Scottish.
>>47502320
Here's a map I made a while ago for some forum game. Ignore it's shittyness, but focus on the words. Some of the words I used here are the following:
Nil = North
Ula = Mountains
Kildh = Cold
Vidhi = Color
Aradh = Fields
Chamdhi = Tribe, People
Now, you need to decide the names for your places. Usually, these names are pretty easy to decide. If a city is situated in some cold mountains, you cal it Coldmountain, Kildhula using the made up words I just mentioned. If an area is filled with fertile fields, and there's two cities in there, you call one of them Northfield, and one of them Southfield, Nilaradh and Sudaradh respectively. But sometimes something just doesn't sound right, such as Northmountain, Nilula. Then, you switch around some shite, until you get some proper words. I switched it to Nivula, since it sounds nice to me, but Nildhula, Nidhula, Niludha al sound good too, so you can pick those too. And so you continue on and on and on, sometimes making up fitting words. Make sure you write all the words down in MS Word or something, so you can easily find them again.
Regional variety is good too, just change several words a little in a specific region to make the culture more immersive.
>>47500167
Use names from mesopotamia
anything assyrian, babylonian, hittite and the like sounds decent
>>47502531
Examples
> Uruk, Nippur, Nineveh, Assur, Eridu, Ur
>>47500167
Use Esperanto, no one actually speaks that POS
>>47502271
This.
Also, if the language includes any whirlygig characters that aren't produced by a US standard QWERTY keyboard using only the SHIFT modifier, it's both exotic AND stupid, so you can pronouncethem like a Texan for even MORE hilarity. Moon runes for the win!
>>47501258
Most Muricans don't speak more than one language, amigo. Hell, we mispronounce taco and tortilla sometimes.
>>47500167
You based the fictional languages on foreign ones.
>>47500167
>apostrophes
NO. Fuck apostrophes.
For simple fictional languages that you don't use often just think "what kind of sounds would be more prevalent in that language", write them down and mash them together until you get something that sounds right.
Or read about conlanging, it's fun.
> tfw name nation fnoria home of the legendary Fnor outriders
> play illuminati for first time since age ten
> fnord
> realize the subconscious inspiration
> delete over 100 pages of world building info out of shame
>>47504223
How do you mispronounce taco?
>>47502796
>>47506728
you couldn't have come up with a different word and word-replaced the entire text?
>>47506746
Tack-Oh instead of Tah-Coe
>>47506746
Carefully.
I use Swedish, Arab, finnish and English for my names. You can also combine them. A Swedish or finnish word ending with an English word in combination can give some appealing results.
>>47502320
No jokes, that program just spit out a language where arrow is "ararar" and beer is "moron"
>>47501258
>0.00074% of world population speak it
>one of the most difficult languages to learn
>>47506846
I do believe it's Take-Oh, partner.
>>47501258
get your dog language out of here
>>47507010
I just had a sudden urge to run a game where the language of a proud race sounds completely retarded to humans, and the players have to spend their time trying not to bust out laughing as the old historian tells the tale of their people.
>>47506976
>Finnish + Swedish/English
You got me interested, want to give me some examples?
>>47507166
Finnish and Magyar (Hungarian) are two distant cousins of everything else that's used elsewhere in the Europe
>>47510527
Eh? Finnish and Hungarian are Fenno-Ugric languages and are quite distinct from Indo-European languages.
Other Fenno-Ugric languages are Veps, Estonian, Mari, Karelian, Sami languages, Komi, Udmurt, Mordva among other small ones.
>>47500167
Places:
Give them descriptive names like Farlake, Stonedon, Greenly, Rockport, Thunder Beach, Black Willow, etc.
Take English words, run them through a translator (pick random language), until you get something that appeals to you.
People:
Baby name books/sites.
String a bunch of syllables together.
Find obscure fantasy (or whatever genre) and use names from those.
>>47502313
Rydych yn cael ffrind chwerthin ?
I ran a semi-Spelljammer game where the Space Dwarves were sort-of Egyptian.
>>47507180
And TORE-TILLA.
>>47500167
Just an Indo-European language that your players don't know (assuming they're Westerners). I use a ton of Hindi words and names and they are both pronounceable as well as sounding exotic enough.
>>47500167
Pick two RL languages to translate to and mash together for each game language. Choose native language names and put it through the mash-lator.
Use a bit of the following for original spice:
Make roots, prefixes and suffixes that sound appropriate for each language. (That's what happened for our languages.) The languages can steal from each other, too.
Look up baby names and their meanings. Pick meanings you like and make up sounds that you like and that don't feel like they contradict the meaning. You can roll a random starting letter for the new sound.
>>47500301
Kek'd
