How can I effectively invent a language?

Question

I want to make a particular language that adapts to the story. And the language has to have x and y and e characteristics for example. Is there a protocol to follow on the process of making a language for the sake of a story? (I don't talk about making a complete language with grammar and alphabet[okay maybe alphabet]) But on a simple way to make it believable.I'm not sure if the question is clear, if not please comment so I can improve it.

Answer 1

As with a lot of things with writing, there's no set path. However, you can make the path a little easier by modeling your language after other fantasy languages. I suggest looking up all the different runes in Dungeons and Dragons or Lord of the Rings and see how they build their alphabet.

Definitely build an alphabet first than build the grammar and linguistics. The grammar and linguistics depend highly on how you set up your alphabet. So, I would suggest going through and making your vowels resemble each other, so when it comes down to creating words you have a way to build the language phonetically.

Answer 2

The basic building blocks of all natural (that is to say, human) languages are the same: you absolutely need nouns and verbs, and it would be strange not to have adjectives and prepositions as well. Inflection (i.e. conjugation of verbs, declension of nouns [or at least pronouns], plurality) and punctuation are not necessarily essential, per se, but it would be peculiar for a language to have no means of expressing tense, case, etc. Also,

http://randlang.voidspiral.com/

This an online tool for generating constructed languages; just punch in the vowels and consonants you'd like and then assign meaning to the words it generates. It doesn't seem to handle syntax or inflection, but it's pretty straightforward. The tool is open source and based on jquery, so if you're technically-minded you may want to take a look at the code and fiddle around with it.