>>James' brother is the same. He can pretty much go into any country and begin picking up the language.<<
Oh, that's awesome. I always love hearing about others.
>> I wish I was the same, but ever since I started learning languages I've had trouble picking them up. <<
Alas!
>>I would love an example. I think that would help more than reading about how to create a language right now, because I do understand the basics. <<
I have emailed you samples of Torn Tongue and Eofor.
>>For Thear the base is Latin, which I think makes creating my first language a little easier, and maybe a couple of Greek sounds, and I do plan on making that the first language I do some proper work on.<<
Okay, great, that's a perfect pair. Go with Greek and Latin for your parent languages. Mix up the sounds a little. Look at the ways they handle grammar and take some pieces from each. Frex, you might build the nouns and verbs like Greek and the prepositions and other stuff like Latin.
>>I'm also planning on creating some magical scripts - would you suggest I start with a language for those as well or can I just work on the script?<<
Depends on what you want to do with them. If you just want to use them for artistic decoration, you can start with a script. If you want to use bits of the language in a story, it is much saner to start with the language. Build the phoneme set, that's the main thing you need for this, the sounds.
Also decide whether you want an alphabet (one symbol equals approximately one phoneme), a syllabary (one symbol equals approximately one syllable), or ideographs (one symbol equals approximately one word). An alphabet is very efficient and has a limited set. Ideographs, however, have the advantage of being easier to screw around with if you don't want to build the phoneme set first; they don't have to relate closely to each other.
Oh, and when making a script, it helps to pick some base shapes that will repeat slightly and give it a cohesive look. Think of English with its pairs: b/d, d/p, i/j, etc. Tolkien's Elvish script uses a lot of humps with stems or tails that kind of resemble n/m, n/h, o/p, etc. So think about circles, squares, angles, stems, tails, dots, and whatever.
Maybe also consider what writing implements people use. Chinese has a flowing shape because of its brushes, Sumerian had triangles because it was pressed into clay, Norse runes were mostly straight because that was easier to carve into wood or stone.
Basically, think about what you want to do before you start. If you're SURE you want to do only a little piece, you can cut corners and jump right to the script. But if you cut corners then decide you want to develop the language before, that turns into a huge pain in the butt. If you think you're going to play with this over time and make it bigger, you'll be better off starting at the beginning with the sound set.
Re: Okay...
Oh, that's awesome. I always love hearing about others.
>> I wish I was the same, but ever since I started learning languages I've had trouble picking them up. <<
Alas!
>>I would love an example. I think that would help more than reading about how to create a language right now, because I do understand the basics. <<
I have emailed you samples of Torn Tongue and Eofor.
>>For Thear the base is Latin, which I think makes creating my first language a little easier, and maybe a couple of Greek sounds, and I do plan on making that the first language I do some proper work on.<<
Okay, great, that's a perfect pair. Go with Greek and Latin for your parent languages. Mix up the sounds a little. Look at the ways they handle grammar and take some pieces from each. Frex, you might build the nouns and verbs like Greek and the prepositions and other stuff like Latin.
>>I'm also planning on creating some magical scripts - would you suggest I start with a language for those as well or can I just work on the script?<<
Depends on what you want to do with them. If you just want to use them for artistic decoration, you can start with a script. If you want to use bits of the language in a story, it is much saner to start with the language. Build the phoneme set, that's the main thing you need for this, the sounds.
Also decide whether you want an alphabet (one symbol equals approximately one phoneme), a syllabary (one symbol equals approximately one syllable), or ideographs (one symbol equals approximately one word). An alphabet is very efficient and has a limited set. Ideographs, however, have the advantage of being easier to screw around with if you don't want to build the phoneme set first; they don't have to relate closely to each other.
Oh, and when making a script, it helps to pick some base shapes that will repeat slightly and give it a cohesive look. Think of English with its pairs: b/d, d/p, i/j, etc. Tolkien's Elvish script uses a lot of humps with stems or tails that kind of resemble n/m, n/h, o/p, etc. So think about circles, squares, angles, stems, tails, dots, and whatever.
Maybe also consider what writing implements people use. Chinese has a flowing shape because of its brushes, Sumerian had triangles because it was pressed into clay, Norse runes were mostly straight because that was easier to carve into wood or stone.
Basically, think about what you want to do before you start. If you're SURE you want to do only a little piece, you can cut corners and jump right to the script. But if you cut corners then decide you want to develop the language before, that turns into a huge pain in the butt. If you think you're going to play with this over time and make it bigger, you'll be better off starting at the beginning with the sound set.