Constructed Languages for Novelists: How to Apply a Good Conlang to Your Next Novel

I have an idea!
This is my favorite part of writing a novel: the spark. Mankind has discovered a secret island. Aliens invade Earth. Earth invades the aliens. Insects have grown into human sized bipeds and are communicating to each other. Whatever the case, if your novel features a different nation, different race, or different demographic, there’s a good chance you need one thing: a conlang.

The term conlang comes from the words constructed language, and refers to any language that is deliberately created for a specific purpose. Popular examples include Star Trek​’s Klingon, Game of Thrones​’ Dothraki and High Valyrian, and The Lord of the Rings​’ Sindarin among several others. In other words: all of the cool fantasy and sci-fi series have conlangs. Therefore, yours should too. (except that the entire Star Wars franchise has not created a single conlang for their movies. They just threw sounds together or stole from other natural languages.)

Conlangs will add an ocean of depth to your fictional cultures, and you need to know how to do it right. This article will answer three vital questions pertaining to conlangs and novels:


 * 1) How much of the language do I need to create for my novel?
 * 2) How do I make the language novel-friendly?
 * 3) How do I use the language in dialogue?

The overall theme of this article is simple. In fact, you could consider this the thesis of this article (albeit, an unusually broad thesis):

Don’t confuse your readers.

Confused readers are frustrated readers. Frustrated readers won’t be motivated to turn the next page. Readers who are unmotivated to read, will naturally stop reading. Assuming that you’re a first-time novelist, reader satisfaction should be of the utmost importance; those readers could make you famous one day, so you want them to like your books.

This will be the resounding motto for us. A chant. A cheer. As we march down Main Street in our matching t-shirts and buckets of hard candy, we will repeat this phrase until it becomes second nature: “Don’t confuse your readers!”

Disclaimer​: I am not a published author. I have been noveling for about seven years, conlanging for two, and I do not hold the keys to eternal wisdom. Please, do not take this article as if it is the only right way to marry conlanging and noveling. However, this article is here to give ideas, inspiration, and share what has already been shared to me. If you like it, feel free to use it. If you don’t, you may feel free to ignore it. That’s up to you.

Also, in this article, I will often mention my personal novel-inspired conlang, Wistanian. If you would like to know more about it, visit r/wistanian on Reddit. If not... then don’t, I guess.

How much of the language do I need to create for my novel?
Conlangs can be intimidating. If you’ve ever studied a language before, you know that they ​can be​ ​are always​ complicated. Worldbuilding is a trap, too. Once you get into creative linguistics, you don’t want to get out. It will steal hours upon hours of precious novel-writing time, pushing you back years or more because, rather than writing your novel, you’re designing hairless yaks that won’t even be mentioned in the final draft. Obviously, worldbuilding is not a bad thing. I encourage it, I embrace it, and I prioritize it. But fictional worlds don’t gather a fanbase: fictional books do. So if your goal is to publish a novel, that should be your #1 priority while worldbuilding rests comfortably at #2.

With this in mind, how much of the conlang do you need to create for your novel? I consider languages to be like characters in a book. The most important characters, your main character(s), will have a deep, detailed, and vibrant personality and backstory. Your supporting characters will also be well-developed, although maybe not as much as the main character(s). Side characters will be less developed. Then, cameo characters will only have a few lines and maybe a decent personality. This is also how we can classify novel conlangs.

Main Conlang
This is the type of conlang that isn’t just part of the story: it is the story. Perhaps your main character is a linguist who is trying to decipher an alien text, or perhaps a lost tourist who is trying to learn the natives’ language. The conlang and its mechanics should be detailed, specific, natural, and as complete as possible with thousand of words and hundreds of unique grammar rules. If you’re not comfortable with linguistics, or you’re just starting out with conlanging, I would not suggest this path.

Supporting Conlang
This type of conlang is prominent in the story as a common device, obstacle, or spoken exclusively by a major character. Here, the language should be detailed, complete, and interesting because future readers may want to learn it and would be disappointed to find that it’s just words from a generator. I would recommend a lexicon of about 1,000 words and grammar that can handle most sentences.

Side Conlang
This conlang is spoken in your novel somewhat often, perhaps by prominent characters and maybe providing a few place names, but it is not part of the story. This type of conlang can easily get by with 500 words and a workable grammar.

Cameo Conlang
If the conlang is only spoken once or twice throughout the story and provides for some character and place names, I would not worry about going too deep into it. 100 words and very basic grammar will likely be enough.

Conclusion
Obviously, create as much or as little of the conlang as you want. Wistanian, for example, is a supporting conlang with way more vocabulary and grammar than is necessary. Just make sure you don’t treat a main conlang like a cameo conlang. It also seems rather superfluous to treat a cameo conlang like a main conlang.

How do I make the language novel-friendly?
By not confusing your readers.

I have a list of three guidelines that I have followed for Wistanian to help create a novel-friendly conlang. All three of these guidelines are rooted in the simple idea of not confusing the readers.

Guideline 1: Simple Orthography (Writing System)
This is especially pertinent to monolingual English readers, who get nervous with diacritics and weird consonant clusters: don’t throw in crazy words like v'rlœkjě. Although an orthography like that can be perfectly natural, it will baffle your readers and scare them away from wanting to engage with it. Although diacritics and digraphs are fine, consider either keeping them on the down-low or not using them at all.


 * TERRIBLE: θʏʒəpʼɹɑzɐ mʉɧa̤.
 * BAD: thÿÿzhũp’razá moöeshxa̤.
 * KINDA BAD: thýzhuupraza moeška.
 * BETTER: thy zhü praza mo eké.
 * BETTER: di ju praza mo eka.

Guideline 2: Short Words
I tend to direct my conlangs toward an analytic or fusional morphology (if you don’t know what that means, Google it.) to ensure that my words don’t end up being half a page long. By principle, long words tend to scare readers from attempting to read it. There’s even a clinical fear of long words, appropriately named Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia​. To prove my point, did you read that entire word? Or did you just notice the “Hippo” part and skim to the end? Even if you did read it, you did it slowly and skeptically, right? No, this does not mean that every word can only be one syllable long. What this does mean, though, is that the words should be bite-sized if you desire for the reader to enjoy the conlang.

Guideline 3: Unique Aesthetic
Going for both unique and simple are a challenge. Sometimes, you need to sacrifice simplicity for uniqueness and vice versa. Regardless, the language should feel characteristic of your unique people group. Your language’s phonology should have personality and charm that matches the personality and charm of the people who speak it. For example:


 * Honolulu​ sounds uniquely Hawaiian.
 * Vladivostok​ sounds uniquely Russian.
 * Guangzhou​ sounds uniquely Chinese.

If all three of those words were in the same language, I would be very, very confused. Remember, though, aesthetics and personality, especially in regards to language, is subjective. For example, many people hate German but love French, whereas I personally think German sounds amazing and French is gross. Regardless, they both have such unique sounds and orthography that you can easily guess which language is Dies ist ein Wort​ and ​c'est un mot​.

How you achieve that in your conlang is mostly determined by trial, error, and your personal opinions. What I usually do is make a long list of random words that remind me of my world, usually as a list of potential character names. I take the most common sounds and combos in that list and insert them everywhere in my language as a common word or conjugation. This is why Wistanian has so many y​’s, l​’s, voiced fricatives, and word-final schwas. For some reason, those sounds remind me of Wistania.

Conclusion
How your language looks is ultimately up to you. Do what’s best for you, your book, and your readers. Be mindful of your audience, seeking to engage them with the language, rather than push them away. Finding that balance between “boring” and “overwhelming” might take some time, rewrites, and second opinions, but it’s worth it to the audience. Your job is to entertain, inspire, and excite. Bad-looking conlangs can get in the way of that. Therefore, consider every letter with purpose so that the language is ​adding to​ the story, rather than distracting from it.

How do I use the language in dialogue?
There are many different ways you can present your conlang in the novel, and a lot of it depends on the role your language plays and whether or not the novel’s point of view can interpret it (i.e., whether your MC [Main Character] knows the language or not). I’ve done some brainstorming and I’ve come up with fourteen methods, each of which are based on three filters. The first filter should be your first option, but if that doesn’t work, move on to Filter Two and then to Filter Three.

Disclaimer: The following example passages are going to be set on another fictional world I have created in a community project. The world is called Eñasa and the people there speak the Old Eñi language, which I am using for the examples. Old Eñi’s orthography is what I consider borderline, right on the edge of being too complex for readers to enjoy. The following passages are original to this article.

Filter 1: Don’t Use It
This sounds counterintuitive, but, if you do not have to use the language, then don’t. There are much easier and/or more interesting things to do instead. Obviously, there needs to be some conlang dialogue in there, but it’s so easy to overdo it that you need to make “Don’t Use It” a primary option. Here are some of the best ways to ​not​ use your conlang:

Body Language:
 The boy pointed up the tree and smiled politely. I followed the tip of his finger to a bright blue fruit. The boy rubbed his belly and licked his lips. His pointing finger shook with excitement. The fruit was just too high for his short stature to reach. So, I walked to the the tree and stretched out my long, adult arm to take hold of the fruit. I plucked it from the branch and held it before the boy. Before he took the fruit, he stepped forward and hugged me. Then, off he went, sinking his teeth into his snack.

In this passage, not a single word was spoken, but the boy and the MC were still communicating. Scenes like this could lead to humorous results, sweet moments, and plot twists. You can do anything with this.

Vague Conversation:
 The elder, the priest, and the warrior exchanged a few words among themselves. They quietly looked back at me every now and then. It was clear they were talking about me, and asking questions. Lots of questions.

Again, not a single foreign word, but there’s already a state of tension and mystery between the MC and the others. You could even employ this method with speakers your MC ​can​ understand!

Pointless Conversation:
 The woman smiled and said some kind words to the priest before leading me down the stairs.

In the grand scheme of things, this conversation is not important. It’s descriptive, typical, a reflection of the woman’s character, or however you want to call it. What she said is not terribly important, so it’s pointless to record or translate it.

Summarized Conversation:
 With his head in his hands, the man wept about his loss and how much he had loved his wife of seventeen years. I rested my hand on the man’s shoulder and encouraged him. Together, the boy and I walked down the path, talking about the different trees that surrounded us. I appreciated his friendship, even though he was a little crazy.

Rather than recording the conversation word for word, consider summarizing it inside of a paragraph. Not only will this save time, but it will also save having to translate everything. Now, if this conversation happens to be the turning point in the story, or an impactful moment for your main character, this may not be the best method to use in those circumstances.

In the next examples, we will be using conlang words, but only a few at a time.

Filter 2: Use Context
When I lived abroad in El Salvador, I was speaking A2-level Spanish at best. Most of my conversations with the locals were composed of one or two-word sentences, making it much easier to understand each other, and also easier to imply a definition, especially with some context clues and body language. With your readers, that same principle applies.

Body Language Clues:
 I walked into the cave and met the group sitting around in a circle. The woman noticed me immediately and patted the boulder beside her. “​Jôngko ba​,” she requested. I stepped toward the rock and sat, curious about what would happen.

What do you think those words meant? You may not know exactly what morphology it had. Nor did you know the semantics of each root word. But you could tell what was being communicated. The woman was gesturing the MC toward a place where he could sit. And as the story goes, MC sat. Therefore, “Jôngko ba” has something to do with sitting down.

Context Clues:
 All of the sudden, I heard a crash and noticed that the priest had fallen. Leaving my desk behind, I ran to help him up. Beside him was a stack of books that he must have accidentally tripped over. Once I had lifted the priest back to his feet, he brushed off his cloak and shook his arms. “​Te​,” he told me with an embarrassed smile.

When you help someone, what would they tell you? Here, the meaning of te is implied very strongly as a polite response to someone’s help (i.e., “Thank you”.)

Pointing Clues:
 The boy skipped down the path, excited to go on the adventure with me and the woman. The boy pointed at a tree and shouted, “​Sik!​” He sprinted to the river and pointed, “Tsâsk!​” He took a handful of dirt from the ground and held it up to my face. “​Xup!​”

This is a really adorable scene where the boy is teaching the MC his language by going up to something, pointing at it, and calling out its name. In this case, the language barrier is being productively used to connect the MC with the character - and by extension, connecting your ​reader ​to the character!

I also incorporate something similar to this in my novel, when a bilingual character gives the MC a list with three important Wistanian words and what they mean. In this case, it’s more of a lesson than a clue.

Keep It a Mystery:
 I opened the Destiny Box, and inside was a slip of paper. Written on it were the familiar lines of the Old Eñi script. I sighed. It took me a long time to escape that village, and now I had to return.

In this situation, you are using the reader’s ignorance of the language as a tool to build suspense. As you can tell, this passage didn’t have an Old Eñi word, but if you wanted to include your conlang text in this kind of situation then you should. This tactic is not limited to written messages, either. A mysterious, indiscernible message can also come verbally from a perplexing character who likes messing with people or someone who literally can’t help it.

Filter 3: Provide the Translation
Surprisingly, I feel like providing a translation should be the last resort for an author writing with a conlang. Here’s why: translations take a long time and they get really old really quick. There is nothing inherently wrong with providing the translation - perhaps you can find a way to do it often and to do it well - but in my experience, fewer translations mean smoother reading.

The Translator:
 “​Ta kopi sejo jônâlwä?​” the warrior grunted. The woman turned to look at me and translated, “Where do you live?”

This tactic seems the most obvious solution, but it’s also the most tricky. Writing this way can quickly clutter your novel and lose your readers. However, it’s really hard to get away from doing this from time to time. In this instance, we have a language gap between two characters that is bridged with a translator, the woman.

Notice that the conlang content is short and pretty easy to read. Because the warrior’s question was short, the woman’s translation was also short, and the whole process took only a couple of easy sentences.

Skip the Conlang:
 The warrior handed me a sharp knife, but there was reluctance in his eyes. I could tell that he didn’t trust me. Without lifting his hand off of the weapon, he gave me instructions. “Use this only in emergencies,” the woman translated, once he was done speaking. “If I see that you are using this to cause harm to one of our own, I will take it away and you will be severely punished.”

Notice how, in this instance, The warrior’s words are not transcribed. This is because this is a long quotation that would have required a long block of Old Eñi text that no one would have wanted to read. I skipped the exhausting part and jumped right to the translation. This is a tactic you can do over and over again, provided that your novel has a translator.

Describe the Translation:
 “Mi ksokeju xwâla​!” the boy collapsed on a rock, panting like a dog. I chuckled. He helped his father carry wood for only an hour. How tired could he really be? I took a deep breath. She had to tell him that the warrior had left. “​Xy jôntid dinggâb​,” she said, finally.

In between quotations, you can sneak in little explanations and summaries that tell the readers exactly what is being said without literally translating it. Of all the ways to provide translations, this is my personal favorite. Another way you can do this, perhaps in a more straightforward manner, is like so:

 “​Te​,” he thanked me. “​Nempe​,” she greeted. “​Fle!​” he warned.

Use Dialogue Tags:
 “Don’t worry about it,” I assured the priest in Old Eñi. “I know what I’m doing.”

Not a fan of this method at all, but it’s an option. If you want to skip the transcriptions and the summaries and the translators, just give the English translation and casually inform that the dialogue is actually in your conlang. The words “In X Conlang” will get really repetitive and annoying really quickly, so it’s best to use this once. Maybe twice. Preferably never. If you want to use this method, you could just skip having to make the conlang altogether.

Use Different Punctuation:
 <<​Don’t worry about it,>> I assured the priest. <> “​Don’t worry about it,​” I assured the priest. “​I know what I’m doing​.”

This is a much more interesting and less annoying alternative to dialogue tags. If you run with this method, be sure to establish early in the novel that the different punctuation means that a different language is being spoken. Again, if you decide to use this all throughout your novel, then you don’t need to bother making a conlang at all, except for place and character names.

“Which Means...”:
 The warrior asked me if I was ready to fight. I laughed to myself and replied, “​Jôñikwa so moi​,” which means, “We’ll see.”

This is also a viable, although undesirable, option. I can only read “which means” so many times before clawing my eyes out. But, it’s not an unpardonable sin to use once or twice.

Conclusion
If you come to a situation where you can use your conlang, the first option you should consider is to not use it. Especially if the MC does not speak the language.

If that’s not a good enough option, then provide sufficient context and body language cues to imply the interpretation so that the readers can understand what is going on.

If even that couldn’t work, then go ahead and translate it, either through using a literal translator (or translating device, for you Sci-Fi novelists) or a summary of what is said.

Not all of the above methods will be right for your novel. Take what you want, and use what you can. My encouragement is to mix several of these methods in your novel, keeping in mind that you don’t bore your reader, annoy your reader, or especially confuse your reader!

TL;DR

 * Don’t confuse your readers. That is the primary goal.
 * Make as much of the conlang as you need. That metric is set only by you and what role you’ve given the conlang in your story.
 * Your language should balance simple orthography and shorter words with a unique and iconic personality that matches its speakers’.
 * Use very little of the language to avoid overdoing it and frustrating your readers. If you must use your conlang, use context clues to imply the translation. Literal translations should be your last resort.

Further Resources
The main purpose for this article is to give insight for applying a conlang to a novel, and I have barely touched on the long, complicated process of how to make a conlang. Please, check out the below resources — some about language construction and others about novel-writing — that do a much better job than I can to walk you through the steps of creating a wonderful constructed language.


 * r/conlangs​ on Reddit, where you will find me and bunch of other accomplished conlangers who are ready to help
 * The Art of Language Invention​ by David J. Peterson (book)
 * The Language Construction Kit​ by Mark Rosenfelder (book)
 * Zompist​, a website by Mark Rosenfelder, which is the TL;DR of ​The LCK ​above
 * This guide to creating naming languages by u/jafiki91
 * “​5 Ways to Incorporate Multiple Languages Into Your Fantasy Novel​” by Kyla Bagnall
 * “​I Love You, My Little Cabbage: Using Foreign Words in Your Fiction​” by Cora Bresciano
 * “​How to Write a Foreign Language Character​” by Jordan McCollum

Have Any More Questions?
You can find me on Reddit as u/upallday_allen to suggest any changes to this document or to ask any questions you still have. I can’t promise to have the perfect answer, but I can promise to try!