script-a-world:

Tex: 

One… difficulty that I see with this is that there’s a thin line between adaptation of a culture and appropriation of a culture, and a lot of it boils down to why you picked the language you did. Are you carrying over other aspects of Italian culture, such as food, clothing, and customs? Or are you taking the language out of context? Just adding in Portuguese won’t throw readers off enough, if it’s the latter case, and you run the risk of upsetting some readers if your intentions aren’t clear.

What do you consider “Italian”-ness? It might help to compare Italian to other Romance languages, and see if what you consider hallmarks of Italian are consistently markers of Italian and Italian alone. Depending on what you find, you may either look into the different dialects of Italian (Regional Italian,  Languages of Italy ), further back in Italian’s history (also History of Latin  ), or to linguistic cousins of Italian ( Romance_languages ).

Since you seem to be conlanging a new language a posteriori, I would personally recommend at least three languages, in order to have enough material to work with and avoid looking too much like any one source language. One Reddit thread [ https://www.reddit.com/r/conlangs/comments/370blu/making_a_conlang_based_on_real_languages_how_to/ ] makes an excellent point, with pertinent advice, on how to create new vocabulary in a conlang based on real-life languages. One term I think you may find helpful to know for this is relexification, as it covers the topic of new words being added into language based upon another language’s vocabulary set.

Zompist has a Language Construction Kit [ https://www.zompist.com/kitlong.html ] , which gives an excellent primer on the finer points of linguistics as applied to conlangs. This ask on StackExchange’s Worldbuilding section gives in-house resources for conlanging, and there’s an entire conlang section on Wikia to sample from.

David Crystal has published a book, Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language (ISBN: 978-0-521-51698-3, for the third edition), which should be immensely helpful if you’re able to access it – Cambridge University has a PDF on the book’s front matter, which also lists a table of contents, so you have some starting points to work off of.

Saphira: 

If you want to base a language on another language, you may have accidentally made your job a thousand times easier. There are a few components to simple con-langs (I am not educated enough for complex ones, Vulgar gave me the best willies in years), which can be broken down into a few groups.

1. How it looks. These are your characters, your symbols, and your punctuation. This is your visible aesthetic. To fine tune this up, write your letters often. Consider yourself relearning how to write, and the more you do the characters the more they will mutate into chaos. They’ll become consistent and easy to write eventually, and there you go. It’s a wild ride. Enjoy this one.

2. The Vocabulary. This is your dictionary, and honestly the most tedious bit. It can also be a fun part! I would start with casual conversation first (go through characters introducing each other) and you can work out from there. That will allow you to use the language in it’s most basic forms, so you can get the auditory or linguistic feel for how it sounds. Let’s start using Italian here. If there are specific sounds to Italian, specific linguistic tics and cues, start weaving them in here. Avoid whole words, just some auditory cues to the language, or how they pronounce certain letters.

3. Grammar. Here’s where having a base really helps. Granted you’re also working a lot from Latin here. Consider this language of yours Latin’s Grandson. Working from these two languages, it can help how you orient your words in a sentence, how verbs are conjugated, how punctuation (any non-verbal parts of the language) influences the meaning and the speaking of the words. You can literally and directly rip from Italian here. Draw parallels, or simply use Italian as inspirational points, allowing you to use similar concepts in entirely alien ways. You can go as simple or as complex as you want, and learning more about how language works and what a lot of those symbols linguistic study uses will go a long way.

Creating a language is a major undertaking, but in its true form, a language is born and refined in use, not in a lab.

Brainstormed: 

Honestly, how much of it will you be using? Names for places and people and cultural things, sure, but the actual story will be (I’m assuming) in English. If all you need is a naming language, that’s pretty simple! You can manually work out a consistent word pattern to use for names, as is guided somewhere in the Language Construction Kit mentioned by Tex, or you can use the free section of the Vulgar language generator to put in Italian-ish phonetics and generate thousands of words. Otherwise, you can look at Italian or other Romance-language slang and see how the slang words evolved from “proper” words, and then twist the rest of the language into a different-sounding version of itself. Kinda like how in future dystopian stories there’s always some corrupted version of a well known name, like Nuyaksee for New York City, or something similar.

If you need a real grammar set, but for simple things like short sentences, common cultural ritual phrases like How are you, or other relatively easy purposes, you can come up with a list of the most common words to quickly learn a language [ https://fluent-forever.com/the-method/vocabulary/base-vocabulary-list/ ] and then use Italian grammar, or another grammar structure. I would recommend using the grammar structure of a different Romance language, to prevent it from being just a copy-paste of Italian with different words.

Making a genuine, in-depth conlang is a huge undertaking, made both easier and more difficult by basing it off an existing language. You might have a good base to start from, but it requires at least decent if not fluent knowledge of how your base language works, and a consistent way of translating it over into your conlang form. If that’s your goal, I recommend you get to know Italian very well, if you don’t already, and then sit down and go through the Language Construction Kit, as it’s probably the best resource to guide you step-by-step through conlang creation.

ruffboijuliaburnsides:

marypsue:

hopelesslehane:

ladyeternal178:

saladmander:

ok but like when did self-sacrifice become synonymous with death? writers seem to have forgotten that people can make personal sacrifices for the greater good without giving their lives. plots about self-sacrifice and selflessness don’t always have to end in death. suffering doesn’t have to be mourning. you can create drama and emotional depth on your show without killing everyone. learn to explore the meaning of living rather than dying

Death. Is. NOT. The. Only. Way. To. Advance. The. Narrative.

Fun things to sacrifice for your loved ones in your free time that don’t include death and actually set up for a whole new season of high level drama:

– humanity (mostly applicable to sci-fi/supernatural genre)
– memories (mostly applicable to sci-fi/supernatural genre)
– love for that special someone (mostly applicable to sci-fi/supernatural genre)
– emotions (mostly applicable to sci-fi/supernatural genre)
– rank/position/
– yourself/your brain/your skills (give yourself over to bad guys and become their brainwashed agent so your loved ones live)
– years of bloody ruthless traditions to make way for peace (hi lexa and fuck jroth tbh)
– freedom (includes that of speech/mind/will)
– your grandpa’s fortune
– hell even material possessions have that girl sacrifice her goddamn house so they can pay off her gf’s student loans or whatever juST STOP KILLING CHARACTERS TO FURTHER YOUR PLOT

Other things to sacrifice:

– your most sought-after goal

– a strongly-held belief or conviction

– your own chance at happiness

other fun things to sacrifice:

-a finger
-an eye
-10-20 years of your life
-some of your vitality or dexterity
-your ability to magically see in the dark
-your proficiency in battle axes
-your good looks
-your memory of the man who killed your wife
-everything but your head

the-right-writing:

These are what I would consider to be the most basic, bare-bones questions of character creation.

• What would completely break your character?
• What was the best thing in your character’s life?
• What was the worst thing in your character’s life?
• What seemingly insignificant memories stuck with your character?
• Does your character work so that they can support their hobbies or use their hobbies as a way of filling up the time they aren’t working?
• What is your character reluctant to tell people?
• How does your character feel about sex?
• How many friends does your character have?
• How many friends does your character want?
• What would your character make a scene in public about?
• What would your character give their life for?
• What are your character’s major flaws?
• What does your character pretend or try to care about?
• How does the image your character tries to project differ from the image they actually project?
• What is your character afraid of?
• What is something most people in your setting do that your character things is dumb?
• Where would your character fall on a politeness/rudeness scale?

writing-masterlists:

This masterlist is a masterlist of words that you may use alongside the word very, very being one of the most common words that are used when writing. I hope this helps you as much as it helps me in our writing seem more sophisticated and unique. 

A:

Very accurate – exact
Very afraid – fearful
Very angry – furious
Very annoying – exasperating

B:

Very bad – atrocious
Very beautiful – exquisite
Very big – immense
Very boring – dull
Very bright – luminous
Very busy – swamped

C:

Very calm – serene
Very careful – cautious
Very cheap – stingy
Very clean – spotless
Very clear – obvious
Very clever – intelligent
Very cold – freezing
Very colourful – vibrant
Very competitive – cutthroat
Very complete – comprehensive
Very confused – perplexed
Very conventional – conservative
Very creative – innovative
Very crowded – bustling
Very cute – adorable

D:

Very dangerous – perilous
Very dear – cherished
Very deep – profound
Very depressed – despondent
Very detailed – meticulous
Very different – disparate
Very difficult – arduous
Very dirty – filthy
Very dry – arid
Very dull – tedious

E:

Very eager – keen
Very easy – effortless
Very empty – desolate
Very excited – thrilled
Very exciting – exhilarating
Very expensive – costly

F:

Very fancy – lavish
Very fast – swift
Very fat – obese
Very friendly – amiable
Very frightened – alarmed
Very frightening – terrifying
Very funny – hilarious

G:

Very glad – overjoyed
Very good – excellent
Very great – terrific

H:

Very happy – ecstatic
Very hard – difficult
Very hard-to-find – rare
Very heavy – leaden
Very high – soaring
Very hot – sweltering
Very huge – colossal
Very hungry – ravenous
Very hurt – battered

I:

Very important – crucial
Very intelligent – brilliant
Very interesting – captivating

J:

K:

L:

Very large – huge
Very lazy – indolent
Very little – tiny
Very lively – vivacious
Very long – extensive
Very long-term – enduring
Very loose – slack
Very loud – thunderous
Very loved – adored

M:

Very mean – cruel
Very messy – slovenly

N:

Very neat – immaculate
Very necessary – essential
Very nervous – apprehensive
Very nice – kind
Very noisy – deafening

O:

Very often – frequently
Very old – ancient
Very old-fashioned – archaic
Very open – transparent

P:

Very painful – excruciating
Very pale – ashen
Very perfect – flawless
Very poor – destitute
Very powerful – compelling
Very pretty – beautiful

Q:

Very quick – rapid
Very quiet – hushed

R:

Very rainy – pouring
Very rich – wealthy

S:

Very sad – sorrowful
Very scared – petrified
Very scary – chilling
Very serious – grave
Very sharp – keen
Very shiny – gleaming
Very short – brief
Very shy – timid
Very simple – basic
Very skinny – skeletal
Very slow – sluggish
Very small – petite
Very smart – intelligent
Very smelly – pungent
Very smooth – sleek
Very soft – downy
Very sorry – apologetic
Very special – exceptional
Very strong – forceful
Very stupid – idiotic
Very sure – certain
Very sweet – thoughtful

T:

Very talented – gifted
Very tall – towering
Very tasty – delicious
Very thirsty – parched
Very tight – constricting
Very tiny – minuscule
Very tired – exhausted

U:

Very ugly – hideous
Very unhappy – miserable
Very upset – distraught

V:

W:

Very warm – hot
Very weak – frail
Very well-to-do – wealthy
Very wet – soaked
Very wide – expansive
Very willing – eager
Very windy – blustery
Very wise – sage
Very worried – distressed

X:

Y:

Z:

A/N: If you know of anymore words I can add please message me.