The Making of My Language

Four years ago, I decided that I wanted to make a language. I have, ever since I was little, had a love for language and especially loved hearing older forms of English. (Though, older at this time meant 1800’s, might as well call Icelandic from the 1930’s, Old Icelandic.) The first fall of lockdown, I decided I wanted to make a world full of fantasy peoples, gods, spirits and languages. I had it all planned out but over time my interest in making such a world waned, what stuck with me was the language: I had the makings of an alphabet, romanization, vocabulary and grammar. From the simplest words like “Vahna” meaning “fire,” to entire concepts like “Ehktae-avae” meaning the cycle of life and death. I was very proud, but it was imperfect, there is no true perfection, but it was far too clunky to regularly speak, its writing was unwieldy to write, and its grammar was so half-baked I could hear the yeast crying out to expand.  

I wanted this language to be both concise and specific enough to be used effectively, not needing a full sentence to say yes, but also not needing to memorize a thousand words to say the proper phrase. I first started with expanding my knowledge, finding articles via Wikipedia and Britannica. YouTube channels like Babelingua, Langfocus, M. Máire Ní Shúilleabháin, Simon Roper, Watch your Language, and Agma Schwa. With these I learned more concise ways to write my vowels, construct my verbs, and mark my nouns. Now “Fire” is now Vâna, and “The cycle of life and death” is Ėkteiâvei. 

The full process of creation has taken me four years now and is still ongoing, as such, I will not go into a large amount of detail on what I change and why, as this is not a guide.