# Mapmaking Discussion & Philosophy (WIP/Critique) > Writing, Stories, Linguistics, Toponymy and other wordy stuff ! >  Creating a Language for world

## darkseed2012

I've been working on a language for my world for a few months now.  I created an alphabet and a system to use it.  I'm starting to work on the words and how they should be put together.  I don't have the vocabulary in English to describe how to put a sentence together in a different langauge, so I'm just going to describe how to pronounce the letters of the alphabet and provide a dictionary of words and let the user decide how to construct sentences with it.  I have no traning in Linguistics, so this might not make any sense at all.  I find this a very time consuming project to have going during my mapping phase of my Shikodu/Zigoto map.  The map is coming along fine and is filling out.  I'm also planning to create a alphabet wheel which will give each word an elemental magical properties as well for ritual use.

The back story and at least 11 working religions have been created using this information.  I have to translate the material into this language if I can get enough words and work out how to describe further details.  Things are a little out of order right now, but I plan to put some of this into an image file that I will have in my albums.  This is months away still.

Here's the alphabet and the stuff I have on this language I plan to use for my maps labeling when I get to that point.


To read this magical language is simple and easy.  You read each word three letters at a time.  Some words end at four or five letters; read the last parts as they would sound anyway.  Most words are three Rokat characters long for this purpose.  To read words that are two Rokat characters long, read the first three English characters and add the sound of the remaining fourth or fifth.
Sounds like CH, SH and TH are counted as one English character in reading Rokat.  All Rokat words have an alternating pattern of consonant and vowel sounds.  All words and names start with a consonant sound, except for the letter A.  When it comes to Inugan names and titles, they usually start in a vowel, but not always.  Examples of Rokat are:
Shakina
Jubali
Panato
Siga
Pina
Vahu
Lawaro
Thimat
Timat
Konashif
Now that we have some Rokat words, it is time to read them.  The first word is Shakina.  To read it properly, do so like this, shak-ina.  The last vowel in Rokat makes the sound of the vowel instead of its name or another ah in this case.  For the I the sound of the letter, not the name or ee sound.  If the letter H is the third letter you move its sound to the second verse of the word.  In vahu you read it as such, va-hu.  In the case of a longer word like this, vahuna or lawaro, you read it like this, va-hun-a, la-war-o even though the word it six letters long.

Writing Rokat
The Rokat alphabet is a very simple system of combining letters to shorten the written word.  In this diagram, I have provided the Rokat alphabet in Rokat order and English order.  They have no question mark.  Im still not sure how to do (brackets).  The act of questioning, in Rokat Literature is hard to define, since the sign itself is absent.  Its guesswork if the person speaking is not asking a question.
To use this alphabet, write from top left to bottom right in vertical lines.  This alphabet can not properly be used to write in English.  To write with this alphabet, write the vertical consonant sound first then add the vowel sound over the consonant marks.  Each letter is a combination of Consonant and vowel.  For words that end in a consonant, make the consonant by itself.  Place a space sign between words.  Language rules are similar to English and word usage is very similar.

This is the English spelling for In the Names. is Be ke Kopot. and the Rokat spelling is this.

Now you can compare the usage of the Rokat characters with those of English.
Prefixes and Suffixes of Rokat
These are all the prefixes and suffixes used in Rokat.  The English Language uses far more than is seen in Rokat.  They have far more root words than we do.  The dictionary will show the complexity of Rokat root words.  All of the root words seen in the Prophecy will be presented in the below dictionary.
These are the prefixes for the Rokat Language.  For the most part have similarities to the English usage.  If a Rokat word begins in a vowel, it has a prefix attached to it.  This would represent a vowel line in front of the word.  Here are the prefixes in Rokat.
e Against anti.
a Not too non, un.
i Back again re
o Before pre
u en,em
Let us move onto the ion, s and ed or suffixes of words.  This part will be similar to English in many ways.  When a Rokat words ends in a consonant, it means it has a suffix applied to it.  Some words in English appear to have a suffix by the nature of their spelling, but in Rokat, may not have a suffix applied.
l  Action, er .
k Past tense ed.
g superlative, est.
t More than one s, ies
j Without or missing, less
d Worth, ability, able, ible.
 f In the manner of ly, wise
n Having the quality of, ed.
b Activity, or result of activity, ing.
s Having, or getting marked by, ful.
sh State or quality acy, ance, cy, ity, ty.
p Condition or action, ion, ive, ment, ness, or.
z Related to, one that is, or having the character of an, ist, ian, ism, ish s.
English to Rokat dictionary will be provided to show the English words and its Rokat counterpart at the end of this book.  If a definition is provided, it means the Rokat word differs somewhat from the English word.  Some Rokat words dont exist in our language so the closest words are used instead.

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## darkseed2012

Here's just a couple of words under the root word "earth"
Earth	- Kaka
Hill - Kakama
Mountain - Kakamu
Valley	 - Kakava

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## Scrit

Looks good. It's an interesting system and at a glance seems fairly simple to pick up. If you think your project is long, you should take a look at this, the story of Sequoya, a Cherokee Indian and his endeavor to create a written language -- short story, and for me, provided good fodder for anecdotal background lore in my own project.

What I've found useful in working with a language and writing system, is to actually take not of the words you use in every day life.  Pay attention to the words you use, how often you use them, and with what emphasis you use them (in some languages, the emphasis of the word can change it's meaning) while you go about your day. Then, write them down and keep a running tally. Words used most often, (and often they tend to be supporting words, like and, the, there, me, my, you, your, they, theirs etc) would become your second priority -- I'll explain why in a moment.  Your most frequently used _descriptive_ words will become first priority, as they will form how your language sounds overall. Once those are in place, I find that the supporting words fall into place naturally. 

A written language is another matter.  While you may have already taken into consideration things like from which way the language is read and written, I can't begin to emphasize how important that is and how useful little tid-bits like that can be in working out cultural lore. fleshing out a culture etc.  For example, the western way of writing, from left-to-right, top-to-bottom, could be looked at as a reflection of majority -- How many people in your society are right handed. If you have a system that's written, say, right-to-left and bottom-to-top, a right handed person would have two problems. The Both of which being, they would smear the ink with their sleeves as they passed not just over a line, but up the page as they worked. 
It's simple, it's silly, but I've always believed that the devil really is in the details, and those little details can do wonders to bring a world, a people, a character or whatever you may be working on, to life.

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## darkseed2012

I've gotten pretty far in making words and the writing system.  I've got tons of lore that came through my book about the world this language comes from.  The civilization is very logical, but extremely violent and warlike.  I read some of the material you linked and it was interesting.  I have noticed that the language for my world looks Asian even though it functions completely different in how it is read.  I've already begun to write phrases with the material I have in Rokat, which is the species my language project is for is very hard to speak because the way the vowel sounds are used.  I'm currently working on a spiritual aspect which gives the alphabet a color wheel like aspect to represent the magical elements giving all the words a magical frequency.  I'll add more about this when I flesh it out further.  The language is supposed to be magical in the each character has an element and a frequency of how high or low the spiritual density is.  I've draw a wheel with the alphabet for this, but I haven't scanned it yet.

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## darkseed2012

I have rewritten the material I started the thread with.  I'm going to be working on it more.  I'm not going to repost the graphics.  I'm going to rethink about making another website on webs.com for my projects since I'm pretty far along now.  Here's the revision I made with more about the Rokat's number systems.  Sorry about the overwhelming size of this post, but there's so much to share.  At the very end is a few sections of the dictionary.

Written Rokat
(Ramle Iron Heart)
The Rokat Language is actually very simple in its construction.  Just like the Rokat themselves, they remove anything that hinders the easiest path to the goal.  This makes Rokat a language that only has what it needs to get by.  The Rokat Writing System is visually similar to Earth’s Asian scripts.  The example of written Rokat reads “Be ke Kopot”, which translates as “In the names”.  This is a magical phrase.
The Rokat Script consists of consonant lines which are vertical lines, curves and reversed J’s.  The order of the letters in the Rokat alphabet follows a different order than those of western alphabets.  The Rokat ordered their Script to how the sounds of the consonants are produced.  There are 20 consonants in the Rokat alphabet.  The first 10 are the number sounds.  All the Rokat number systems start with K and count down.
On the second order of the alphabet are the vowel sounds.  There are 13 vowel sounds in the Rokat Alphabet.  Only the first five vowel sounds are used for words.  The rest are for the number system which will be handled in a later chapter.  The first five vowel sounds are ordered in their overall pitch.  I is the highest pitched so it is first.  U is the lowest pitched so it is last on the list.
I have a few punctuation marks here.  Space is a tiny circle that separates words.  Names of people and places or a title given to a person or place is distinguished with a circle that encircles the word or words.  The other marks are used the same way as we would use them.
The star is used to denote an action.  “I am thinking of you” *Holding hands*.  That is an example of how the star is used.  It is a uniquely Rokat symbol.  The star comes from the Rokat’s deep interest in theater, it is most commonly used in writing plays, but appears in common speak as a monotone off comment usually denoting a thought of an action.  Such as, “You are beautiful *kissing you*.  Or, “Let’s have dinner tonight” *would like to take you to bed*.  The comment is often a one liner and usually no more than a few words.

Spoken Rokat
(Ramle Iron Heart)
The language is rather easy to speak once you get past the vowel sounds and how to use them.  The vowels only make one sound each, no matter how they are placed in the word.  The last vowel sound in a word is the hardest to pronounce.
Each Rokat Character has a combined consonant and vowel sound.  Some words like “Of, It, The and No” have only one Character.  Ta means No, Ke means The in Rokat.  These words are a bit easier to speak.  The vowel sounds are used like in words like Bat, Cat, Robot and But.  Sometimes in speech it might be hard to distinguish some of the vowels like I from EE, which is a number vowel sound.
To read Rokat properly, try to break down each word into three sound blocks.  The word for Aunt is “Kimutamu”  It is easier to pronounce it Kim Uta Mu.  The word comes out closer to the Rokat spoken sound.  A short word like Dream, which is “Lusha”.  You should still apply the three sound rule, Lush A.  You have to stress the vowel sound when it comes out as a single character.  The word for The is “Ke” and it is pronounced as is.  You slightly stress the vowel sound.

Numbers and Other Stuff
(Ramle Iron Heart)
These are the five prefixes the Rokat use.  A prefix in Rokat is seen as a vowel sound standing alone at the beginning of the word.
I: re (back again)
E: anti (against)
A: non, Un (not too)
O: pre (before)
U: en, em (????)

These are the thirteen suffix sounds in the Rokat language.  These are seen as stand alone consonant sounds at the end of words.
K: ed (past tense)
T: s, ies (more than one)
Z: an, ist, ian, ism, ish, ‘s (related to, one that is, or having the character of)
S: ful (having, or getting marked by)
SH: acy, ance, cy, ity, ty (state or quality)
F: ly, wise (in the manner of)
P: ion, ive, ment, ness, or (condition or action)
L: er (action)
D: able, ible (worth or ability)
B: ing (acting or result of activity)
G: est (superlative)
J: less (without or missing)
N: ed (having the quality of)
The Rokat have several number systems.  This is the first and primary system, which is called Standard Count, which consists of 10 numbers and functions like the human’s number system.  This system is used in everything that does not involve measuring short range distance.  The Rokat have a concept of Zero, even though it is represented as a stand alone IE sound.  The Rokat have no concept of infinity.  The translation of the Prophecy forces me to use the word “Infinity” because there is no English word that fits the translation. 
IE: 0
K: 1
T: 2
Z: 3
S: 4
V: 5
R: 6
SH: 7
CH: 8
TH: 9
IE: single numbers
OI: tens
IA: hundreds
OU: thousands
EE: millions
AU: billions
AY: trillions
EU: quadrillions 

Another number system is used to measure buildings.  This number system is called Builder’s Standard.  The base measure for this system is a three inch unit, which I will call the Rokat Inch.  This unit can be broken up into fractions, but this is not the part we are taking about.  The Rokat Inch is four units per Foot. 
Ie: 0
Die: ¼ 
Bie: ½ 
Nie: ¾ 
Kie: 1
Tie: 2
Zie: 3

The number system goes to the normal 0-10 Standard Count that is used widely.

The next number system is called City Standard.  This system is probably the hardest to learn because it has thirty-two numbers before it roles over to Land Standard, which has sixteen numbers in it.  These number systems are used to measure land.

Sie......1
Slie.....2
Snie.....3
Smie.....4
Fie......5
Flie.....6
Fnie.....7
Fmie.....8
Kie......9
Klie.....10
Pie......11
Plie.....12
Die......13
Dlie.....14
Bie......15
Blie.....16
Gie......17
Glie.....18
Mie......19
Mlie.....20
Tie......21
Zie......22
Vie......23
Rie......24
Shie.....25
Chie.....26
Thie.....27
Lie......28
Hie......29
Wie......30
Jie......31
Nie......32
The extension of City Standard is Land Standard.  Land Standard break a mile into 16 units and thus a sixteen number counting system.  The numbers of this system represent more than just a way to count distance.  After you reach one mile, the counting system returns to Standard Count or can continue with greater denomination such as Ia, Ou and Ee if one is measuring land.
City Standard is a system of fractions of Land Standard.  It is not intended to be used as a master counting system.  Land Standard was intended to measure land outside city cores and thus is a full number system that is used like Standard Count.
Soi: 1
Sloi: 2
Snoi: 3
Smoi: 4
Foi: 5
Floi: 6
Fnoi: 7
Fmoi: 8
Koi: 9
Kloi: 10
Poi: 11
Ploi: 12
Doi: 13
Dloi: 14
Boi: 15
Bloi: 16

Among.................... Soda
Ancients................. Foluki...... Creators of the Rokat.
Ancient Ones............. Foluki...... Creators of the Rokat.
And...................... Bawa
Angel.................... Poru........ Virgin Warrior, not a Champion.
Anger.................... Supoveli
Annihilate............... Tomothu
Fall..................... Meka
Far...................... Vetha
Father................... Rimukata.... Spoken by an adult child.
Feast.................... Filaki
Federation............... Fekeda
Feel...
Fight.................... Pami........ To duel with or without honor.
Fire..................... Papa
Flesh.................... Diga
Flying Wolf.............. Norine...... Largest of the flying animals on Kidasuna.  This animal can be ridden by Rokat as a vehicle of flight.
Foot..................... Jameta
Let...................... Buma
Light.................... Thuho
Light – Polarity......... Gasha....... Politically aligned towards the Rokat way of life.
Like..................... Meta
Love – Desire............ Pulacha..... Love for material possessions.
Love – Family............ Pulachu
Love – Friendship........ Pulacho..... Love for companionship.
Love – Sexual............ Pulache
Love – Universal......... Pulachi..... Generalized bliss or euphoria.
Mad...................... Supove
Majesty..................
Make..................... Wegoshi
Malevolent............... Paka........ Against the Rokat.
Malice................... Bibi
Method................... Rusha
Me....................... Mutu........ Pertains to self or belonging to self.

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## lonewriter

This what I'm doing for my fantasy novel, I bought The Language Constuction Kit by Mark Rosenfelder. I find it very helpful.

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## TempyTheCleric

WOW i love this so far! It's wonderful to know im not alone, i have been working on my language for 6 months now!

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## Scrit

Looks great. Liking it so far.



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