Some very successful fantasy novels have flirted with inventing their own language or languages – among them the Lord of the Rings (JRR Tolkien was a professional philologist and Old English specialist) and George R. Martin’s Game of Thrones.
But many writers just use a few choice words in their new lingua, to give their stories a bit of High Fantasy flavor.
To be sure, a new language isn’t an absolute necessity in Fantasy – it really depends on the story you are telling. But it can add a bit of flair and flavor to your work, setting it apart from others, and if you are really luckey, your own little Dothraki might end uop being spoken by hundreds or even thousands of fan boys and fan girls around the world.
So have you ever invented a language for your own Fantasy work? Did you go whole hog, or just opt for a few key phrases? Did you base it on anything?
And readers, do you enjoy it when an author builds a new tongue in their stories? And if so, what are some of your favorites?