The Importance of Language in Fantasy Fiction
Greetings and Salutations,
Fantasy stories have many features, that regardless of the type of fantasy story you are reading, you are bound to encounter. From a well-crafted map in the front of the book, to bizarre names that are either way to simple, or much too complex. Depending on the type of fantasy story, you will invariably encounter different races, or in the very least, different kingdoms and cultures. From woodland elves to mountain dwarves, roaming bands of ferocious green skins and wood-loving tree-kin. Do not take me the wrong way, there are plenty of different settings and different takes to this formula, but you can hopefully all agree that the above-mentioned features are so commonplace they might as well be called tropes. It is not strange either, that fantasy evolved from Tolkien clones to now encompass a vast number of different subgenres. There is one thing however, that is not included as much in fantasy as these other tropes, and that is the use of fantasy or constructed languages.
A famous story tells of Tolkien who build the world of Middle-Earth not primarily for the story, but first and foremost to give a world to his constructed languages, instead of the other way around. If this was important for the father of modern fantasy, this must surely be key to the genre or not? At first glance, it does indeed seem so. There are a number of fantasy series that contain their own unique constructed languages. Think of the Inheritance series by Christopher Paolini for example. In many more fantasy novels, languages are only referred to, and not actually constructed. With the exception of a couple of terms and phrases. This is not necessarily a bad thing, this blog is not about passing judgement, it is about the importance of language.
As Ludwig Wittgenstein famously said: “The Limits of my Language mean the limits of my world.” While this is an interesting philosophical statement in and of itself, it is undeniably true for fantasy. Language holds the history of the people who use and have used the language. It evolves, changes, and references the world in which it exists, by its very existence. English would not exist as we know it, without the influence of the Romans, the Danes, the Norse, the French and even the Dutch, Germans and Indians. All in different periods and for different reasons, but the influence is there. The implication of this is that when you write about a fantasy world, in English, you invariably, use historic correlations and connection of our world, without necessarily intending to do so. This is why it is important to be aware of the power of language. It goes even further than mere cross-influence of other languages in English; there are also religious and cultural influences. So when you are writing of a fantasy world that is vastly different from our own. I in no way claim that you should write your fantasy story completely in your very own constructed language. It would be an incredible feat, but nobody would be able to enjoy your story without first studying your language. All I am advocating is to be aware of the power of language, and to think of how the people in your stories would speak.
As a challenge to take away from this blog, I would like to ask you to think of a language for a seafaring nation, that encounters many icy storms, but must traverse the treacherous seas to get the basic means to survive. Good luck and happy con-lang-ing!