Is it okay to use a language like Latin in a fantasy story you make?
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009 at
3:59 am
I need to make a fantasy story for school and I wanted to know if I could use any languages for magic or another race or something (like fire is incendia, ignis, flamma in Latin). Or would I have make up my own or get ideas from other languages but change them.
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Tagged with: fantasy story • flamma • languages • latin • magic
Filed under: Latin Language
That’s not a problem it all. Stuff like that is done all the time, but people are probably going to be able to tell you did it in Latin, since they’ll mildly resemble words in English. I wouldn’t recommend you make up your own language though, because it will probably end up looking ridiculous, repetitive, and either too short or too long. It’s very difficult to come up with convincingly random patterns by hand.
In star wars, Jabba the Hutt’s language is actually a real, actively used language in Africa. No idea what it is though. So George Lucas did it. Nobody minded. There’s no reason you can’t, too.
There`s no problem , it actualy gives originality. Just make sure you name things that are special in a way
It’s totally understandable and reasonable to use Latin as a language. The fact that it’s a dead language and the root of English, Spanish, French, Romanian, and Italian make it easier for people to understand why you chose the name (like it’s easier for people to guess what Flamma is because its derivative is flame). If you want to be more creative, just take a Latin word and change it around to sound more appealing or more to your creativity.
Authors do it all the time. Just make sure a translation is given either within the story itself or as a footnote. It drives me nuts when there’s no translation!
It’s your story – as long as it’s what you want it to be, do what you want. Jo Rowling used Latin for all her spells in the Harry Potter series, and look how popular she is.