Conlang Vs Convenience

Also known as: "worldbuilding is hard". And what makes it so difficult, at least to me, is the nonexistence of right answers. This isn't math, with only one right answer, even if finding it might take a while. In fiction, anything goes. At the same time, when building Lovenoma, there are certain internal rules and realities of this fictional world I want to keep consistent. I want to create a world that is born, lives, and eventually dies. I want the people to have their own unique cultures, beliefs and languages. And it is that last part that I have found a slight problem as I continue working on Lovenoma.

Conlangs, or constructed languages, are one of the best ways to build a fictional culture and really show off the way they live and think. It can be just a naming language, or a fully functional language evolved over time with the people, or anything in between. Also, I just find languages an interesting topic all by themselves, and a big part of the reason I build Lovenoma in the first place.

During Summer Camp 2024 I noticed that, while constructed languages, such as those I've created, are a great detail to have, they are not very efficient in communicating or creating atmosphere for the simple reason that no one knows what any of it means. A language can look and sound beautiful and elegant or perhaps cold and harsh, but the message itself remains unreachable by any average reader.

To demonstrate what I mean, let's take an example such as the following: Jibisál Ghunu. If I were to close my eyes and hear those words, I wouldn't know what to imagine. What do the words even mean? Is it a greeting, a place, a food, an animal? But if I were to say Shining Cove, I see clear blue water glimmering against the sun during a beautiful summer day, surrounded by land, whether it be tall cliffs or sandy beaches. The message is received, the atmosphere set. If I had used the conlang name, it would mean nothing.

So, while conlangs have their uses, clearly there is a limit. But where is it? I've found the names of individuals, even cities, can work well even if one doesn't immediately know what they mean.

To take another, this time real life, example, the word Turku meant absolutely nothing to me before. The word itself meant nothing, instead I knew it only as the name of one of Finland's oldest cities. But no, apparently it used to mean marketplace which in modern finnish is usually tori. While I had no idea, that didn't really have an effect on anything, just like not knowing what Tar Valon meant when I first began to read the New Spring, my first entry to the beautiful universe that is the Wheel of Time. I liked the name, the way it sounded and looked when written down, but that was about it. The descriptions of busy streets and white towers, among other things, provided a mental image where there had been none, and that worked perfectly well.

The more I've been writing this article, the more I think I've begun to see where the line is, at least for me (which is why I write these in the first place). While I have no problem calling a region "Nīwulá Valley", I cannot for the life of me accept calling it (checking notes) "Nīwulá Susyo". Even to me that means nothing, and I created the bloody thing. And for the valley-dwelling people who breathe and speak the language it would work perfectly well, but to an outsider? Not so much.

I suppose that is also why we have names such as "Andes Mountains" or "chai tea". It helps create a feel of what the subject at hand is, even if it means simply repeating the same word in a different language as is the case with chai. Even in Finland there is a river called "kymijoki", which literally just means "river river". That probably has nothing to do with anything, I just thought it was interesting when I found out.

That's really about it. Conlangs are fun and useful, but not all-powerful, and I think thanks to writing this I may have found where my limit is with them. What that means in practice will have to wait until the post-Summer Camp exhaustion has left me, but at least there's some clarity to my thoughts now.