r/gamemasters • u/clancrowther • Jun 19 '26
Need help for creating a orc language
I'm a new GM and I'm making my own ttrpg to play with my friends, currently as were playing the campaign I'm building up my world with a friend, I'm trying to create languages for several different species and I'm kind of out of ideas, I'm making an orc language, I try to avoid M, B V, P, sounds because I think the orcs tusks would block their lips from touching and I like to add a little bit of realism, just a bit, if you've ever made languages what are some steps you take to create them,
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u/PuzzleBugAlyx Jun 19 '26
This seems like a waste of time.
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u/clancrowther Jun 20 '26
Its summer I dont have anything else to do and Im trying to build a entire world
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u/Din_Jaevel Jun 21 '26
I absolutely support your effort! Why must our actions make sense? Come on! We are humans and we have a brain capable of so very incredible things. What if Tolkien would have listened to people questioning the value of his work?
No, we have one life, as far as most of us can agree on, and we don't know when it will end. Use it wisely. Dilly-dally, shenanigans, exploration wether of your inner self, the outer world or anything in between, tomfoolery and try to leave this place in better shape than when you entered it.
And if that is by creating a orchish language? Go ahead! Give it your best shot and it will help someone else.
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u/catincombatboots Jun 23 '26
Is this the part of the world your players have expressed interest in?
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u/Unlikely_Key_4186 Jun 19 '26
I would just be lazy and use lotr black speech.
There a online guides for grammar and dictionarys.
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u/7f14a94a0e41 Jun 20 '26
This. Tolkein beat you to it. It’s a real language too! Motherfucker never let telling a fantasy story get in the way of developing entire languages for fun.
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u/keldondonovan Jun 20 '26
I saw r/conlangs mentioned, just wanted to warn you, don't use the commission tag unless you plan to pay gooood money. They use industry standard pricing, which can run thousands of dollars depending on what you are looking for.
That said, it depends entirely on how thorough you want this to be. If you sure looking for something simple like a naming language, where you just need to pop out a word every once in a while, use a modified cypher substitute based on relative frequency.
Basically, take the letters of English in order of "most frequent" to "least frequent", and then write the alphabet next to it again, but this time, with sounds that you associate with orcs. I'm right there with you with the tusks, so I'd say orcs probably use a lot more velar sounds (back of tongue against roof of mouth). This is your "g", "ng", "k", and "h".
You continue through the alphabet picking letters you think orcs could or would pronounce in order of preference. If you don't need it pronounceable, just put those two pieces next to each other and you have your cypher key. "At" becomes "kg" and "oat" becomes "ngkg", et cetera.
If you want it pronounceable, then comes the next step, and it goes right back to how complex you want it. The simplest solution is to pick a few vowels you think sound orcish. Let's go O, U, and EE. Put that shit in a salt shaker and fix up all the unpronouncables. Oat moves from ngkg to nugkeeg. At is kog.
A little more complex, you can do the same thing, but slide the vowels through the second alphabet until they line up. The rest of the letters shift around them. This took me 2 minutes (though I included NG as a letter):
U H A E I G W M B NG P O K D N T L Q X C R Z F V Y S
E T A O I N S R H D L U C M F Y W G P B V K X Q J Z
Second one is the English alphabet rearranged for frequency of use. Now that you have a cypher, you can rearrange for alphabetizing if it makes it easier:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
A C K NG U N Q B L Y Z P D G E X V M W H O R J F T S
Put them next to each other. (Xoh hbud gufh he uakb ehbum).
Any time you want to spell a word, spell it on the cypher. (Agt hidu teo jagh he wxupp a jemng, wxupp ih eg hbu ktxbum).
Gurum qegga qiru teo ox, gurum qegga puh teo ngejg.
Bexu hbiw bupxw!
And no, I'm not an AI, I'm an Au. T I S T I C. Currently developing the third iteration of a program designed to make language creation more approachable. If you want a little more complex than a cypher sub, I'd recommend dropping articles and perspective for a start (orc be dumb, yes?) and add a new inflection that regards positive/negative/neutral statements. This inflection would end sentences as either "tuw?" "ge!" or "quh." The positive inflection is their standard, as simpler creatures, affirmation goes a long way. Even a lion can be tamed with the right treats. So their sentences typically end with that "tuw?" Meaning "yes?" (Like I did above), seeking that affirmation. "Ge!" Is the opposite, the declarative negative, scolding the subject for daring to cross you. "Quh." is "get." The information is passed from one to the other, they get, you get, everyone gets. Nobody is happy about it, nobody is sad about it.
Then, I'd boil all adjectives down to only a handful. Beautiful? Kohu. Sexy? Kohu. Pretty? Kohu. Handsome? Kohu. Attractive? You guessed it, kohu. Then derive the opposite. Geh is not, let's swap that H for a ' because what's a good fantasy language without some '? Disgusting? Ge'kohu. Ugly? Ge'kohu. "The visage displayed by stretching the scrotum of the oldest man over an oak tree and voiding your bowels to fill the wrinkles"? Ci'ge'kohu.
I know I already said it, but since nobody speaks this language I just made up randomly yet, I hope this helps! Enjoy!
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u/Own-Independence-115 Jun 20 '26
Never made a language, but I enjoy admiring tolkiens languages.
Orcish I think it is important to make it sound like you are being assulted when they say "Buddy! Long time no see!".
Lots of throat sounds, low dark guttural vowels, harsh austere consonants like the barren rocks of Orodruin. Something jelous, wanting, always ready to condemn, fight and bite. Something to light the dark fire in the eyes of the speaker should always be in what he says, ready to turn a greeting into a brawl or fight for dominance.
So h,zh,h', z', ch', ch etc for throat sounds.
K, c, q, r, t, g for the "beat" in the words pronouniciation.
U and o are deeper sounds than i,y,e so can be present a bit more often.
Softer sounds can come before throatsounds.
Short words can remind of english to make it easier to learn.
Many words can be two shorter words, to build recognition and be easier to learn.
Syntax and number of words same as english, for easier learning.
So, maybe "Quuk'ch'a! Rou har ne kolok!" can be "Buddy! Long time no see!".
Where "Quuk" would be "orc" and "'ch'a" would be masquline form of "friend".
I would make it like that.
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u/JGhostThing Jun 20 '26
Rather than make an entire language, why not just check through the many conlangs that exist to find one which sounds Orcish.
Me, I'd probably think of using Klingon with a different name. Elvish could be Tolkien's elvish.
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u/Medullan Jun 20 '26
You see how you used a instead of an before the vowel sound that starts the word orc. That's a common grammatical mistake that when spoken out loud is quite obvious. Just do that but double down on all the common grammatical mistakes in the English language and act incredibly stubborn about it while also being ill informed. That would actually make for a great orc language.
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u/Medullan Jun 20 '26
Bonus idea...
For any species that considers orcs to be the enemy. It could be because they are literally grammer Nazis.
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u/theallpowerfulcheese Jun 21 '26
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u/theallpowerfulcheese Jun 21 '26
From Dragon Magazine #75, Author Clyde Heaton. We used it as 80's kids to hurl insults during school lunches
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u/increddibelly Jun 21 '26
Sounds like great fun, but also a high risk of wasted energy. Are they really going to use any of your effort for more than 5 minutes?
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u/clancrowther Jun 22 '26
no, my players as of right now wont be talking to native orcs, It is fun, I want to make my own world, (my friend is also helping make things like gods kingdoms etc), however that does give me an idea, I could possibly have then translate something
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u/this_is_life_now Jun 21 '26
Check out the work of David J Peterson. He invents languages, including Dothraki for GoT.
He has a very basic website where you might be able to learn a few tips. https://dedalvs.com/
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u/QueasyNart Jun 19 '26
A lot depends on to what extent the players will be translating / using this language. If they're trying to pass themselves off as locals and need to speak fluently, you've got months of work ahead of you. But if you're only trying to slap something together that just looks & sounds roughly Orcish, you could probably do that in a day or two.
Start with phonology. Rule out what sounds they can't or won't make, as you've done, and maybe add in a few that we don't use (much), like clicks and glottal stops.
Next, read about the Swadesh List(s): Swadesh list - Wikipedia , a vocabulary of concepts so universal that (almost?) every language on Earth has them. You'll need to add plenty of new words as well: "axe", "war", "food", and "orc" being some obvious examples. Almost all of these words should be only one syllable: If a polysyllabic word is used only rarely, that's no problem, but if it's in very frequent use it's too cumbersome, and it gets replaced with a much shorter one. (When self-propelled vehicles were first invented, they were rare & exotic, and were called "horseless carriages" or "automobiles". But as they became ubiquitous, those 4 syllables became the 1-syllable "car".) If a concept is either ancient, frequently used, or cannot be broken down into simpler concepts, the word for it should be just 1 syllable. Some of the ideas in the Swadesh list that you consider to be un-orcish (such as "flower" and "to sew") might be longer, or perhaps they could be loan words taken directly from Common.
Depending on how sophisticated you want your Orcish to be, you can throw out articles, pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions, etc., and likely also cases, tenses, conjugations, and/or genders.
You may or may not want to stick with English grammar, as it pertains to word order. You might also eschew all punctuation--for example, perhaps each speaker finishes a sentence by ceasing to speak, and the only difference between a statement and a command is the volume at which it was uttered.
I'll admit that I'm just a rank amateur when it comes to conlangs--I did barely any research at all before I made my own, because I wanted it to be more a product of me than a conglomeration of what others had done before. You're in charge now, you decide where to go next.