Developing a proper Orcish language

I don’t know if this is the proper section for such a topic, but I find it the more appropriate. I’ve been playing in the world of warcraft since 1998 with Warcraft II and I’ve always been fascinated by Orcs and their culture. I’m also a language lover and I like learning new languages and accents.
That being said, I would really really like to develop a real Orcish language with synthax, verbs, sayings and all the good stuff. Of course such a task is not easy for one person alone, therefore I’d like to receive some help by the community. I hope this interests other people as much as it interests me.
Lok’tar ogar!

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I remember watching a documentary about J.R.R. Tolkien and how he developed the languages for his books.

If I remember correct, his parents were apparently professors who specialized in courntries and society and languages - so he was disposed and had an advantage :smile:

From a little quick search:

Number 2 in the last link :point_up_2: had me thinking of the song Adiemus by Karl Jenkins - it’s a non-language song, that sounds fluently and had me fooled for a long time thinking it was a language :laughing:

But again, it was the purpose with this:
Quoting from this article https://www.theawl.com/2016/09/an-aural-history-of-adiemus/ :

"Various ways of singing are complicated stories of local history, accident, even environment. Think of, say, Alpine yodeling’s use of the acoustics of the high country. "

The text in Adiemus is written phonetically, with the words viewed as instrumental sound. The human voice is the oldest instrument and by removing the distraction of lyrics, we hope to create a sound that is universal and timeless.” That is to say that “Adiemus” is in no language at all.

As for how to put the pressure on the words, you could always start with what the devs already have thought of, and then built it around that :slight_smile:

I think this is a very interesting project, but also a very time consuming project - but if you are willing to put a lot of time into it, it could be so awesome :+1:

Maybe open up for a community and have other join and give input?
I am not thinking of a community in WoW, but a general one on a larger platform with a lot more people who could have other interest but have a drive to help :blush:

If I were to start, I think I would start and study the words and sounds we already know from the game (maybe books too) and then practise phonocal, sounds and voice manipulating :slight_smile:

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Thanks for the input, mate. The basic thing to decide in the language synthax, since in human languages there are 6 possibilities (S/V/O, S/O/V, V/S/O, V/O/S, O/S/V, O/V/S) and that is very important to get the right “feeling” of the language.

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Very true…

While I might think WoW is very much inspired by LoTR, I also think the orc languages in WoW and LoTR is a lot apart.

I also have trouble finding cinematics or other Blizz creations with a real orcish conversation… But maybe this video clip can help a little with forming words or practise sounds… The orcs lips and pronouncing is very clear in this :slight_smile:

I read something interesting about Orkish language in the Arda universe. Basically Orks were vile creatures, with little more intellect than beasts. They created their language stealing words from others, like Humans and Dwarves. When Sauron became the Dark Lord, he created a universal language for Mordor, language which the Ork spoke. But Tolkien despised the Black Speech so much that he left it unfinished porpusefully. The closest to an Orcish conversation that you can find it’s the one between Durotan - Garona - Lothar in the Warcraft Movie.

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Yes I see

But this scene doesn’t seem to help much, when studying a new language :thinking: I need see how their lips are, and most of the scene is in english :sweat:

A pity, when so much could be done with a complete language :slight_smile:

Could Klingon be a helping base for creating Orcish? :thinking:

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