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[Warlord255]

How is it done?

Having compared the language files for the existing races, it seems there are zero overlaps. There must be some kind of algorithm used.

Any way we can get our hands on it, you think, or am I doomed to making a new one myself?

[Cavalcadeofcats]

Advise: Search the suggestions forum for talk about languages. There were some interesting things there a few months ago. (A tangential suggestion, but the best I can muster.)

[Teldin]

I haven't found any scripts or whatnot to auto-generate languages, but I suppose with a language in a text file I could whip up something in C to do so..

In any case, when I was making my Rome Fortress mod I just made the new language entirely by hand, which is understandably a lot of work for someone just making a language from scratch. It took me about 3 days to finish (since I also had to translate from english-latin myself).

[Warlord255]

I haven't found any scripts or whatnot to auto-generate languages, but I suppose with a language in a text file I could whip up something in C to do so..

In any case, when I was making my Rome Fortress mod I just made the new language entirely by hand, which is understandably a lot of work for someone just making a language from scratch. It took me about 3 days to finish (since I also had to translate from english-latin myself).

Well, it's one thing to translate to a known language, but generating a new one is a lot harder.

[Captain Mayday]

There's a ruby perl based program on DFFD that can do this.
http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=463

[darkflagrance]

I haven't found any scripts or whatnot to auto-generate languages, but I suppose with a language in a text file I could whip up something in C to do so..

In any case, when I was making my Rome Fortress mod I just made the new language entirely by hand, which is understandably a lot of work for someone just making a language from scratch. It took me about 3 days to finish (since I also had to translate from english-latin myself).

Well, it's one thing to translate to a known language, but generating a new one is a lot harder.

Actually, even without scripts, you can just letter-shift one of the preexisting languages, or someone elses pre-made language to get your own, and changing the name spheres of your race will give a different enough selection that the names might not be recognizable as derivative anyway. I'd say using an existing language is probably actually harder, because even if you script you have to enter a list of words by hand somewhere.

[Gorobay]

Actually, even without scripts, you can just letter-shift one of the preexisting languages, or someone elses pre-made language to get your own, and changing the name spheres of your race will give a different enough selection that the names might not be recognizable as derivative anyway. I'd say using an existing language is probably actually harder, because even if you script you have to enter a list of words by hand somewhere.

Letter-shifting a language can work if you are careful, but it is repetitive and can get boring, since it can only change so much.

If you want a new language based on a pre-existing wordlist, like one of the language raws, you can use a Perl script I wrote: Sound Changer. Given a wordlist and a list of rules to apply, it outputs a new wordlist.

[Vattic]

Toady mentions how he did it in one of the podcasts before the regular podcasts started. The one where he mentions the randomly generated boardgames. It was a long interview though. Anyone remember which it was?

[Mephansteras]

I remember that, but not sure which one it was either.

Amusingly, I also made a language generator for DF in perl. Suitable tool for job, I guess. The link is in my sig if anyone wants to take a look at it.

[Haspen]

I just grab two-letters syllables, most common, e.g dwarven language and turn them into another.

Voila, 30 minutes of work and you have mostly new and exotic language. Of course, it's need a bit of polishing, but nothing wrong with just some overlaps. Real world languages also overlap, or are very similar to themselves.

Meph: I used your generator but I was unhappy with results, seems that contolled randomization of words don't work for me xD But great job with the generator anyway.