For this blog post I will be talking about the languages used in the setting of Innocence Seekers: The Black Rose. No, I’m not talking about the languages in which the stories will be released, but the languages actually used by the characters of the stories. Because Innocence Seekers: The Black Rose is set throughout several planets in the galaxy, it is expected that inhabitants of each nation on each planet will speak different languages. Unlike some lazy writers, who assume that everyone speaks the same language (e.g. the language of the writer), I’ve written the stories such that language plays an important role.
One thing I should mention is that Innocents (magical girls) can learn languages far more easily than most other people. So it is not to be unexpected to have some of my characters know plenty of languages at a young age. In fact, one of my characters, Cecilia, is supposed to know at least 15 languages by the time of Innocence Seekers: The Dark Angel Part 3. One possible ability of an Innocent (note that this is not an Inherent Ability) is polyglotism, which is the ability to learn any spoken language in a matter of minutes after hearing someone speak it in person. Characters who have this ability include Natasha and Fuyuka.
One common language used in Innocence Seekers: The Black Rose is English. In the setting, English is the lingua franca of Earth, and is one of the main languages used by the Zodiac Warriors and Puella. In the stories, many characters can speak this language, and use it in correspondence whenever a common language is needed. However, there are some characters (such as Madeline) who cannot speak or understand English, which can complicate things. In Innocence Seekers: Akari of the Light, Hiyori is the only one of the playable characters who is fluent in English (Yayoi can understand some English, but cannot speak it outside of broken sentences).
Because some stories, especially Dimensional Crossing, Akari of the Light, Mimori Flower Club and April Light, involve characters from Japan and/or Namari, Japanese also plays an important role. While on Earth its use is largely limited to Japan and the Japanese diaspora, it is a fairly prominent language on Fuenod, where Japanese has become a lingua franca due to the influence of the kingdoms of Likkra and Namari. In the stories, it is mainly used by characters from Japan and the two aformentioned kingdoms. In The Dark Angel Part 2 and Part 3, it is used as a common language between the main characters due to it being the only language known by all four of them (Amelia’s English at the time is relatively poor, and the only other language she knows is Namari; Madeline knows Nodaimese and French, but not English; Natasha is a polyglot; and Chelsea knows Spanish and Hindi in addition to her native English).
In my plans for the entire saga, I have Spanish playing an important role. This is because I have the saga villain being from Madrid, and am currently working out his connections with Jacinta (who is half-Spanish and has family living in Madrid).
Because the setting is not limited to Earth, I’ve had to think about what kind of nations would be on the other planets. Among these thoughts include determing what kind of language their citizens speak. As such, I’ve created several conlangs for Innocence Seekers. These include the a priori Nodaimic languages (including Nodaimese), as well as a posteriori languages based on existing languages, such as Namari (a sister language of Japanese significantly influenced by native Likkran languages) and Nillonan and Umirian (both part of a “Nodaimic Romance” branch of the Latin-derived Romance languages). If you haven’t noticed, I tend to prefer inflectional systems with case markings on nouns, and semi-elaborate to elaborate verbal systems (mainly inflection, but also use of auxillaries); I tend not to like analytic languages such as Chinese (and to a lesser extent, English, which has a drastically reduced inflectional system). For some of my a posteriori conlangs, I’ve taken different directions in their development (e.g. for the Nodaimic Romance languages, I’ve imagined them to be influenced by Western Romance, but also had them have a more conservative noun declension system; also, all but a few will have drastic sound changes inspired by French). Note that none of my conlangs are at the stage at which they can be used normally.
An example of a Nillonan text (this is a translation of the first seven lines of the Iliad):
“Kanta, o dea, ira fili Pelei, Axilles, pē fečūť lis axeanovos dolores innomerabeles, et enviauť Hadi moltas anemas eroerō forterō, e fečūť sui korpi karonjas por kanevos et ōčellovos; ēsi volontas Dios erať kompletato, de pando filjo Atrei, rei omenes, e grande Axille, primamente si-separāron en difuta.”
Note that “č” is pronounced as the English “ch” (as in “child”), “j” is equivalent to the English “y” (as in “yes”) and that “ť” is equivalent to the English “th” (as in “thin”). The sound represented by “x” does not have an English equivalent, but is equivalent to the German “ch”. The macrons indicate long vowels, while doubled consonants are pronounced longer than their single counterparts (except “s” when between two short vowels, which is always pronounced as if it were doubled). The orthography differs from most Romance languages because of influence from Nodaimese (and in fact, I have Nillonan be written in the Nodaimese script earlier in its history). Note that this shows that the case system is retained in Nillonan, and that the sound changes characteristic of the Nodaimic Romance languages are absent.
For a Namari sample, I will supply this line said by Kurumi of Magical Kurumi-chan (which I took from the wiki):
「さなちゃん、おしえう。はじまいん こあかいと しっといけーど、なお てつだあみい。」
“Sana-chan, oshieu. Pajimain koakai-to shittoi-kēdo, nao tetudāmī.”
For a pronunciation guide, consult the wiki. Note that the pronunciation is quite different from Japanese.
Note that these samples are only representative of what I have done so far with the languages. They may be correct as of writing, but as my languages evolve, they may no longer be correct in the future.