That is what I did with three actual languages, Latin, Chinese and ancient Bactrian, plus a little profanity: "fellator" is Latin for cocksucker. And also easily recognized, though the first time I used it, or any other foreign word, I immediately translated it "That fellator! What the fuck is that cocksucker doing here?" From the Senator, this conveyed an awful lot of emotion, since he was normally very refined in his speech and hardly ever used even hell or damn. Shocked the soldiers, who had never seen him so worked up. Italicize each foreign word, out of kindness to the readers. If they know it's foreign, and the translation immediately follows, or has been established by repeated usage, they can skim over it or ponder it as they choose. I used one Latin word vexillatio because it is a military term meaning "detachment" from a legion, to conduct out of area operations or support another legion under a vexilla, a little flag. From that we get "to vex," because it must have been an annoyance for a legion commander to cough up 80 or more people to go support someone else. And I got the opportunity to make that point as an officer discusses how his Syrian legion had got the 80 worst no-loads and scoundrels in the command, promoted one to centurion - temporary, in case they got him back - and sent the lot off as their required contribution to border security at a port on the Red Sea. For those who care, they may figure out from that how it came to mean annoyance. For those who don't, it is still an amusing story, and also has a timeless resonance with military readers who have probably had to do the same thing at one time or another. For Chinese I used titles, like tingwei, weiwei, and taiwei, the ministers of justice and of guards, and commander in chief of the army (all authentic to the era), and things that would have been unusual to the Romans with no Latin equivalent, like kwai-ji, "quick bamboo" (chopsticks), mei for coal, and lian-yu for a repeating crossbow. Also ma-deng, "horse something or other" for stirrups, which the Chinese had and the Romans had never used before. And one Chinese phrase mama ma ma, ma qi man, mama man ma (I think), which the girl uses to teach the centurion his first lesson in han-yu (Chinese). "Mother rides a horse, the horse is slow, mother scolds the horse" because it uses all four tones of ma, each for different meanings. His first self-conscious attempt to repeat it doesn't go very well, and they wind up having a laugh (they later marry). As for pronunciation, I don't think it matters. Avoid words that are jumble of consonants, like you might find in the Slavic languages... if it looks too hard to pronounce, or you can't remember how to spell it, don't use it. As to subtleties like k vs kh, g vs. gh, a vs ah, it doesn't matter. It is a story, not a language lesson.
I kinda think that having to re-read things is not quite as fun as watching foreign films. Maybe try instead using a made up language sparingly, with a clear way of making known what the words mean. That is what I did with one of the main alien languages, as opposed to having to create the entire language top to bottom. And there is no way in hell I am going to make several alien languages, and doubly so for another dominant species that speaks a language well older than humans have been a thing. Ultimately there would be at least 15-20 languages that I would have to fab, and honestly no thanks, the large amount of alien names is more than adequate to get the point across. But having said all of that, it doesn't really matter cause these are just opinions. It is your work and your decision, so do what thou will. Though I am going to say creating a language is a pain in the ass. Good luck, and I hope you can keep it from misstep (otherwise it could be a tad confusing). Go forth and make it so, I don't envy you in the slightest.
If you are dealing with aliens, think of ways they might communicate using something other than speech. There is a suggestion, for example, that dolphins and whales can capture and exchange a sort of an acoustical hologram, that represents what they "see" using sonar, as a means of communicating. That would be a "language" that would be near the limit of human ability to even decipher.
@Lew I like that idea and the concept. The only problem is that it would be difficult to pass orders in a war zone between 3 different races if they had to use multiple forms of communication other than speech. So to circumvent this dilemma I went with using the Terran language for the other races to be either a secondary, or tertiary language to avoid such an issue of communications. (That and it helps when you have had them all fighting against each other at some point, or had to collaborate with them in some form or another. Also some languages would be for to complex for a human to speak correctly or in the proper dialect.)
Latin roots are too familiar to readers, but new language is extremely hard to write. What a dilemma eh?
I like this idea, just tapped this little bit out based on its inspiration: My stomach growled as I pushed the plastic curtain of the stall aside and thumped myself down onto one of the calf-high stools that lined the counter. The menu, at least, was in English, but I went cold when the cook crawled into view. Knarlanti. Holding a big fucking knife in her medial claw. Shit. Then I noticed the markings on her carapace, so I carefully reached over and pulled up my sleeve to show the tattoo of a winged octupus, twin to the one scarred into her thorax plate. She made the grating noise that I recognized as Knarlanti laughter, and placed the knife down between us. “Ghazrot!” It felt strange to be using BL to order in a restaurant, but that was the only thing we’d both be able to understand. Still, manners. “Ghazrot, tchooka!” Rations, shipmate! Battle Language was simple enough. Although most of the Knarlant had sided with the Thlee in the war, enough of them had joined the human-led Alliance that we’d been forced to come up with a language that could be used by all members of the Allied forces. Battle Language contained no pleasantries and had almost no grammar, only the imperative, interrogative, and simple present, but its entire 2000-ish “word” vocabulary could be spoken and understood by all three of the Allied species……
Well done, @Iain Aschendale, that is just about a perfect capture! Kept it simple, now you know why and how of BL, it can be integrated into the story.
Thanks Lew, it's triggered a whole bunch of stuff in my brain. Might even be a story in there somewhere, I'll have to work on it.
