Let’s get one thing straight: in no way am I an imaginative person. Yet I enjoy fantasy settings to the point where I’ve run several RP’s of my own with unique(ish?) lore, so I’m somewhat capable of doing just that: coming up with and writing about worlds that are not quite like the one we live in. However, pulling ideas out of your ass is not a particular strength of mine, which makes the whole creation process slow and arduous. And if that was the whole challenge, it’d be totally fine… Until you try to mix some realism into it and there isn’t much material to pull from.
Most shows and some dedicated hobbyists have agreed that angels use a language known as Enochian. Simple enough—just make up words as you go, right? Eh, not quite. I had no idea what to make the language sound like without any reference, so I did some research. Turns out it’s an actual language with material to pull from, so I wanted to at least base some of the most important location names on any known Enochian, except… There really aren’t many words that could be deciphered from the tiny amount of material available.
Time to get creative.
First and foremost, I had to figure out what words were available. With incredibly limited (read: practically none) grammar known, the best bet was to use the very basic form of words, and even then the options were miniscule. Naturally, words like “holy” (ne) and “god” (ascha) are included, but they don’t really make for interesting names.
How about “first paradise”? Sure, elo and then… Nothing. There is no word for “paradise”. What about “fire”? Oh—malprg. That doesn’t really make up for a memorable name for most modern languages. Ugh. What if I used something I could find a translation for and then added “of God” after it? C Ascha. Well, guess I now had to worry about pronounciation on top of everything else.
Finally, after perusing through The Complete Enochian Dictionary, I managed to settle on a form: “His [element(s)]”. And I found out a way to use “of” in the middle—I just removed it from the translation. The results came out pretty good, if I say so myself, with examples like Tox Zodinu and Londoh Alca. Not quite as divine as someone would expect, but better than trying to come up with a whole language on your own.
Now all that’s left is the part no one can really help: actually coming up with headcanons and turning them into words, at least into English this time. What are your thoughts on angelic fashion or economics? If you ever come across these posts, I’d love to hear from you.
Until then, see you again, dudes and dudettes. Be fabulous, be kind, and be safe.