To read a little bit about how I developed the language, you can click here. Then laugh at me about what a geek I am. I won't mind.
If you're naming your rat or just need some "color" for your dialogue, you'll want to know at least a few words of Ratspeak.
Here's the general information you need to know about Ratspeak:
-- Rats communicate on a high-pitched frequency, above the regular hearing of humans. Only a few of their sounds can be heard by people. They are capable of the full range of human sounds, though, at their own frequency.
-- Rats primarily like words with "k", "s", "z", "ch", and "sh" noises, as well as nouns. Other sounds aren't uncommon, though.
-- Colonies of rats develop their language somewhat differently, so any isolated colony will speak a local variant/dialect of the language. Many rats will have different words for the same thing.
-- Ratspeak is based on a syllabry. This means that each syllable has a discrete meaning; words are created by stringing together syllables. This makes the rat language sort of a creative process, almost poetic. It's a skill to be able to form words in a creative way, and rats will prize those individuals.
-- Meaning is largely dependent on pronunciation, inflection, tone, pitch, etc. This is why one syllable can mean multiple things depending on context. For example, "Soo" means eyes, but also "to see".
