Welcome to Gaia! ::

I'm finally getting enough of an idea of my culture to feel like I can start thinking about my language. Before I begin, however, I would like to get some input from you guys smile

The culture began as nomadic tribes that eventually settled and began forming isolated communities. The southern areas operated as larger village-states and, eventually, as city-states. These southern areas gained enough resources (thanks to longer crop-growing seasons) to conquer most of the continent. They brought a centralized government that lasted for one generation and then returned to a manorial system. The cultural influence, however, remained. This includes an emphasis on the arts (thanks to the ease of crop-growing) and on culture. Power is very decentralized, but co-operation in building projects between local rulers isn't unheard of (mainly because of the emphasis on courtly life - most lords spend most of their lives away from their estates visiting the estates of other lords).

I would like a phonetic system that reflects both a "barbarian" past and the cultural ideal of the present. As for the alphabet, I would like letters that can be heavily stylized to be used in art (it does not need to be particularly functional as they haven't invented cheap/easily produced paper).

I haven't decided when the alphabet was invented yet. I am thinking that perhaps the nomadic stage already had writing and would have written on harder surfaces (and therefore privilege straight lines and, perhaps, verticals and diagonals). But I'm not hard set in this (pun intended) and can shift the invention of the alphabet to suit whatever alphabet I end up using.

Just to note, I'm not asking anyone to do this for me. Rather, I'd like to hear input. What sorts of sounds would you see this culture favoring, for example?

Sounds? Honestly, they could be anything. Do you have any idea what sort of language you want it to be yet?

And I would also suggest not making the writing system until you have the phonetics of the language figured out first.

Sounds like a good plan then.

The þing is, the sounds that any particular language might have are totally random. I guess since ðey have roots in being nomads, maybe some harsh tough sort of sounds, like German and Arabic with all ðose weird gutturals and stuff.