Creating New Language When Our Own Isn’t Enough
- Patti Callahan Henry
- Apr 7
- 3 min read
Reader's Digest
Patti Callahan Henry
April 3, 2025
From the earliest cave paintings to modern-day novels, from poetry to speeches and impassioned letters to music lyrics, we have used words and symbols to express our inner thoughts, interpret our world and make meaning of our human experiences. And yet, despite all these ways of meaning-making, sometimes the right expression or turn of phrase just can’t be found. When that happens, wildly creative writers gift us with new words.
Literary tradition is littered with fake languages that stoke the imagination. But print isn’t the only place where a fictional language can sit side by side with English—just look at Hollywood adaptations of bestselling novels like Lord of the Rings and Dune. Readers and viewers appreciate invented words for their ability to create lived-in worlds. As an author, I do too. But I also appreciate what invented languages can do for creative expression. That’s why I created a few words of my own.
Patti Callahan Henry’s The Story She Left Behind is the Reader’s Digest Book Club’s April pick! Join the free club for great reads, monthly discussions, author Q&As and a community of book lovers.
The most famous fictional language
Arguably, the most well-known created language is Elvish by J.R.R. Tolkien, who says he created a world for the language, not the other way around. He states that he was fascinated by “linguistic aesthetic,” meaning he enjoyed the beauty and sound of words and how they could be combined to create a new style. Then he created the fictional world.
A scholar of languages and an enthusiast of mythology, he combined his love of both to give us Middle-earth and Elvish, demonstrating how history informs language, as seen with the iconic characters and imaginary cultures in his famous fantasy book, The Lord of the Rings.
The (fake) language of childhood
In my newest novel, The Story She Left Behind, the character, Bronwyn, was inspired by a true cold case: Literary prodigy Barbara Newhall Follett disappeared in 1939 after creating her own language and fantasy world. Sadly, her language—a full linguistic system called Farksoo—sits in 16 dusty boxes at Columbia University and is mostly unknown.
Follett started creating this fake language and world when she was only 8 years old. Her incredible ability to create a language system at such a young age—and the desire she felt to do so—inspired me to try and understand a woman whose creative world surpassed her ability to describe it.
I first came across Follett’s story while researching Beatrix Potter. I discovered that this extraordinary woman, who is most known for her creation of Peter Rabbit and so many other whimsical stories, had once created a coded language to keep her mother from reading her journals. A rebellious child who wanted more from the world than the Victorian era was allowing, she felt a need to express her internal life in words, illustrations and story, and yet she wanted to keep those thoughts private—so she created an encrypted language.
After Beatrix Potter’s death, a man named Leslie Linder spent years decoding her writing so we might read her journals. Part of me was appalled—didn’t Potter want those thoughts and musings to remain private? And then my second thought: what a genius Potter must have been as a child to create this language that took someone years to decipher.
