Has there been a serious attempt at a dragon language before? Bits and pieces have floated around for decades, but mostly it's names and the occasional phrase or noun. There have been several times that I'm aware of wherein a coherent (even if partial) language to be spoken by an intelligent dragon would have added depth and richness to a setting or story. Yet the only instances of such a thing I can recall are humans (or similar) saying that thus or such comes from some ancient language of dragons. I think the trouble with making one that has real meat to it has been a problem of not really thinking about what it is or comes from, or how one wants to use it. Or it could be that no one wanted to really bother.
That's where I come in.
As I mentioned before, my underlying concept for Draconic is that it begat a family of languages. It therefore is, appropriately for its speakers, an ancient and mysterious tongue, alien and difficult. Its nearest relative is Parseltongue (or Serpentine, if legal circumstances require). The plan is for it to be weird, majestic and dangerous sounding, instead of slithery,
edgy and dangerous like the Parseltongue. (Parseltongue shouldn’t necessarily
sound evil, but should hopefully play on humans’ natural distrust of
snakes.) It should have a large and solid feel to it, as though of casual power. By the time I begin building this in earnest, I should be able to convey all this.
The grammar will also have a similar construction to Parseltongue. Dragons are wily, intelligent, and witty creatures, and the flexibility of their conversation should match the flexibility - and cunning - of their minds.
Because they have prehensile forepaws, it's a distinct possibility that I'll be able to make a writing system for Draconic. Should it be based on scratches, leading to straight lines predominating? Or should I go with a brush-based system, leading to complex and beautiful calligraphy? It's not too far out of line to suggest that they have both, or that the former could lead to the latter, and yet be kept around for casual or hasty use.
It probably seems odd that while Draconic leads to at least 3 other languages in my list, it's not the first even of its family in my plans for creation. Yes, bits and pieces of it will be done in a structural sort of way as I progress, but the truth of it is that it's less useful than the others and can, with that initial planning, be reverse-engineered. It may even end up better that way.
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