I’ve said this before… I now understand why all extraterrestrials come to Earth…. So their authors do not have to invent anything.  As a new writer of sci-fi, I had hoped into my starship, skipped across the galaxy at .5 light-speed, landed on an exoplanet of my choosing… and came to a screeching halt.  SHIT!  I have to invent everything from here on out….. Noooooo!

Fortunately for my WIP I have a strong background in technology, biology, marine sciences, ecology, and animal behavior so I had that part down, but the language thing?   … That was not going to be tackled very easily.  On one hand, I needed to convey my protagonist and crew were on another world, interacting with an alien civilization, but on the other, I did not want my readers choking on a language syntax because I had no idea what I was doing.  I cleverly got around that barrier but Then I came across an article on NPR about a guy (David Peterson) who does just this–invent languages.   I listened to the interview (great), then searched YouTube for some virtual face-2-face time and got pointed in the right direction.  Next Sci-Fi… I’m not leaving home…..