What are your thoughts on creating new phrases for your sci-fi world?

Changing up the language can be interesting, in addition to making the story more believable. Considering how fast lingo and grammar changes these days, it seems a little odd when reading a book set far into the future where everyone talks like it's 2010. Even little changes can be good.

In my own Sci Fi, I switch the sentence structure up a bit. Once, my dad pointed out that sentences in other languages (particularly Hebrew) translated almost backwards to English sentences, but sometimes made more sense. Taking this idea, I experimented and started cutting sentences or phrases in half and reversing the wording:
"Yellow they were, with twiggy green stems and little maroon leaves."
Normally, and American might say that sentence as "They were yellow...". I thought that this change spiced up the description a bit.

This is an interesting topic!

Okay, so I largely use just modern English, but I have an excuse!

So basically humanity is taken from mostly eastern European, western Asian, and northern African countries. (everyone else was killed through nuclear war, the only reason I picked those places is the fact that the ship was launched from that area of the world, so, geographically, most of the people that could make it would be from that area.) But, because English is the international language of the modern day, it was the common language between them. And when they turned into a fleet they needed a standard language, so it just made sense that they used English.

Now, communication between planets is slow (months to years) so any new phrases that show up on a particular planet will pretty much stay on that planet. The Fleet is confined to using just plain English, so they can be understood universally. So each planet gets its own flavor of English, while the Fleet stays with our modern English.

There are a couple of differences, though. Since most of the people that made it onto the ship did not learn English as their first language, they didn't have it entirely down pat. So contractions don't show up often (or, rather, contractions do not show up often) along with a few other things. Just to give it a bit of a different feel.

Lately I have been reading the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld, and apart from its intriguing premise, (a topic for another thread) it contains a lot of new words and phrases that I find quite fascinating in my study of things futuristic. A lot of phrases are like back-to-front adjectives, adding a same verb on the end, example: nervous-making, happy-making, etc. for things that "make you nervous" or "make you happy". The characters in the story also use "missing" for descriptions, for example, someone acting stupid would be dubbed "brain-missing", something not fun "fun-missing", etc. etc. The new word for "cool" is "bubbly". The new word for "lame" is "bogus".

My siblings and I now go about the house using this new futuristic lingo, and it made me wonder: does anyone have adapted or new lingo in their writings? Made up phrases to mean something it does today? What are your thoughts on creating new phrases for your sci-fi world?

Okay, so I largely use just modern English, but I have an excuse!

So basically humanity is taken from mostly eastern European, western Asian, and northern African countries. (everyone else was killed through nuclear war, the only reason I picked those places is the fact that the ship was launched from that area of the world, so, geographically, most of the people that could make it would be from that area.) But, because English is the international language of the modern day, it was the common language between them. And when they turned into a fleet they needed a standard language, so it just made sense that they used English.

Now, communication between planets is slow (months to years) so any new phrases that show up on a particular planet will pretty much stay on that planet. The Fleet is confined to using just plain English, so they can be understood universally. So each planet gets its own flavor of English, while the Fleet stays with our modern English.

There are a couple of differences, though. Since most of the people that made it onto the ship did not learn English as their first language, they didn't have it entirely down pat. So contractions don't show up often (or, rather, contractions do not show up often) along with a few other things. Just to give it a bit of a different feel.

I normally stick to modern English, stating that there are translators embedded in the communication device (Handheld cell phone-type-thing, video-conference, in person) that translates whatever foreign languages are said.

Actually, come to think of it... wouldn't period-specific cultural references be another, and perhaps easier and more effective, way to make your language match the time period? New dictionary definitions and sentence structure is only a small part of language evolution. A great deal of our communication is based on context, cliches, and references to things that are familiar to our time. Think of how many times you make references to recent presidents and celebrities in your speech, or talk about objects and events like Iraq, Vietnam vets, 9/11, etc. These references are meaningful to whomever you're speaking to because they know the figure or event you're talking about. In a century or two these references won't mean anything, but new references will have arisen. These references would add a lot of period flavor to your dialog--as well as, I'd expect, be easier to come up with and use than entirely fictional words. And avoiding dated references would also go a long way to making your dialog realistic.

Irregardless, whatever your futuristic language is, you have to remember that it's new to the reader. You have to use it in such a way that makes the meaning clear, while still being natural. Your characters aren't going to define terms that are normal to them, and squeezing definition into the narration can often be awkward. (Shouldn't your narration be in the same language as your dialog?) So it's important to make sure your futuristic lingo is not only natural but intelligible.

For my own works, I personally do not stress futuristic lingo, mostly because I know it's not my strong point and forcing it could be disastrous. However, I did incorporate a handful of new words into Red Rain. They were mostly familiar terms that had been repurposed. Notably, I had a new name for the spaceships that carried people between planets ("transit"). To me, this was a sensible name for the object considering space travel had become as commonplace as flying, and the ship itself had become more like an airplane as well. It wasn't what we know as a space shuttle or a star ship, so using a new term made sense. It was also a familiar word, so it wasn't hard to come up with or understand. I just used it normally in sentences without introduction, so I think the meaning was clear in-context. It wasn't difficult, and hopefully added a little flavor for my readers.

On a more personal note, I myself often use familiar words in new ways when the opportunity presents itself, such as using a noun as a verb-form. We're seeing more of that nowadays, so when it comes up in my personal speech or my writing, I run with it. The future is now. *shrugs*

And I really need to read the Uglies series now... That sounds like some well-done, interesting, but not-too-confusing futuristic lingo.