How did Christopher Paolini come up with the ancient language?

Answer 1

He looked up a lot of old Norse and Swedish words, added some Ö and ' too make it look awesome. But makes most words a bit hard to pronounce, if you don't know how to pronounce the: Ö and ' in some words.

He also took words from other languages like German and bastardised English words.

Some words are completely made up. You can also see that Paolini draw inspiration from the Japanese honorific system. While most grammar system are English and the language it self is made to fit in normal English sentences.

Answer 2

Christopher Paolini created the ancient language by combining elements of existing languages, particularly Old Norse, Latin, and Old English. He also developed rules for grammar and syntax to make the language consistent and believable within the world of Alagaësia in his Inheritance Cycle series.