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What are mandatory words groups a language have to have?

I'm creating Merovian (meroo) constructed language since about 2004 and I have yet to settle down on standartisation. Merovian currently has 5 word groups and "other words". Noun Verb ...
Artis Zel's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
34 views

How likely is it for conlangs to have verbs that have the same conjugation as another verb?

So I have been studying Spanish recently (mainly verb conjugations because I'm great at constructing sentences, but still am horrible when it comes to verb conjugations), and decided to teach myself ...
CrSb0001's user avatar
  • 193
3 votes
3 answers
57 views

How to ensure a NATO-esque spelling alphabet works?

I thought my conlang would need a NATO-esque spelling alphabet. In my current sketch, they are words borrowed from Korean and few other languages. They are to serve as mere spelling alphabets, and not ...
Dannyu NDos's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
306 views

Asian and African auxlangs like Interslavic?

What are examples of African and Asian auxlangs like Interslavic?
juki's user avatar
  • 31
2 votes
1 answer
38 views

Are there languages where traditional verb features exist on nouns, or noun features on verbs, etc.?

I am looking at the sidebar on Wikipedia. Are there languages which have "case" or "gender" or "number" or other "noun features" but instead of (or in addition ...
Lance's user avatar
  • 1,541
2 votes
2 answers
34 views

How is it not ambiguous that the parts don't add up to the whole when creating compound words?

This question was sparked off a recent question: Are Sanskrit words more than the sum of the parts? I am serious when I ask, because as an outsider to Sanskrit, I would think the parts would add up to ...
Lance's user avatar
  • 1,541
2 votes
2 answers
29 views

How to handle modifiers within modifiers in noun phrases?

I asked How does Chinese handle the -ing and -ed in common names, like "Black-bellied whistling duck"? in an attempt to learn better how analytic languages deal with complex noun phrases ...
Lance's user avatar
  • 1,541
4 votes
2 answers
57 views

How to create irregular pronoun paradigms

My language has several cases. I have their affixes worked out for the nouns, as well as the proto-affixes, but what I want to know is, how can I get the pronouns to have different-looking cases? I ...
nearsighted's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
424 views

If I want my conlang's compound words not to exceed 3-4 syllables in length, what kind of phonology should my conlang have?

I've thought about using phonemic tones and permitting lots of clusters as ways of keeping my words short, but I don't want the syllables to be so heavy that every compound becomes a tongue-twister. ...
James Grossmann's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
38 views

Should prenasalized consonants be distinct from nasal+obstruent sequences?

I have a language with CVC syllable structure and a series of prenasalized consonants. As written, therefore, a word like /anda/ would be distinct from /aⁿda/. I can barely grasp the difference here, ...
nearsighted's user avatar
2 votes
3 answers
84 views

Are there any general rules for creating verb conjugation for a conlang?

So I have been thinking a lot about trying to make my own conlang. I have attempted before to create one in the past, however, all of them have sadly been abandoned. Looking back at them (since I ...
CrSb0001's user avatar
  • 193
5 votes
1 answer
96 views

Convergent evolution in languages

Are there any examples of languages in totally different parts of Earth having similarities in such things as grammar and words? As one example, I've noticed 'Mama' and 'Papa' seem to be common across ...
Kazon's user avatar
  • 159
2 votes
1 answer
49 views

How to reconcile the large number of similarities between my languages' morphemes

All of the languages I've made so far are placed on the same continent of my conworld, and it's a different continent from where humans evolved, so they would have had to migrate into it. For ...
Arcaeca's user avatar
  • 349
3 votes
2 answers
115 views

How much of the irregularity caused by sound change (e.g. vowel loss) will be retained in inflectional paradigms?

In creating a language family with multiple generations, I'm noticing a huge buildup of irregularity in my inflectional paradigms, mostly caused by things like vowel loss etc. How long would it take ...
nearsighted's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
63 views

From what could I derive a morpheme that explicitly marks a noun as being a phrase head?

I have a number of languages I want to combine into a macrofamily, and one thing they have in common is nouns that ending the the pattern *-(V)nVm, e.g. *-n-om in a PIE-esque language, -unum in an ...
Arcaeca's user avatar
  • 349
3 votes
2 answers
68 views

How to prevent all of my words being eroded away to nothing

My latest project is a full language superfamily (the Thakina languages). I'm now at the fourth generation with Highlands Têyisa, and I'm noticing that most of the words are getting far, far shorter ─ ...
nearsighted's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
1k views

Do I really need plural grammatical number when my conlang deals with existence and uniqueness?

I continued building my conlang, and it's time to deal with grammars of nouns. In my conlang, nouns are categorized into three: countable, measurable, and abstract. This question is about countable ...
Dannyu NDos's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
59 views

Should I analyze these consonants as codas or onset clusters?

In my conlang, the proto-language had a CVR (R standing for a resonant) syllable structure and no voiced obstruents. Later, unstressed vowels were lost between voiceless obstruents (i.e. all ...
nearsighted's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
37 views

Are mora and syllable weight the same thing?

I'm researching syllable structures to learn better ways to construct words. I've come across mora and weight, and upon first glance they seem to describe the same thing in different words. Mora is ...
Ylahris's user avatar
  • 449
4 votes
2 answers
75 views

What is a plausible lexical source for the remote past?

I've always had a huge focus on utter realism, so I require lexical sources for all of my morphology. In my most recent project, the Thakina ['tʰa.ki.na] family. The proto-language has four tenses: ...
nearsighted's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
23 views

What's the best repository of spoken language samples with romanization included that I can use for inspiration?

I'll often scout the ILoveLanguages! channel on YouTube for inspiration for what aesthetic to use, because its videos typically display a relatively long sample with both spoken audio and a romanized ...
Arcaeca's user avatar
  • 349
3 votes
2 answers
74 views

Is there a general strategy to build vocabulary for chemical elements?

I continued building vocabulary for my conlang, and now I'm trying to name chemical elements. Here's the concept: The major speakers of this conlang are angels, and some of them have lived for a long ...
Dannyu NDos's user avatar
4 votes
4 answers
147 views

How to romanize velarization, palatalization, and labialization?

I started a conlang inspired by Marshallese and Navajo, and have taken several labialized, palatalized, and velarized consonants from them. However, I am unsure how to romanize these consonants.
Eric George's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
78 views

Is placing the preposition before the verb natural?

Disclamer: I have a very limited knowledge about linguistics, so the things I'm talking might be completely nonsense. In German we can form new verbs by attaching prepositions (?) to it: schlagen → ...
atzlt's user avatar
  • 163
1 vote
2 answers
91 views

Do we have any conlangs which are "primitive" languages?

We have minimal languages with few words, like Toki Pona, and I have made a rough language with about 4000 words which covers most of what you would need to say as base concepts (4000 base concepts), ...
Lance's user avatar
  • 1,541
5 votes
1 answer
289 views

Is it natural that different quantities with the same physical dimension are distinguished by adverbs?

My conlang is very literal to human perception, and I continued building vocabularies for physical quantities. Though in a previous question, I brought an exotic trick to describe length (namely, give ...
Dannyu NDos's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
290 views

Is it natural that "future possibility" is a separate tense?

I had some thought on how tenses work in my conlang. Eventually, I built a model and defined the tenses accordingly. But before showing that model, let be introduce the most basic tense in my conlang: ...
Dannyu NDos's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
61 views

Is it plausible to set onsets and codas to be entirely different consonants?

Though I thought I confirmed the consonants of my conlang (ѲКМНПҀСТФЦЧШ), eventually, I found that I'm in disfavor of the syllable composition of CVC if the "C"s were meant to be arbitrary ...
Dannyu NDos's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
63 views

How do atomic languages handle breaking down and sequencing complex English noun-phrases?

Along the lines of How do languages which have adjectives after the noun work with complex phrases? (my last question), I am wondering now more about compound English words and how to break these ...
Lance's user avatar
  • 1,541
1 vote
1 answer
50 views

How do languages which have adjectives after the noun work with complex phrases?

Say I have a phrase like these: The seat of the great rock of the north. = The north('s) great rock's seat - 北方(的)巨石的基座/底盤. The man of the forest of the east. = The east('s) forest's man - 東方(的)叢林的男人....
Lance's user avatar
  • 1,541
2 votes
0 answers
23 views

Theoretical way to limit terms in a conlang while also allowing for distinguishing similar concepts/things?

I am working on a conlang (took a little break). I would like to limit the number of "terms" (single words, either 1 or 2 syllables) to less than or equal to 10,000. Given the word-formation ...
Lance's user avatar
  • 1,541
6 votes
3 answers
126 views

What features should I include in a presentation of a heavily inflected conlang that copies the format of 19th century grammars?

I'm toying with an idea for my next project: Remember those old-fashioned grammars of heavily infected languages with reams of paradigms for declensions, conjugations, and agreement rules--not to ...
James Grossmann's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
94 views

When basing a conlang on an existing language, how can I keep the essence of that language while making it unrecognisable?

I wanted the names in my fantasy world to sound like they came from a coherent language, so I found a language that on paper (via Google translate) looks how I want my language to sound. When I wanted ...
Mousentrude's user avatar
6 votes
3 answers
122 views

What are the most common sound changes in natlangs?

What sound changes are most common in natural languages, and in what order do they usually occur? Are there any factors to take into account when modelling sound changes for a conlang that is supposed ...
just Paul's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
83 views

What phonotactical constraints are commonly used by conlangers?

I'm continuing development of Der Spracherfinder (to help you fellow conlangers), and I want to know which phonotactical constraints are most common and helpful to conlangers. For example: forbid ...
Ylahris's user avatar
  • 449
5 votes
3 answers
56 views

Should I include a glossary with english translations in my fantasy novel?

I am writing a fantasy novel and I have created a few languages for it, these being Twergit (pronounced /'twer-git/ - I don't know IPA so I'm using Merriam-Webster pronunciation symbols, a guide can ...
Chance Evans's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
105 views

Is there a language whose every sentence is a command?

I am building a conlang that is heavily based on the Haskell programming language, and I was thinking about how sentences work. Let me call this conlang Jeksa for the moment. Jeksa models every ...
Dannyu NDos's user avatar
5 votes
4 answers
148 views

Are there best practices for creating a lexicon or dictionary spreadsheet?

Mine has evolved over years and I'm sure I can still learn more about how to organize it. This might be an even more helpful question for folks starting out.
Vir's user avatar
  • 1,065
1 vote
1 answer
70 views

What steps in the conlang process am I missing?

My currently known process for conlanging is 1) set goals, 2) define phonology, 3) Romanize, 4) phonotactics, 5) define word order, 6) define morphosyntactic alignment, 7) define morphology type, 8) ...
Ylahris's user avatar
  • 449
2 votes
1 answer
79 views

Treat the gerund and/or infinitive as a case

Basic questions: Do we know of any property of a gerund or infinitive which prevents it being treated totally like a type of noun? Do we know any language which expresses gerunds or infinitives as a ...
Vir's user avatar
  • 1,065
2 votes
2 answers
57 views

Do you make a word then give it meaning, or do you think of a meaning and assign a word to it?

I wonder which is more effective, creating a list of conwords then giving definitions or, creating a list of definitions then assigning conwords?
Ylahris's user avatar
  • 449
6 votes
3 answers
377 views

Roadmap for effective construction of a novel language

I have trivially dabbled in Esperanto, Klingon, and a few other languages. Now I want to build one, and not a distorted copy of an existing one. I want to make a non-junk constructed language. Is ...
EngrStudent's user avatar
6 votes
5 answers
124 views

Denoting arbitrary ligatures when transcribing my script to Latin

I'm working on a written language where ligatures are important. Pretty much any letter could be joined to any other, and doing so could change the meaning of the word. Too facilitate writing about ...
Edvin's user avatar
  • 614
4 votes
2 answers
75 views

I need help with understanding perfect, perfective, perterite, and pluperfect

After reading the definitions of perfect past, perfective past, preterite past, and pluperfect past, I am confused as to what their distinctions are. They all are past tense forms indicating a ...
Ylahris's user avatar
  • 449
6 votes
5 answers
122 views

How should I define the lexicographic order for my conlang?

Though I've had a tough time choosing the phonology and the orthography of my conlang, I think I've finally confirmed it: 12 consonants, 10 vowels, Cyrillic script. The consonants are: Пп for [p] Тт ...
Dannyu NDos's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
87 views

Could [j] and [ʎ] coexist in the same language as distinct phonemes?

As the title asks, could [j] and [ʎ] coexist in the same language as distinct phonemes? I imagine one would merge with the other or some other mechanism forms to make each more distinct. If the ...
Ylahris's user avatar
  • 449
5 votes
2 answers
108 views

How can I make complex relative clauses?

I can make simple relative clauses that share arguments just fine, but I struggle with certain clauses. Take the following English sentences: Someone killed* a person* I hated the killing*. You saw a ...
Mlvluu's user avatar
  • 51
3 votes
1 answer
82 views

What words would naturally evolve tri-consonantal roots?

I determined to create a conlang with tri-consonantal roots (I call them tri-cons for short). My question then arose, "what words would naturally have a tri-con?" Verbs and the nouns derived ...
Ylahris's user avatar
  • 449
7 votes
1 answer
99 views

How large must my consonant inventory be in order for nonconcatenative morphology to work?

In my quest to create a language for some fictional characters of mine, I came across nonconcatenative morphology like triconsonantal roots. If I wanted to employ this in my conlang, how many ...
Ylahris's user avatar
  • 449
5 votes
2 answers
124 views

What is an example of a constructed language focusing on beauty and conceptual purity?

By conceptual purity, I mean it tries to avoid arbitrariness, and seeks the most default or neutral way to achieve an aim. For example, some languages are written right to left, others left to right. ...
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