Questions tagged [conlang-creation]
For questions about the process of making a conlang.
110
questions
1
vote
0
answers
18
views
For a whistling language, what other keys could be used to represent tones/tone actions
I already have used ~,<,>,’,=,-,^, and v for trills, rising tones, falling tones, glottal stops, chord tones, neutral tones, rising/falling tone, and falling/rising tone. This language is ...
- 181
5
votes
2
answers
66
views
Are there set example sentences used when developing a conlang?
When working on fonts, it's typical to use a pangram to show how it handles letters, like so:
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow
Is there an equivalent set of sentences for testing how a conlang ...
- 466
2
votes
3
answers
482
views
I want to build a language that expresses the maximum amount of information with minimal words spoken
I'm trying to come up with a conlang for a setting where spoken word casts magic etc. In this case, a group of wizards, etc. Develop arcadian, which functions to give the most information with the ...
- 21
4
votes
0
answers
31
views
How to create realistic intonation?
How would one approach creating a conlang with a system of intonation, like English? Specifically for a naturalistic a priori conlang.
Some sub-queries I have are
What resources are there, if any, on ...
- 291
5
votes
1
answer
37
views
What is the word-grammar transcription thing called?
What is the thing used under a sentence in a conlang that looks sort of like this: NOM-he.F-PAST said.F-PAST called?
I know I probably used it completely wrong in that example, but what is this called,...
- 51
5
votes
2
answers
25
views
How to decay (remove) vowel harmony system by conlang evolution?
So I have a Back vowel harmony system in my conlang, where front and back vowel cannot occur in the same word. Now that I am evolving my conlang, How can I decay the harmony system giving space to ...
7
votes
3
answers
118
views
Do I need to start with a phonology when creating a new conlang?
The few conlangs I've read about/watched being developed in videos (such as those by Biblaridion) either started with phonology, or the description begins that way.
Whether that's a representative ...
- 466
3
votes
1
answer
80
views
Is it possible to have consonant followed by Uvular sound
I am thinking of creating a language that has a sound system a little similar to Latin, with a guttural feel like German. The people who are going to speak this language are harsh and sound annoyed at ...
- 311
4
votes
1
answer
157
views
How to prevent pronoun dropping in my language?
I have an idea for a language I am toying with where sentences have a fairly rigid structure, unfortunately I get the feeling that if I were to start with a precursor protolang (as part of me ...
- 466
5
votes
1
answer
107
views
What CompSci concepts have been used in conlanging?
I am looking for things in the vein of the use of run-length encoding in representing arbitrarily large integers in a Haskell-based conlang.
An example might be tree data structure based punctuation ...
- 291
3
votes
4
answers
101
views
How to go about making a simple to speak (for English speakers) conlang?
I am new to conlanging, and would like to create a language which English speakers can easily learn. How would you suggest I go about optimizing it for English speakers? Which features should I choose ...
- 291
5
votes
1
answer
75
views
Setting a signature Phonetics
A year ago, I became fascinated by conlanging. So I set out to create one for my soon-to-be-completed world, but no matter what I came up with, the words sounded like English. It feels like I am just ...
- 311
0
votes
0
answers
98
views
How to create custom characters
I am creating s conlang and have come across roadblock. I want to use custom characters for a keyboard, but I find paper too unorganized and inconvenient. I have tried keyman before, but that did not ...
- 1
3
votes
0
answers
53
views
First-timer questions for developing language families, been trying out Vulgarlang
I'm currently working on a project of mine, an overhaul modification for the game Victoria 3 and I'm digging deeper into the phase for making unique languages to represent portions of every continent/...
- 31
4
votes
2
answers
88
views
Considering that my elves are anatomically different from humans, what sorts of phonemes, vowels and consonants could they be capable of speaking?
For years now, I've been building and rebuilding an alternate Earth dense with geography, geology and wildlife. Among them is this world's equivalent of humans, Draculodon silvius, the "elf"...
- 219
7
votes
2
answers
252
views
What is the minimum number of words needed for a conlang?
What would the minimum number of words needed for a conlang, while still being able to speak with about the same level of information passed as a natural language?
12
votes
6
answers
2k
views
How should my conlang enable arbitrarily large integers to be said?
Whilst worldbuilding, I decided to make a conlang. It's named Leksah.
Leksah is heavily influenced by the programming language Haskell. As such, Leksah has only 3 parts of speech:
Literals, which ...
- 271
2
votes
1
answer
66
views
History of world language
If we look at world history—I am speaking a little vaguely, since it is not possible to be completely accurate. The human race began from a single region, as you can see in the bottom image.
What ...
- 311
3
votes
2
answers
163
views
Has anyone made image based languages?
This is my first visit here. I have been writing machine/computer languages for about 8 years now. I am completely self taught and use my own tools. I have many languages that I have completed that ...
- 31
5
votes
2
answers
189
views
Do we know languages which think about subordinate conjunctions (like 'as,' 'even,' 'while') differently than English does?
for my conlang, I am trying to think of how to do the subordinating conjunction 'as,' 'even,' 'while' (and related: 'even though,' etc.).
In the languages that I know well enough to use these words (...
- 636
5
votes
1
answer
154
views
Syllabic restriction/word boundaries set by IPA? Or it is decided by language creator
When creating syllables we basically require an onset, nucleus, and a coda. Now, usually, all language have an onset, and the coda is fairly optional. Before creating a phonetic system, we first ...
- 311
4
votes
1
answer
62
views
Naturalness of different universal quantifiers based on the size of the domain you're quantifying over
English has a few determiners and determiner-like things that express universal quantification including all and every.
How naturalistic is it to have different sets of quantifiers based on features ...
- 1,580
3
votes
0
answers
40
views
I am a writer, and am trying to write a language for my story, how should I start as a complete beginner of language? [duplicate]
As a writer, I am trying to write a language so that I can name places more originally, how can I start writing a bare bones language for my story?
2
votes
0
answers
102
views
Does My Conlang, After Looking At My Grammar, Meet the Qualifications For a Legitimate IAL? [closed]
At the end of this question I will provide a link to the grammar in question.
I have created an Auxlang that I call Ulimi (because ulimi porridge is simple. It's a stupid pun). I have also got a ...
4
votes
7
answers
180
views
Maximizing the distinction between affirmative and negative sentences
What are some strategies for making affirmative and negative sentences as distinct as possible?
The motivation for this question is an annoying pair of words in English: can and can't. They frequently ...
- 1,580
7
votes
1
answer
146
views
Inventing A Plural Form For First And Second Person
I am working on the pronoun system for my conlang.
The table below illustrates what I have ended up with so far.
I am looking for suggestions on how - if even needed - to implement a plural form that ...
- 71
6
votes
2
answers
94
views
Lemmata in a prefixing language
I'm developing a heavily prefixing language, and I'm trying to work out a lemma/citation form for my verbs. However, nearly all forms of the verb have a prefix. For example, the verb "to go" ...
- 1,343
7
votes
3
answers
106
views
How many different interjections like 'aha,' 'oh' would you make up for a conlang?
I wonder if other people have thoughts and experience on this topic from the conlanging perspective. Have people with lots of translation experience found the distinction between (for example) 'aha' ...
- 636
4
votes
2
answers
100
views
List of segment usage based on how many people use it?
The great Phoible 2.0 has exclusive list of segment usages based on "Languages", but since some languages such as Lak are only used by handful of people, it won't make any sense if I employ ...
- 211
8
votes
2
answers
426
views
What are some examples of mathematical conlangs?
What are some examples of mathematical conlangs?
I'm curious as to if there are any full existing conlangs that allow you to do arithmetic or mathematical manipulations from a conlang perspective.
The ...
user2888
5
votes
3
answers
287
views
Is there any general rule for constructing a word? Example: "q" or "w" should not end a word, something like this
I am developing 4 conlangs (sparish, old sparish, elvian and barrish (need a new name)) for a story which is used by humans of Spar, Northern Sparian, Elves/Aspian, Barrians of south respectively. I ...
- 311
4
votes
1
answer
121
views
Is is okay that most consonant assimilations result in a phone whose dedicated letter doesn't exist?
Whilst worldbuilding, I decided to make a conlang. A lot of consonant assimilations happen in this language. This language is supposed to be spoken by angels.
My native language is Korean, btw. Korean ...
- 271
5
votes
3
answers
210
views
Strategies for dealing with limited/simple phonologies
What problems arise when creating a language with an extremely simple phonology and what are some good strategies for dealing with them?
I'm calling this type of phonology extremely simple for the ...
- 1,580
7
votes
2
answers
104
views
Where should I start planning my grammar?
I'm about creating my first conlang grammar, I know a few general characteristics yet I don't truly know where or how I should start to outline it. I only have messy pieces of informations about. From ...
- 71
4
votes
1
answer
61
views
Is it attested for noun classifiers to be coopted for directionality?
A noun classifier marks on the verb some information about the form of one of its arguments. For example, Atili has a handful of "stationary" classifiers that produce semantic distinctions:
...
- 1,343
5
votes
3
answers
142
views
Words for numbers in a language with bijective numeration
Bijective base-k numeration (or k-adic numeration) is a system of writing numerals such that the digits are 1 through k. Thus counting in bijective base-12 (such as my conlang Atili has) works as ...
- 1,343
8
votes
4
answers
293
views
How can I avoid "relexing" punctuation?
I'm trying to design a conscript for my conlang Atili and would like to create punctuation in order to deliminate sentences and transcribe limited prosody. However, I don't just want to create new ...
- 1,343
3
votes
1
answer
140
views
What to do when my conlang has a word that means something in one of my languages?
This is a bit subjective problem. As a Hungarian who knows English, I have the high ground when it comes to making up words, as I can mush the English and Hungarian words together with some outliers (...
- 181
4
votes
4
answers
164
views
How can I talk about weather without expletives?
In English, it is necessary to use a syntactic expletive ("it") when talking about weather:
It is sun-ny.
EXPL COP.3S sun-ADJ
Pro-drop languages can easily avoid the explicit expletive by ...
- 1,343
5
votes
3
answers
673
views
How can I name my days of the week?
In my conworld, months are divided into twelve-day weeks. That seems a bit too long (since I recall that people complained that the ten-day weeks of the French Republican calendar were too long), so I'...
- 1,343
4
votes
1
answer
528
views
How to make names in a conlang?
So, draconic in the setting is used to name places, people, and communication in general. I skipped through most of the phonotactics as I'm using the Hungarian template. So as I filled out entries in ...
- 181
6
votes
1
answer
121
views
What is reduplication used for in natural languages?
According to WALS Feature 27A, 278/368 languages surveyed have productive full and partial reduplication. Chapter 27 gives the following example of partial reduplication in Pangasinan:
báley "town" -&...
- 1,343
9
votes
2
answers
304
views
Should I include morphology in my proto language?
Most, if not all natural languages have some form of morphology, such as noun case or poly-personal agreement. However, these features are usually evolved from prepositions and auxiliary verbs, and ...
- 93
3
votes
2
answers
161
views
How typologically unusual is using postpositions in an otherwise head-initial language?
My conlang is predominately head-initial (SVO, n-adj, mostly suffixing), but has postpositions because I'd though that the noun was the head of an adpositional phrase. Wikipedia, however, says that ...
- 1,343
3
votes
1
answer
117
views
Is it reasonable for numerals to behave like verbs?
I am aware that adjectives can pattern like verbs in some natural languages. Is it reasonable for numerals to do the same? Thus
Some balls four.
There are four balls.
Fouring the balls were orange.
...
- 1,343
4
votes
2
answers
89
views
Is num-det-n-adj-rel a reasonable order for a noun phrase?
In English, noun phrases are det-num-adj-n-rel (e.g. "The five orange balls that John saw"). In Spanish, noun phrases are (mostly) det-num-n-adj-rel (e.g. "Las cinco pelotas naranjas las que Juan vió,"...
- 1,343
3
votes
1
answer
95
views
Official resource on simlish language
I know that Simlish language is not fully created. It is just a list of words and sentences.
Where can I find the full list (official source)?
P.S I wanna create this language as fully created ...
1
vote
1
answer
108
views
Finnish as if it were English
I am fascinated by Finnish and sound changes. I had an idea for a funny version of Finnish where it has these properties:
Orthographic [k] changes to [q].
[Q] is pronounced /ð/ (voiced TH) before e ...
- 21
9
votes
3
answers
128
views
How can I add irregularities to a morphological paradigm?
So, I'm trying to make something with a naturalistic feel, even though the current phonetic system distinguishes about 38 phonemes... Let's say I'll tackle this later.
I have issues with grammar... I ...
midoriyaizuku
4
votes
1
answer
67
views
Should languages spoken by two similar races have the same protolanguage, or can they be not related by protolanguage? [closed]
Should languages spoken by two similar races have the same protolanguage, or can they be not related by protolanguage? I guess they should be similar for example in phonetics or in some other ...