Questions tagged [natural-languages]
The natural-languages tag has no usage guidance.
23 questions
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Is there a good natural reason for a language to declare infinite cardinalities as "plural" and finite cardinalities as "paucal"?
Nowadays, mathematicians have a number of ways of dealing with infinities, prominently the notions of cardinalities and ordinal numbers. As such, I wondered whether we would incorporate such notions ...
- 823
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Non-decomposable TAM strategies
The agglutinative language I'm most familiar with is Hungarian, and the way Hungarian handles TAM is, I think, incredibly boring: separate T-A-M markers with no allomorphs that just get concatenated ...
- 899
4
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1
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How to create a Romance-based conlang?
How unoriginal! Yet another guy creating a Romance-based conlang (especially since it's already been covered several times here). Jokes aside, as the title suggests, I'm looking to create a Romance-...
user5622
4
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1
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55
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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 ...
- 899
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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 ...
- 823
5
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2
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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:
...
- 823
6
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3
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615
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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 ...
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5
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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 ...
- 823
6
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0
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What are some different ways to use applicatives?
I'm most familiar with "applicative" meaning a specific way of rearranging the arguments of a verb. For example, the -el- suffix in Lingála adds a direct object to a verb, the person who ...
- 4,801
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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 ...
- 659
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Can entire words be silent?
Most people will be familiar with the idea that naturalistic spelling can be tricky. Some examples of natlangs with annoying spelling that come to mind are English ("ough" can be pronounced /...
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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" -&...
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405
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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 ...
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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
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1
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169
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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
7
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1
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Is latino sine flexione dead?
Latino sine flexione is a variant of Latin created by Peano in 1903. As far as I know it was used in scientific literature but since forgotten.
I found this site and a few discussions on Duolingo but ...
user966
7
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Conlangs based on Proto-Indo-European (PIE)?
Have there been any attempts to create a language based on Proto-Indo-European (PIE)?
Of course PIE has had an effect on other languages, and through them ended up in many a posteriori conlangs as ...
- 171
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How to develop a detailed, realistic a posteriori conlang?
Background
To begin, I’ve been conlanging ‘properly’ for around two to two and a half years now and have been into it for far, far longer. However, I have yet to create a conlang that is truly in-...
- 195
3
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1
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A Hypothetical Mediterranean Language Inspired by Both Greek and Latin
Here is the scenario:
In or before the Classical Period, a king from some Greek city-state--it doesn't matter which--first brought all the other Greek city-states together to become one unified ...
- 219
19
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6
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5k
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Is there evidence that any natural languages were actually constructed?
Is there any evidence that a ‘natural’ language that exists today was created by somebody a thousand (or two) years ago. And that it evolved till today?
- 503
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Borrowing from conlangs into natural languages
Are there known cases of borrowing of words from a constructed language into a natural language?
Words constructed arbitrarily in a natural language don't count here. For example, the Estonian word ...
- 11.5k
11
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What are common origins of accusative case markers?
What are the primary way(s) accusative case markers can develop?
The primary way of development of oblique case markers seems relatively straightforward, with attachment of adpositions (which can ...
- 2,367
8
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2
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What is a constructed variety of a natural language called?
What would a conlang created to be an alternate version of an already existing natural language be classified as?
For example, a version of English that could have been spoken in an alternate ...
- 337