Hello! ¡Hola! Aya! Ciao! Aloha! Mba'éichapa! Ni hao!
One of these things is not like the other... One of these greetings is from a constructed language. Can you guess which one? Give it a shot, I'll wait...
You probably guessed the sixth one, 'mba'éichapa', right? It's the weirdest looking one, but nope! Mba'éichapa is a typical greeting in Paraguayan Guaraní. The correct answer is the innocent looking 'aya!' (P.S. More about Pyan Gní in another post!)
People are into different things. Some people enjoy jazz, rock, punk or classical music. Others enjoy backpacking, skydiving or parcour. Some enjoy fine wine and microbrews, others prefer miller and beer-pong. I enjoy languages.
In this blog I am going to talk about languages that exist only in the imagination of their creators, and any others who may have taken an interest in learning them. Esperanto is probably the most successful constructed language of all time, but there is a myriad of others out there. Klingon, Sindarin (aka Elvish) and Nav'i spring to mind.
What separates these languages from the one you've been working on? Not much, if anything, I postulate. 'How can this be?' you may ask. Please, read on.
If you are reading this blog, you already speak English, or perhaps you are learning English. It is probably the hardest language to really master. English is harder than German, Arabic, or Chinese. So you if you speak English, you already have a big advantage, and a big disadvantage. I will elucidate in future posts.
While this blog is aimed at helping you create your own language, the things you will learn could also help you learn real-world foreign languages. For example, I would have had a much harder time learning Mandarin Chinese if I hadn't already experimented with new and interesting forms of grammar and semantics in my own created language. Basically, this blog is designed for language nuts, like me.
Okay, great. Let's get on with it! Fine. Just skip this part and scroll down.
First, a little about myself. My name is Dom, I'm 27, and I'm basically still a kid at heart. A Michigan native, I naturally speak English. (Quite well, I dare say.) I am fluent in Spanish, although my accent and slang is so mixed up that no one can place me. (The typical equation is something like this: Costa Rican slang + Dominican accent + Paraguayan grammar + white guy = ?!... must be Argentine. There is apparently no other explanation for the chimera that is me. But I digress.) I also speak some French, Italian and I can understand written Portuguese. I learned Guaraní during my time in the Peace Corps, and I have most recently taken on Mandarin Chinese, just for the fun of it. I have a degree in anthropology, I have traveled all over Latin America and a little bit of Europe, and I plan on seeing pretty much the entire planet and maybe others before I die young at the age of 113. Solving puzzles and learning new, tricky things makes me smile, and my absolute favorite among these is learning new languages.
While not understanding Spanish as a senior in a Dominican high school, I started to make lists of funny words I thought I might heard my teachers shout. My initial findings were inconclusive. If I repeated the recorded words to others, I received the same blank looks as I always received, instead of the lightbulb face of understanding.
So I failed Literature, Civics and Dominican History. I just barely squeeked by in Chemistry and Math, since the Spanish terms are not terrible different from the English words. I was top of the class in English Language, but the teacher gave me a 99/100 for being a smartass and correcting his grammar mistakes. I did alright in 2nd year French, even though I had never taken 1st year French and I'm pretty sure the teacher hadn't either. Long story short, I had a lot of free time to daydream in class.
My "Dominican vocab" lists started mixing with my lists of trying-not-to-forget-my-Italian vocab lists. Eventually these lists became somewhat boring, and I started creating more interesting words for 1-10 and Monday-Sunday. Huh. It was actually a little more fun than I thought, and certainly more interesting than my civics teacher yelling at misbehaving classmates. Then I tried colors.
Colors! This was the seed. Numbers and days of the week are easy to render with greco-roman-esque logic, but colors are much more subjective! Granted, most of my original color-words were very similar to their Romance counterparts, but for me, it was a spark in the tinderbox. My red was 'roj', my purple was 'viol' and my black was 'niç'. But my yellow was 'heij', dark red was 'iña', and white was "caj". It was actually quite fun!
My classmate may have thought I was a little loco, but my hitherto mostly blank notebooks began to fill up with wildly cacophonous mumbo-jumbo. Instead of getting headaches in class, I created words. I left tests mostly blank while I created verb tenses.
This is how my constructed language began.
*As a disclaimer, I do not condone slacking off in high school. In my particular case I was already accepted to my top choice university, but please do NOT forgo your academics in order to pursue a hobby. You will have time when you have time, so do what needs to be done now, NOW. Otherwise you might suck at everything else, and it's hard to create a language when you're working 2 day jobs and a night shift just to pay the bills.
Anyway, enough of this! Continue on to Part 1.
30.11.12
29.11.12
Part 1. The What, When, Why?
What: Natural, or "real world" languages are communication systems that developed gradually over a long period of time, by a whole culture or society. A constructed language, on the other hand, refers to a system of communication devised purposefully by one or more people in a relatively short amount of time. They are known collectively as "conlangs" or sometimes "artlangs".
When: Creating a language takes time, and the more time you dedicate to your project, the more sophisticated and believable it will turn out. I have been working on my own language for almost 10 years now, and I am still not done. I will likely never be really "done", since language are dynamic by nature, and can change and develop indefinitely.
Why: Why not? There are lots of reasons to construct a language. They are used in literature and fiction, movies, plays, games and theoretical linguistics. J.R.R. Tolkien started with his made-up languages, then wrote his books. Other successful authors such as Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson created wonderfully believable worlds, and best-selling books, by adding unique linguistic flavors to their plots. I myself have been cited as the author of a constructed language used in a published thesis on evolutionary linguistics.
To sum up:
- It is a great creative outlet.
- It can be very calming, even meditative.
- It has the potential to be a fascinating life-long hobby
- If you are a writer, it can add richness and depth to you work.
- You probably won't grow senile until you're 113.
- It's fun!
If you're still with me, let's cut to the chase and move right into HOW in Part 2.
When: Creating a language takes time, and the more time you dedicate to your project, the more sophisticated and believable it will turn out. I have been working on my own language for almost 10 years now, and I am still not done. I will likely never be really "done", since language are dynamic by nature, and can change and develop indefinitely.
Why: Why not? There are lots of reasons to construct a language. They are used in literature and fiction, movies, plays, games and theoretical linguistics. J.R.R. Tolkien started with his made-up languages, then wrote his books. Other successful authors such as Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson created wonderfully believable worlds, and best-selling books, by adding unique linguistic flavors to their plots. I myself have been cited as the author of a constructed language used in a published thesis on evolutionary linguistics.
To sum up:
- It is a great creative outlet.
- It can be very calming, even meditative.
- It has the potential to be a fascinating life-long hobby
- If you are a writer, it can add richness and depth to you work.
- You probably won't grow senile until you're 113.
- It's fun!
If you're still with me, let's cut to the chase and move right into HOW in Part 2.
Part 1.5: Before getting started
A few quick notes before getting started:
- There are as many ways to create a language as there are language creators, so if some of my suggestions don't jive with you, just ignore them. The steps I present here are just stepping stones and tips to help you along.
- Don't be afraid to experiment. You can't really be wrong or "mess things up", and you can always go back and change things later. You may even end up doing a few complete overhauls, and that's not only okay, it's natural! Real world languages shift and change naturally over time, so your language will likely do the same.
- You will need a pen and paper. I suggest a whole notebook. Get those now.
- Have fun! :)
- There are as many ways to create a language as there are language creators, so if some of my suggestions don't jive with you, just ignore them. The steps I present here are just stepping stones and tips to help you along.
- Don't be afraid to experiment. You can't really be wrong or "mess things up", and you can always go back and change things later. You may even end up doing a few complete overhauls, and that's not only okay, it's natural! Real world languages shift and change naturally over time, so your language will likely do the same.
- You will need a pen and paper. I suggest a whole notebook. Get those now.
- Have fun! :)
28.11.12
Part 2: Not on the bus
The first step to creating a language is to work out how it sounds. What appeals to you? Do you like the round, flowing sound of French, or the solid syllables of German? Maybe you prefer the no-nonsense accent of Russian to the exotic thrills and trills of Spanish. Go on Youtube and listen to samples of various languages. One fun game is to look up foreign-dubbed Disney songs. "A Whole New World" sounds lovely in Spanish... not so much in Dutch. And Scar from the Lion King sounds way scarier in Turkish! Here are a few links for you to try:
A Whole New World (Aladin) - Spanish
Be Prepared (Lion King) - Turkish
Kiss the Girl (Little Mermaid) - French
Honor To Us All (Mulan) - Mandarin
Once Upon a Dream (Sleeping Beauty) - Arabic
Just Can't Wait to be King (Lion King) - Hindi
You don't even have to pick a real world language to emulate if you don't want to, just start making nonsense sounds. A quick tip here: it's best to do this when you're alone and won't be disturbed. Don't start sound-experimenting at a party or while waiting in the lobby before your job interview. You probably won't get the job, and you may get escorted out of the building. I also wouldn't recommend doing this in a cafe or on the bus, unless you want to look like a crazy person. But who knows? Perhaps that creepy guy with the lazy eye who babbles on the bus is actually busy language-ing.
So now that that's out of the way, let's get started! Make some vowel sounds. Aaaah, Weeee, Uo-uo-uo, Uh-wa-wa... Imagine a baby who hasn't learned to talk yet. Babbling is how babies practice and learn, so try it yourself! At first you will probably feel a little weird, but once you loosen up (think of the Tin Man and his oil can) your creative juices will start to flow.
Now add in a few consonants. Babies generally learn the labial consonants first, like B and M. (Why do you think the word for "Mother" in almost every language in the world has an M in it?) Maybe try a little L, D or G. Baba du? Wom baba long gong mim! Don't get too crazy with consonants yet, because right now we're focusing on vowels.
Experiment with your sound. Invent new vowels, hold your mouth and tongue in new positions. Combine vowels to make dipthongs or even tripthongs! (I'm not talking about underwear here, a dipthong is a combination of two vowel sounds in the same consonant. Say the words "sky" or "quest" very slowly, and you'll see what I mean.) The more new things you try, the more possibilities you will uncover.
STOP reading now, and do this babbly-sound thing for about 5 minutes. Like I said, you will probably feel a bit silly at first, but do it anyway. DO IT!
Here is where you start making some decisions that will affect how your language will sound. Make a list with three columns. In the first column, write down your vowel sounds. Make sure you note the SOUND*, not just the letter. Write down an example word if you need to. If you just write A, that could mean almost anything. Is it like the "pure" fAther sound of Spanish or Italian, or the long AAh of Hindi? Maybe it's the cAt sound of Midwestern American English? If there isn't a one-to-one correspondence between letter and sound, decide on a way to distinguish them. Maybe use two or more letters (such as aa, eu, waw) or diacritical marks (like ö, ê or ã), or any combination thereof. As long as you can remember what means what, you're good to go.
Once you have your first-draft list of vowels, start listing your consonants in the second column.
*A useful tool for this is the International Phonic Alphabet, hereafter IPA. Personally, I don't use the IPA very much, but for some it could make things a lot easier and clearer. I won't get into the IPA here, but if you're interested, I encourage you to look it up on Wikipedia.
STOP again here, and make your list. Trust me, it will make things a lot easier later on.
Part 2.2
Sounds fall into a several phonetic categories that would be useful to know. The names are technical, but not particularly difficult.
First there is voiced and unvoiced. This is pretty straight forward, but it's worth mentioning. Many voiced consonants have an unvoiced counterpart, such as B/P, G/K, and Z/S. Your language may even have more than just the two voicing options! Some languages don't make a strong distinction between voiced and unvoiced consonants at all.
Labial consonants are those that you form with your lips. These are B and P in English. Will your language have both sounds? Is there a difference? Dental consonants are formed with the teeth, such as TH in THank or THan. So what do you think a labiodental consonant would be? Perhaps V, or F. There are many other ways to describe consonants, such as fricative, nasal, plosive, etc., and while it is helpful to learn these categories, it is not necessary.
So now you have your list of consonants. Before we go on, take a good hard look at your list. If it is a very long list, you may want to consider striking a few letters out. Not all languages utilize all sounds. Japanese doesn't have an L/R, Spanish doesn't have a SH, and Mandarin doesn't have a V. Choosing to EXCLUDE certain sounds is a useful and interesting way to give your language a sound-shape. If you decide to kill a consonant, put an X through it, but don't completely obliterate its existence. The more information you can keep in front of you, the easier it will be to keep it all together in later steps.
You can also include (or exclude) certain consonant clusters here, if your language allows them. English allows ST to STart a word, but Spanish does not. (That's why you hear Latinos saying "ehstreet" and "ehstudy".) English does not allow the consonant cluster "tps", but maybe your language does. This will further foster your fledgling language-feeling.
Syllables are the building blocks of words, so the next logical step is to decide how your syllables work. A syllable needs a nucleus, usually a vowel (V). You can try making consonant-only syllables, but I find them difficult to work with. Around that vowel will be optional initial and final elements, typically consonants (C). "Bob" is a good example of a simple CVC syllable.
Languages vary greatly in their syllable structure, and this really affects the overall sound of the language. English is very flexible with syllable makeup. A syllable can begin with a consonant or cluster, contain more than one vowel, then end with another consonant or cluster, or any combination thereof. Jook at the one-word "Scribes"; this is a CCCVVCC syllable!
Japanese on the other hand, is very restrictive with syllable structure, allowing only V or CV syllables. (One may argue that there are a few CVV syllables, but that's splitting hairs.) Compare how English and Japanese sound. Syllable structure affects a lot of things later down the road, such as timing, stress, mora, and even grammar!
STOP now and experiment with your syllable structure.
This is where the fun starts. In your third column, start making a list of POSSIBLE words. You don't need to know what they mean yet, but if you are absolutely set on making "Gzur" the word for the ticklish part of your inner elbow, then by all means write it down!
There are many ways to do this. One of my favorites is to just write down as many short non-sense words as quickly as I can. When you reach your space or time limit, go back over your list, and correct or modify what you've come up with. Maybe you accidentally used the sound AY but your language doesn't have dipthongs (combined-vowel sounds), or SKROOT but you decided against triple-consonant clusters. You will have to go back and modify those words.
Part 2.3
Now put down your pen and go get a snack. Let the list lie fallow for a little while. Let the sounds bounce around your head while you spread your peanut butter, or walk the dog, do your homework, or whatever other real-life responsibilities you need to fulfill. Perhaps your sound-ideas will change a little. That's okay, you can always change your own rules. (Just make sure to go back and re-check what you already have to make sure they all still fit.) Write down any other cool word-sounds you may come up with throughout the day. Keep doing this until you have a pretty solid idea of your language-sound, and a nice long list of 20-ish example words.
Patience is definitely a virtue in language crafting. Don't rush through these steps. The more time you spend on each step, changing and tweeking things, the more natural your language will seem later on. So when you're good and ready, move on to Part 3.
A Whole New World (Aladin) - Spanish
Be Prepared (Lion King) - Turkish
Kiss the Girl (Little Mermaid) - French
Honor To Us All (Mulan) - Mandarin
Once Upon a Dream (Sleeping Beauty) - Arabic
Just Can't Wait to be King (Lion King) - Hindi
You don't even have to pick a real world language to emulate if you don't want to, just start making nonsense sounds. A quick tip here: it's best to do this when you're alone and won't be disturbed. Don't start sound-experimenting at a party or while waiting in the lobby before your job interview. You probably won't get the job, and you may get escorted out of the building. I also wouldn't recommend doing this in a cafe or on the bus, unless you want to look like a crazy person. But who knows? Perhaps that creepy guy with the lazy eye who babbles on the bus is actually busy language-ing.
So now that that's out of the way, let's get started! Make some vowel sounds. Aaaah, Weeee, Uo-uo-uo, Uh-wa-wa... Imagine a baby who hasn't learned to talk yet. Babbling is how babies practice and learn, so try it yourself! At first you will probably feel a little weird, but once you loosen up (think of the Tin Man and his oil can) your creative juices will start to flow.
Now add in a few consonants. Babies generally learn the labial consonants first, like B and M. (Why do you think the word for "Mother" in almost every language in the world has an M in it?) Maybe try a little L, D or G. Baba du? Wom baba long gong mim! Don't get too crazy with consonants yet, because right now we're focusing on vowels.
Experiment with your sound. Invent new vowels, hold your mouth and tongue in new positions. Combine vowels to make dipthongs or even tripthongs! (I'm not talking about underwear here, a dipthong is a combination of two vowel sounds in the same consonant. Say the words "sky" or "quest" very slowly, and you'll see what I mean.) The more new things you try, the more possibilities you will uncover.
STOP reading now, and do this babbly-sound thing for about 5 minutes. Like I said, you will probably feel a bit silly at first, but do it anyway. DO IT!
Here is where you start making some decisions that will affect how your language will sound. Make a list with three columns. In the first column, write down your vowel sounds. Make sure you note the SOUND*, not just the letter. Write down an example word if you need to. If you just write A, that could mean almost anything. Is it like the "pure" fAther sound of Spanish or Italian, or the long AAh of Hindi? Maybe it's the cAt sound of Midwestern American English? If there isn't a one-to-one correspondence between letter and sound, decide on a way to distinguish them. Maybe use two or more letters (such as aa, eu, waw) or diacritical marks (like ö, ê or ã), or any combination thereof. As long as you can remember what means what, you're good to go.
Once you have your first-draft list of vowels, start listing your consonants in the second column.
*A useful tool for this is the International Phonic Alphabet, hereafter IPA. Personally, I don't use the IPA very much, but for some it could make things a lot easier and clearer. I won't get into the IPA here, but if you're interested, I encourage you to look it up on Wikipedia.
STOP again here, and make your list. Trust me, it will make things a lot easier later on.
Part 2.2
Sounds fall into a several phonetic categories that would be useful to know. The names are technical, but not particularly difficult.
First there is voiced and unvoiced. This is pretty straight forward, but it's worth mentioning. Many voiced consonants have an unvoiced counterpart, such as B/P, G/K, and Z/S. Your language may even have more than just the two voicing options! Some languages don't make a strong distinction between voiced and unvoiced consonants at all.
Labial consonants are those that you form with your lips. These are B and P in English. Will your language have both sounds? Is there a difference? Dental consonants are formed with the teeth, such as TH in THank or THan. So what do you think a labiodental consonant would be? Perhaps V, or F. There are many other ways to describe consonants, such as fricative, nasal, plosive, etc., and while it is helpful to learn these categories, it is not necessary.
So now you have your list of consonants. Before we go on, take a good hard look at your list. If it is a very long list, you may want to consider striking a few letters out. Not all languages utilize all sounds. Japanese doesn't have an L/R, Spanish doesn't have a SH, and Mandarin doesn't have a V. Choosing to EXCLUDE certain sounds is a useful and interesting way to give your language a sound-shape. If you decide to kill a consonant, put an X through it, but don't completely obliterate its existence. The more information you can keep in front of you, the easier it will be to keep it all together in later steps.
You can also include (or exclude) certain consonant clusters here, if your language allows them. English allows ST to STart a word, but Spanish does not. (That's why you hear Latinos saying "ehstreet" and "ehstudy".) English does not allow the consonant cluster "tps", but maybe your language does. This will further foster your fledgling language-feeling.
Syllables are the building blocks of words, so the next logical step is to decide how your syllables work. A syllable needs a nucleus, usually a vowel (V). You can try making consonant-only syllables, but I find them difficult to work with. Around that vowel will be optional initial and final elements, typically consonants (C). "Bob" is a good example of a simple CVC syllable.
Languages vary greatly in their syllable structure, and this really affects the overall sound of the language. English is very flexible with syllable makeup. A syllable can begin with a consonant or cluster, contain more than one vowel, then end with another consonant or cluster, or any combination thereof. Jook at the one-word "Scribes"; this is a CCCVVCC syllable!
Japanese on the other hand, is very restrictive with syllable structure, allowing only V or CV syllables. (One may argue that there are a few CVV syllables, but that's splitting hairs.) Compare how English and Japanese sound. Syllable structure affects a lot of things later down the road, such as timing, stress, mora, and even grammar!
STOP now and experiment with your syllable structure.
This is where the fun starts. In your third column, start making a list of POSSIBLE words. You don't need to know what they mean yet, but if you are absolutely set on making "Gzur" the word for the ticklish part of your inner elbow, then by all means write it down!
There are many ways to do this. One of my favorites is to just write down as many short non-sense words as quickly as I can. When you reach your space or time limit, go back over your list, and correct or modify what you've come up with. Maybe you accidentally used the sound AY but your language doesn't have dipthongs (combined-vowel sounds), or SKROOT but you decided against triple-consonant clusters. You will have to go back and modify those words.
Part 2.3
Now put down your pen and go get a snack. Let the list lie fallow for a little while. Let the sounds bounce around your head while you spread your peanut butter, or walk the dog, do your homework, or whatever other real-life responsibilities you need to fulfill. Perhaps your sound-ideas will change a little. That's okay, you can always change your own rules. (Just make sure to go back and re-check what you already have to make sure they all still fit.) Write down any other cool word-sounds you may come up with throughout the day. Keep doing this until you have a pretty solid idea of your language-sound, and a nice long list of 20-ish example words.
Patience is definitely a virtue in language crafting. Don't rush through these steps. The more time you spend on each step, changing and tweeking things, the more natural your language will seem later on. So when you're good and ready, move on to Part 3.
27.11.12
Part 3: Words words words
Now that you have a sound system and some example words, it's time to start building a vocabulary. This is the core of language-making. Grammar, syntax and culture are all important elements of a mature conlang, but when you get down to it, what is a language if not a list of words? My own language started out 10 years ago with a few simple word lists in my chemistry notebook. (I still have this notebook, which is suspiciously devoid of chemistry notes... No wonder I did so poorly in chemistry!)
In my humble opinion, it is best to start with a list of solid objects. You can pick any category you like: animals, body parts, foods, etc. For the sake of example, let's start with "Things I wouldn't want in my pants":
1. Squirrel
2. Ice
3. Slug
4. Broken glass
5. Flames
Typically I would make a much longer list, but since this is just an example (or perhaps there nothing else I wouldn't want in my pants), I'll leave it at five items.
Now you need to assign words to these things. You can do this in any way you like, for the ways are many. Try writing down several conlang words next to each English word, until you find one that feels right. What would make a good squirrel word? When I think of squirrels, I think of the fat, overly aggressive rodents that plagued the campus of my university. They would pop out of bushes and garbage cans and chatter angrily at anyone in sight. That, and the that I like to use a lot of onomatopoeia, gives me a wonderfully cacophonous word: Chekchekt. Hm. Interesting.
I would go through a similar process for the rest of my words. Hulo sounds icy to me, while hiksi sounds slimy and sluggish. Ksherengt sounds like a pocketful of shards, and gwahai is likely the sound I would make if my backside were burning.
Remember to always make sure that your words are fitting in to your sound rules. If you find a discrepancy, either change the word, or change the rule. In these fetal stages, your rules will be changing left and right, up and down. Changing a rule can affect your already-established words in interesting ways. For example, if I decided that all my nouns have to end in -t, I would have to apply this rule to 'ice', 'slug' and 'flame' to get hulot, hiksit and gwahait. Maybe I don't like the suspicious look of the letter G, so I decide to eliminate them and replace them all with K. Broken glass becomes ksherekt (that N just doesn't work without his G-friend, so out he goes!) while fire becomes kwahait. While I'm at it, I'll get rid of R too, since it only exists in one word anyway. I'll replace it with L to get kshelekt.
Play with your rules and change your words around. Sometimes you may have to trash a word altogether and come up with a new one, and that's okay. But always stick to your rules. You will notice your language changing shape and feeling with every step. For me this is one of the most fun parts of the process! As you notice these patterns, write them down.
I will continue with my example to illustrate the process. My word list may look something like this:
1. Squirrel - chechekt
2. Ice - hulot
3. Slug - hiksit
4. Broken glass - kshelekt
5. Flame -kwahait ksahait
(I'll add a few more just to have something to work with.)
6. Quicksand - tsaksait
7. Boiling water - huktot
8. Duck - Solakt
9. Crumbs - kshikit
10. Knife - tsokait
My set of rules may look like this:
vowels: a, ai, e, i, o, u;
consonants: h, l, t, k, s, ch, sh,
clusters: ts, ksh, ks, kt,
1. All tangible nouns end in -t
2. Words can not begin with a vowel.
3. Only one vowel per syllable. (Assuming ai is one sound.)
*OOPS! I noticed that "flame" has a w in it. I don't want to add that to the sound list, so I'll get rid of it.
4. The vowel ai can only be in the last syllable
5. blah blah blah... and so on.
This process of word creation, setting boundaries, changing rules, rechecking and adjusting will continue throughout the rest of your project. My own language, Palşa, is almost 10 years old and contains over 3,000 words, yet I am still finding and correcting discrepancies, tweeking and updating old rules, and creating new rules to apply to the entire lexicon.
So far we have been working with pen and paper, but as your vocabulary grows you may want to consider switching to a digital medium. It makes the process of finding and changing things much faster. I use an Excel spreadsheet to organize my language. This allows you to search, use find/change and sort your words in a flash.
So sit down and start inventing words! When you are ready, go on to Part 4.
In my humble opinion, it is best to start with a list of solid objects. You can pick any category you like: animals, body parts, foods, etc. For the sake of example, let's start with "Things I wouldn't want in my pants":
1. Squirrel
2. Ice
3. Slug
4. Broken glass
5. Flames
Typically I would make a much longer list, but since this is just an example (or perhaps there nothing else I wouldn't want in my pants), I'll leave it at five items.
Now you need to assign words to these things. You can do this in any way you like, for the ways are many. Try writing down several conlang words next to each English word, until you find one that feels right. What would make a good squirrel word? When I think of squirrels, I think of the fat, overly aggressive rodents that plagued the campus of my university. They would pop out of bushes and garbage cans and chatter angrily at anyone in sight. That, and the that I like to use a lot of onomatopoeia, gives me a wonderfully cacophonous word: Chekchekt. Hm. Interesting.
I would go through a similar process for the rest of my words. Hulo sounds icy to me, while hiksi sounds slimy and sluggish. Ksherengt sounds like a pocketful of shards, and gwahai is likely the sound I would make if my backside were burning.
Remember to always make sure that your words are fitting in to your sound rules. If you find a discrepancy, either change the word, or change the rule. In these fetal stages, your rules will be changing left and right, up and down. Changing a rule can affect your already-established words in interesting ways. For example, if I decided that all my nouns have to end in -t, I would have to apply this rule to 'ice', 'slug' and 'flame' to get hulot, hiksit and gwahait. Maybe I don't like the suspicious look of the letter G, so I decide to eliminate them and replace them all with K. Broken glass becomes ksherekt (that N just doesn't work without his G-friend, so out he goes!) while fire becomes kwahait. While I'm at it, I'll get rid of R too, since it only exists in one word anyway. I'll replace it with L to get kshelekt.
Play with your rules and change your words around. Sometimes you may have to trash a word altogether and come up with a new one, and that's okay. But always stick to your rules. You will notice your language changing shape and feeling with every step. For me this is one of the most fun parts of the process! As you notice these patterns, write them down.
I will continue with my example to illustrate the process. My word list may look something like this:
1. Squirrel - chechekt
2. Ice - hulot
3. Slug - hiksit
4. Broken glass - kshelekt
5. Flame -
(I'll add a few more just to have something to work with.)
6. Quicksand - tsaksait
7. Boiling water - huktot
8. Duck - Solakt
9. Crumbs - kshikit
10. Knife - tsokait
My set of rules may look like this:
vowels: a, ai, e, i, o, u;
consonants: h, l, t, k, s, ch, sh,
clusters: ts, ksh, ks, kt,
1. All tangible nouns end in -t
2. Words can not begin with a vowel.
3. Only one vowel per syllable. (Assuming ai is one sound.)
*OOPS! I noticed that "flame" has a w in it. I don't want to add that to the sound list, so I'll get rid of it.
4. The vowel ai can only be in the last syllable
5. blah blah blah... and so on.
This process of word creation, setting boundaries, changing rules, rechecking and adjusting will continue throughout the rest of your project. My own language, Palşa, is almost 10 years old and contains over 3,000 words, yet I am still finding and correcting discrepancies, tweeking and updating old rules, and creating new rules to apply to the entire lexicon.
So far we have been working with pen and paper, but as your vocabulary grows you may want to consider switching to a digital medium. It makes the process of finding and changing things much faster. I use an Excel spreadsheet to organize my language. This allows you to search, use find/change and sort your words in a flash.
So sit down and start inventing words! When you are ready, go on to Part 4.
26.11.12
Part 4: Growing roots
In Part 3, we came up with an initial core of vocabulary words for solid objects, then let it be for a few days. Now go back to your lists and read what you came up with. Make any changes you like, or revise your rules. Add any of those new words that have been bouncing around your head. Double and triple-check that ALL your words follow ALL your rules. This consistency will make your language seem more natural and give it a distinct sound-flavor.
Now we will start to establish some patterns.
You don't have lots of words yet, so there may not be many patterns, but never you fear! In this post I will guide you through how to create meaningful patterns and themes in your language that will make your word-smithing explode with life!
A popular element in many conlangs is to assign a meaning or feeling to a certain sound. In my Palşa, for example, the voiceless dental fricative (TH in think) is associated with all things negative. I assigned the sound the character ø, because it's easier to type than the Greek letter theta. So øi means "no"; paøa means "bad"; sianøe means "unwanted change", and so on. This gives me words that are easy to identify as negative, and a pattern to follow when creating new words.
To take this a step further, you may assign a meaning or feeling to a whole syllable. Examine the English words cosign, coordinate, collaborate and correspond. What do all these have in common? That's right! They all begin with co-, which means "together". This is called a "root". Roots are bits of sound that carry a meaning, that are used to create other words, even if they aren't whole words themselves. In linguistic terminology, these tiny, idea-bearing sound bits are called "morphemes".
Roots can be made up of one or several syllables, and even combined with other roots to form complex words. Take anthropo (human), for example, from which we get anthropology, anthropomorphism, misanthropic and philanthropy. These few examples contain many other roots, such as morpho, mis, ology and philo.
Since you don't often find a ton of potential root words in simple nouns like "tree" or "cat", we're going to take a few minutes now to make a list of words. This time, include some adjectives, like colors, feelings and .
Take a few moments and go back to your list, again looking for these patterns. Those could be the seeds of morphemes, giving you a pattern for future words! Try creating a new root, and then make up some words that contain that root. This can lead you down the path to MORE roots, which will create MORE new words, giving you EVEN MORE new roots, and so on. I find that my new languages really take off at this stage, and I can sit for hours making up words! (Just be careful not to jeopardize the wellbeing of your pets or social relationships. It's a slippery slope.)
If you are looking for inspiration, find a dictionary or website that lists word roots and origins (known as "etymology"), and examine how the words in question are put together. You don't need to copy their particular structure (though it is temping), but perhaps this will give you a deeper understanding of linguistics and the nature of language in general.
STOP right now and make a list of possible word roots. Use simple words and very general ideas, such as "no/not", "together", "above", "more than", "below", "less than", "large", "small" etc.
Coming Up Next...
So far we've been focusing primarily on word-production. This is something that you will be doing for the rest of your project. The tools I have described above are only a few of the many many different ways to construct words. Creating new words is always the most fun part for me! In the next section we will work just a little bit more on word-level stuff before moving into grammar.
Grammar? *GROAN!* Wait, not so fast! Grammar can actually be really fun and interesting, and once you lay down a few ground rules, you will be able to start USING your new language to write sentences! Having a basic grasp of general grammar concepts in English or another language will certainly make constructing a NEW grammar a lot easier, but it is not entirely necessary. Besides, just by embarking on this linguistic journey you are sure to deepen your understanding of grammar, syntax and semantics. So keep wordsmithing while I put the next section together! :)
Now we will start to establish some patterns.
You don't have lots of words yet, so there may not be many patterns, but never you fear! In this post I will guide you through how to create meaningful patterns and themes in your language that will make your word-smithing explode with life!
A popular element in many conlangs is to assign a meaning or feeling to a certain sound. In my Palşa, for example, the voiceless dental fricative (TH in think) is associated with all things negative. I assigned the sound the character ø, because it's easier to type than the Greek letter theta. So øi means "no"; paøa means "bad"; sianøe means "unwanted change", and so on. This gives me words that are easy to identify as negative, and a pattern to follow when creating new words.
To take this a step further, you may assign a meaning or feeling to a whole syllable. Examine the English words cosign, coordinate, collaborate and correspond. What do all these have in common? That's right! They all begin with co-, which means "together". This is called a "root". Roots are bits of sound that carry a meaning, that are used to create other words, even if they aren't whole words themselves. In linguistic terminology, these tiny, idea-bearing sound bits are called "morphemes".
Roots can be made up of one or several syllables, and even combined with other roots to form complex words. Take anthropo (human), for example, from which we get anthropology, anthropomorphism, misanthropic and philanthropy. These few examples contain many other roots, such as morpho, mis, ology and philo.
Since you don't often find a ton of potential root words in simple nouns like "tree" or "cat", we're going to take a few minutes now to make a list of words. This time, include some adjectives, like colors, feelings and .
Take a few moments and go back to your list, again looking for these patterns. Those could be the seeds of morphemes, giving you a pattern for future words! Try creating a new root, and then make up some words that contain that root. This can lead you down the path to MORE roots, which will create MORE new words, giving you EVEN MORE new roots, and so on. I find that my new languages really take off at this stage, and I can sit for hours making up words! (Just be careful not to jeopardize the wellbeing of your pets or social relationships. It's a slippery slope.)
If you are looking for inspiration, find a dictionary or website that lists word roots and origins (known as "etymology"), and examine how the words in question are put together. You don't need to copy their particular structure (though it is temping), but perhaps this will give you a deeper understanding of linguistics and the nature of language in general.
STOP right now and make a list of possible word roots. Use simple words and very general ideas, such as "no/not", "together", "above", "more than", "below", "less than", "large", "small" etc.
Coming Up Next...
So far we've been focusing primarily on word-production. This is something that you will be doing for the rest of your project. The tools I have described above are only a few of the many many different ways to construct words. Creating new words is always the most fun part for me! In the next section we will work just a little bit more on word-level stuff before moving into grammar.
Grammar? *GROAN!* Wait, not so fast! Grammar can actually be really fun and interesting, and once you lay down a few ground rules, you will be able to start USING your new language to write sentences! Having a basic grasp of general grammar concepts in English or another language will certainly make constructing a NEW grammar a lot easier, but it is not entirely necessary. Besides, just by embarking on this linguistic journey you are sure to deepen your understanding of grammar, syntax and semantics. So keep wordsmithing while I put the next section together! :)
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