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.