Newest Questions
647 questions
6
votes
3
answers
280
views
Tips for making a conlang that uses an abjad?
I've been looking at Classical Hebrew a lot for inspiration on some features it has. Turns out, it wasn't what I expected (such as that its not actually a VSO language, it just looks like that due to ...
user6046
4
votes
3
answers
335
views
How did people learn how to make conlangs?
All I can find are guides on how to make auxlangs and artlangs. I don't want to make either, I want a personal language. I don't care if my language could pass for a real one. I don't care about ...
user6046
7
votes
3
answers
241
views
Can a language exist without transitive verbs?
I'm developing my first conlang (no name yet) for a story and came up with an interesting idea: all verbs are intransitive, and objects are added with prepositions.
So, a sentence like "I eat ...
- 93
4
votes
1
answer
229
views
How to prevent your conlang from explosively growing
I have made many conlangs in my life but they all wind up facing the same issues, and I am not sure how to prevent it.
I wind up with countless different forms of each word as modifiers stack up onto ...
- 181
4
votes
1
answer
87
views
Question on if I am doing Split-Ergativity right
I am making a split ergative language, and I am struggling a lot on it.
So, I am doing a Dyirbal-type pronominal split, where 1st and 2nd person are nominative-accusative and everything else is ...
- 181
0
votes
4
answers
482
views
How to learn to make a conlang?
No, I'm not asking for resources. I've consulted every resource I can find, but even after more than a decade of research, I still have no conlang to show for it. I started with the Language ...
user6046
4
votes
1
answer
131
views
What are L, S, and F phonemes?
On the Procgenesis language generator, you find these five Phoneme types: C,V,L,S,& F. I believe that C and V are Consonants and Vowels respectively, but nothing I look at can explain the rest. ...
- 143
3
votes
1
answer
91
views
Vowel Breaking Sound Change
I find breaking to be an interesting sound change which I haven't used much before, and I'm trying to figure out when it would most commonly occur. My understanding is that it would be prone to happen ...
- 91
1
vote
1
answer
70
views
Pros/cons for grasping/groking/using novel concepts, new made up words (sound sequences) or multi-word terms composed from simple words?
I am back to thinking about how one could best represent the plethora of concepts from the human perspective. Whether we should invent new words (which are basically arbitrary sound sequences, using ...
- 1,870
6
votes
1
answer
64
views
Lower than / Covered by
I am wondering if there is a distinction in any natural language between a preposition or postposition with the meaning "lower than" and a different preposition or postposition with the ...
- 91
3
votes
2
answers
154
views
Is There an Optimal Order for Addressing Phonetics, Morphology, Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics?
I am about to create a constructed language. Is it acceptable if I follow the levels of language in the given order: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics? Or do I need to do ...
- 33
4
votes
1
answer
105
views
How to develop partial reduplication diachronically?
I want a daughter language of some proto-conlang to develop partial root reduplication for consonant initial roots as a productive and mostly regular morphological feature (the precise value it marks ...
5
votes
1
answer
132
views
Subordinate Clauses In OSV
So, I'm working on my very first conlang, which happens to be OSV (object-subject-verb word order). But I seem to have run into something of a roadblock. How could I handle clauses such as, for ...
3
votes
1
answer
105
views
What sounds work best for an underwater language spoken by crab people?
Currently I am working on a species of crab people who live semi-aquatic life styles, and I would like their languages to do two things:
Be easy to understand underwater
Be based somewhat on their ...
- 31
3
votes
1
answer
230
views
To make a conlang indeciphrable
How to make a language/code indecipherable or very hard to decipher/learn? What are the key points? How does linguists decipher languages?
- 41