The Conlang Thread
- Thread starter NKVD
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I'm sort of working on one, but my knowledge of how languages work (especially grammar) is pretty pitiful, so I don't have very high hopes for it.
What sounds do those letters represent? Is this language a human language? Is it for a fantasy world, or an alternate Earth? Does it belong to a real life language family?
What sounds do those letters represent? Is this language a human language? Is it for a fantasy world, or an alternate Earth? Does it belong to a real life language family?
What about a formulaic language? A language that reduces all words to their base descriptions, then uses a variety of prefixes and suffixes to categorize them as Nouns, Verbs, ect.
Half an hour and half a sheet of paper later, I had this.
1. Eliminate unnecessary letters from alphabet.
Noun :
Adverb : N/A
Context :
Need's work, certainly, but may be interesting if given some thought.
Half an hour and half a sheet of paper later, I had this.
1. Eliminate unnecessary letters from alphabet.
C
Y
Q
X
J
2. Create first-tier categorization and accompanying letter. Y
Q
X
J
c- = Noun
y- = Verb
q- = Adjective
x- = Adverb
j- = Context
3. Identify second-tiery- = Verb
q- = Adjective
x- = Adverb
j- = Context
Noun :
Being = -c
Title = -y
State = -q
Object = -x
Other = -j
Verb :Title = -y
State = -q
Object = -x
Other = -j
Conscious Action = -c
Forced Action = -x
Necessary Action = -j
Adjective : N/AForced Action = -x
Necessary Action = -j
Adverb : N/A
Context :
Past Tense = -<
Future Tense = ->
Present Tense = -^
Association = -|
Objective = -~
4. And so on, until language is complete.Future Tense = ->
Present Tense = -^
Association = -|
Objective = -~
Need's work, certainly, but may be interesting if given some thought.
Ā is like the a in "all," while A is like the a in "and."
Ş is "sh." While the other s-variant is "sl."
E is like an ae sound, while I is a long e sound, and U is a long o sound.
It is a human language, and it's not quite an alternate Earth. It's a New Earth, a planet that humans have settled on thousands of years ago, after Earth became uninhabitable for some reason. I posted the map in the Map Thread.
Also, the language would actually be VOS, but OVS for names. For example, the surname Kāvākulāni would be read literally as "mountain from member of tribe." Kāvāk-ul-āni.
I have a fictional language that I've been playing around with, but I've been less than rigorous with it and so the orthography is a complete mess based around what I think "sounds right"... but I'm going for a more "natural" sound rather than trying to sound constructed, so maybe that's a plus?
Overall it's V-S-O and has no declensions or conjugations- words stay constant but are modified by other verbs, for example "I am" would be "kya vanabar kunyo neh", while "you were" would be "kyo vanabar kuny neh", "he/she/it will (definitely) be" would be "kyi vanabar nyaa neh". (Well, using one set of pronouns anyway...)
Overall it's V-S-O and has no declensions or conjugations- words stay constant but are modified by other verbs, for example "I am" would be "kya vanabar kunyo neh", while "you were" would be "kyo vanabar kuny neh", "he/she/it will (definitely) be" would be "kyi vanabar nyaa neh". (Well, using one set of pronouns anyway...)
An odd conlang question. I'm far from a linguist although I'm intrigued by the idea of "constructed" languages. Anyway I'm not good with learning languages. I've studied French, German, Russian, and Chinese. I never got really far with any of them although I made the most progress with Russian, strangely.I've dabbled in Esperanto, didn't have staying power to master it.
I've heard many times that "your first foreign language is the toughest". In light of that I thought of learning an easy conlang, just to make other, spoken languages easier to learn. Is there a conlang that's easy for an English speaker to learn? I've thought of Ido.
There are various sister languages of English which aren't conlangs but I thought they might be relatively easy to master. There's Scots al a the poet Hugh McDiarmed, Anglic dialects, Old English offshoots spoken in Ireland until the mid 19th century, and apparently several English/Romany hybrids. Maybe a conlang that's a cross between Frisian and modern English.
I'm looking for something that is not English exactly but would be easy for an intelligent but intellectually lazy person to learn. Any suggestions?
I've heard many times that "your first foreign language is the toughest". In light of that I thought of learning an easy conlang, just to make other, spoken languages easier to learn. Is there a conlang that's easy for an English speaker to learn? I've thought of Ido.
There are various sister languages of English which aren't conlangs but I thought they might be relatively easy to master. There's Scots al a the poet Hugh McDiarmed, Anglic dialects, Old English offshoots spoken in Ireland until the mid 19th century, and apparently several English/Romany hybrids. Maybe a conlang that's a cross between Frisian and modern English.
I'm looking for something that is not English exactly but would be easy for an intelligent but intellectually lazy person to learn. Any suggestions?
Did you base the language on any OTL languages? (A language in this situation would be-its not like people are going to suddenly forget their Earth languages and make up a new one)
Well, the people who speak it are descendants of Ukrainian colonists, and the alphabet looks like it's based on the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets, but the language itself looks nothing like Ukrainian or Russian. After humans settled on the planet, most of the people died and civilization collapsed completely. Between then and "modern day" there is about ten thousand years.
Though, sometimes when I'm creating new words I consult Google Translate.
I was developing two languages for my micronation. They were Tyrasian (Tyrasva) and Suebian (Suebi), but they were similar enough that I've merged them, choosing the "better sounding" words between the two. So far, the only "phrase" I have is my name and title
"Kunŕad Alækzander Ete, Pŕynz Tyras, Sur Harþua Sueb, Sur Gaƹda Paladyn uf des Lekto Laƹkavky Ŕyda'orten uf des Tua Stæle, Magno uf Ans Folk"
and the continents and a few other minor words
Asia - Æƹya
America - Amæryka
Australia - Ustŕalya
Africa - Afŕike
Anarctica - Sudirlund
Europe - Yuŕop
Aa - Ah, like in "Papa"
Ææ - Ae like "Hay"
Bb - B, like in "Bath"
Dd - D, like in "Dog"
Ee - Eh, like "Meh"
Ff - F, like "Finch"
Gg - G, like "Gold"
Hh - H, like "Home"
Ii - I, like in "It"
Yy - Ee, like "Bee"
Jj - J, like in "Job"
Kk - K, like in "Cake"
Ll - L, like in "Love"
Mm - M, like in "Mother"
Nn - N, like in "Never"
Ññ - Ny, like in "Niño"
Oo - Ohh, like on the 'o' in "Tome"
Pp - P, like in "Prarie"
Rr - R, like in "Racer"
Ŕŕ - R (trilled), like in "Pedŕo"
Ss - S, like in "Star"
Ƹƹ - Sh, like in "Shut," but can also be softer like in "Vision"
Tt - T, Like in "Time"
Þþ - Th, like in "Thou"
Vv - V, like in "Vowel"
Uu - Oo, like the O in "Tomb"
Ww - W, like in "Wit"
Xx - Ch, like in "Children"
Zz - Z, like in "Zeta"
"Kunŕad Alækzander Ete, Pŕynz Tyras, Sur Harþua Sueb, Sur Gaƹda Paladyn uf des Lekto Laƹkavky Ŕyda'orten uf des Tua Stæle, Magno uf Ans Folk"
and the continents and a few other minor words
Asia - Æƹya
America - Amæryka
Australia - Ustŕalya
Africa - Afŕike
Anarctica - Sudirlund
Europe - Yuŕop
Aa - Ah, like in "Papa"
Ææ - Ae like "Hay"
Bb - B, like in "Bath"
Dd - D, like in "Dog"
Ee - Eh, like "Meh"
Ff - F, like "Finch"
Gg - G, like "Gold"
Hh - H, like "Home"
Ii - I, like in "It"
Yy - Ee, like "Bee"
Jj - J, like in "Job"
Kk - K, like in "Cake"
Ll - L, like in "Love"
Mm - M, like in "Mother"
Nn - N, like in "Never"
Ññ - Ny, like in "Niño"
Oo - Ohh, like on the 'o' in "Tome"
Pp - P, like in "Prarie"
Rr - R, like in "Racer"
Ŕŕ - R (trilled), like in "Pedŕo"
Ss - S, like in "Star"
Ƹƹ - Sh, like in "Shut," but can also be softer like in "Vision"
Tt - T, Like in "Time"
Þþ - Th, like in "Thou"
Vv - V, like in "Vowel"
Uu - Oo, like the O in "Tomb"
Ww - W, like in "Wit"
Xx - Ch, like in "Children"
Zz - Z, like in "Zeta"
I would use C and Z instead of Ş and Ś. Diacritic marks are nice when they're necessary, but when you have letters to spare, you should use them. It's easier to teach the language to children and illiterate adults if the letters of the alphabet are easier to tell apart.
That's exactly what I was thinking. Diacritic marks get annoying after a while.
Anyways, I'm having trouble deciding what the word order would be. Either OVS for the entire language, or OVS for names (like Kavakolani, which would literally be "mountain from member of tribe") and VOS for everything else. The latter would make sense, since names have different rules than other words - they are agglutinating, and can end in a vowel (mostly just the word "ani," which is like the Armenian "ian" or "yan") even if they have more than one syllable.
I decided that instead of working on one language, I'll make several. Shiani is a "dirty" language like English. It has a lot of loan-words and things like that. Because, where it exists was once very tribal. I'll take the words I like from each language, and make common Shiani.
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Emperor-of-New-Zealand
Kicked
Just as an observation - is any of this borrowed from Maori? It's very similar, especially your vowel sounds (but Maori has a heck of a lot less letters in it).
Early on I noticed that it sounded very Polynesian, but it wasn't intentional.
Also, really? The Armenian Genocide says that the modern Maori alphabet has twenty letters, one more than Shiani currently.
Emperor-of-New-Zealand
Kicked
A, E, I, O, U, H, K, M, N, P, R, T, U, W, Ng and Wh.
Some people consider the vowels with the little line above it (I forget what that's called) separate letters, but others don't. I don't know of anyone that even speaks Maori as a first language, so it doesn't really matter. Your conlang does sound Polynesian, though
.A, E, I, O, U, H, K, M, N, P, R, T, U, W, Ng and Wh.
Some people consider the vowels with the little line above it (I forget what that's called) separate letters, but others don't. I don't know of anyone that even speaks Maori as a first language, so it doesn't really matter. Your conlang does sound Polynesian, though
Perhaps Polynesian-descentant colonists settled Kāl (what I'm calling the Shiani homeland for now) along with the Ukrainians, ten thousand years before "modern day." Though, I'm not sure why they'd settle in a frozen wasteland that's geographically similar to Norway.
I've made another revision to the language I'm working on, with a unique feature: I created both stressed and unstressed vowels. The problem I'm having, is figuring out how the hell that would work.
The word Kal means male. Kal with a stressed a means crow. I can't really articulate a way to make the stressed and unstressed vowels sound different.
The word Kal means male. Kal with a stressed a means crow. I can't really articulate a way to make the stressed and unstressed vowels sound different.