Make A Lang

Hello! I'm still alive. And I'm still conlanging. A brief summary of the decade-long hiatus: we moved from California to Texas at the beginning of 2013, and I was really busy with work and starting a lightsaber group, cosplaying, gaming and other geeky things after the move. I wasn't sure what else I had to add to the conlanging space while all these movies and TV shows with amazing conlangs were dropping left and right. In 2009, we got Avatar with the Na'avi conlang by Paul Frommer. In 2011, we got Game of Thrones with Dothraki fleshed out by the very awesome David Peterson. In 2013 we got Defiance, Syfy's TV series with multiple conlangs by the still very awesome David Peterson. Maybe I wanted to sit back and let the pros teach me for awhile, but I kept playing with conlanging here and there. Whenever I thought about MakeALAng, I couldn't get into the same headspace and come up with anything that I thought would be of broad interest.  In 2022, I was amazed to...

I wanted to test out the 6 Key Phrases on the Ubese (Star Wars) conlang I have played with in the past. Oh by the way, in a previous post I remarked that it seemed silly to not have the B sound in a language called "Ubese," but these kind of things happen all the time in the real world. Germany vs. Deutschland vs. Allemagne - all names for the same country! Ubese could have been said to some explorers as "Uhheesh" but those explorers, due to their own phonology, could only say it as "Oobeez(and spell it as Ubese)." Maybe Ubes means "quiet" or "few words" in their language, and this attribute becomes the name of the people? Or the person that discovered them might have been called Ub? There are definitely some ways you can have some fun with this, as you pick names in your con. In order to speak this correctly, keep your jaw closed but part your lips. Do not move your lips! Phonology: t, sh, ch, k, n, l, hh (a harsh H sound made b...

He doesn't want dem apples. I got some cool ideas last week from Tim Ferriss . For any readers who haven't heard of him, look him up - he is an amazing guy who likes to find ways to beat the game, rather than play the game. I was watching this video and I wondered if I could apply any of his ideas to conlanging. Hestarts talking at the 6:35 mark about learning languages and he mentioned that using the following phrases helped one better understand the grammar and mechanics of a language (10:02 mark): The apple is red. It is John's apple. I give John the apple. We want to give him the apple. He gives it to John. She gives it to him. I thought that it makes sense that the reverse must be true as well - that you should be able to use these as a way of testing out/creating the grammar and mechanics of your conlang! I wanted to try this out in a couple of simple ways to illustrate the concept, but we'll just do one per post. First, let's use the ...

This topic comes up every once in awhile on the conlang forums - numbers in your conlang. This post goes out to you, Janko Gorenc. ;) Usually the biggest issue of these threads is simply, what base do you want for your number system and why? The base for your number system basically means, how many numbers are there, before you go up to the next "place" in the numeral system? Now, most of the world uses a base 10 number system, and its probably because people have 10 fingers. But we could have had a base 5 number system, and a lot of conlangers play with this. Or, you might be developing a language and culture for an alien culture that has 12 fingers, or six limbs, or nine tentacles! Whatever base you want, for whatever reason, I wanted to provide a brief tutorial on how to calculate or translate base 10 numbers into another base, or vice versa. If you want to know more about number systems before diving into this, read these Wikipedia articles on number systems....

I posted awhile back about word lists you can use to guide you on creating a vocabulary for your conlang. I was recently looking at this again and I decided to look closer at the Universal Language Dictionary ( click here for a good description of what this is). I found some great new stuff! I downloaded the XML file from Rick Harrison's Universal Language Dictionary website and found that they added "levels" to the words! Now, in each category of words, a level is assigned to the words, from 0 to 3, in order of complexity. There are about 30 0 level words, and about 170 1 level words, so the first two levels is only about 200 words. You could use this as a guide - creating all the level 0 words first, then the level 1 words, and so on. You might disagree with the level assignments, or you might be working on a conlang that emphasizes certain concepts or objects (for example, that old factoid about how eskimos have nine different words for snow) - so you can reassig...

Ok.  My experience has been that some conlangers out there do not like it when your conlang is too... Englishey . This generally means your conlang has basically the same syntax and grammar as English, and the same sounds, too.  There might be a few twists in there - an extra case, some extra phonemes, a different alphabet, but overall, pretty close to English. And really, who can blame them?  For those that take the time to learn and understand linguistics and all the concepts behind it, it looks and feels lazy and uninspired. For the record, I do not encourage conlanging snobbery, I'm just saying that I understand where it comes from. But... if you DON'T know lots of linguistics, and don't care to study all the principles and so forth, what else can you do?  If you know a second language you can mash up the two languages you know.  But aside from that, how else can you build a language? Being the conlang contrarian I am, I think you can transform English...

Kam le elefant wape? How you elephant(singular) will be eating? How do you eat an elephant? In wip siled in wip! One bite after one bite One bite at a time. I was just thinking about the work I would still have to do on my conlang in order to get to a point where I felt like it was finished, and I was just feeling like I would NEVER get there.  Too many other more important things to take care of in the mean time, too many little details to wrestle with, too technical to understand, etc. Anyone who's been reading my blog knows that I constantly cry SIMPLIFY and I realized I needed to take some of my own advice again.  When I first began getting into conlanging, so much of it was over my head (and there are a lot of things that still are!), but I just kept with it, taking in what I could, and utilizing what I did know as best I could.  Its good advice for beginners as well as higher-level conlangers. I stopped myself and thought that instead of thinking of it ...

I recently got a request to expand on the Ubese language I deconstructed previously, and I had so much fun working on this the first time around, I just had to oblige (Thanks Libra!). Okay, so I previously established a phonology and morphology; here they are again with a few changes: Consonants- t, sh, ch, k, n, l, hh Semi-vowels- y Vowels- ee, ay, i, a, u, o Morphology- CICV (I for Inflection) Plus, some syntax and grammar rules: Subject Verb Object, first vowel sound of word denotes inflection (i=I, a=you, o=he/she/it, ay=we, u=they), stress is commonly on second syllable of word - if first syllable is stressed this means something, based on the context (while holding a thermal detonator it means you're getting crazy up in there, so be careful with this!) In the first post I did a lot with just the two-word-phrase that was pretty much all that was used in the clip from Return of the Jedi. Towards the end of the post I started trying to use more than two words in a ...

The Third Language Creation Conference is THIS WEEKEND ! If you aren't going, it will be simulcast on the web at the previous link. I'll be there, when I'm not working. The podcast is my translation of the conlang relay text into Pitak (pee-tawk) from Kapakwonak. Translation: Li pisu na mul kiso funefemu - I close to sea seated in-a-time En molfos kotiko i a mol fimilu pumo - A wave up-broke and the water over-me swept Li tepo molfous netokwa i ama nami tilwato - I tried the-wave to-not-fight and this to-me happied Li meno onos molfousi pumisu puma - I dreamt about the waves away-me sweeping Wo la tiko, li komanu kuso - When it broke, I continuously-it felt A molfos komanu moso sapwa i pumisu teko - The wave continuously was-able to-go and away-me took First of all, participating in the relay was a great experience for a bunch of reasons, and I highly recommend participating in one on the ZBB or other conlanging forums! One reason was that it forced me to really get int...

Sound changes are when an established sound in a language shifts into another sound or sounds. This is, in my opinion, a fun part of conlanging, and a great way to lend some pseudo-reality or aging into your conlang. However, as my mantra has always been to SIMPLIFY, I need to say up front that this is also a great way to make your conlang much more complicated, so experiment and play with this but use with caution . No language is ever truly static, but is constantly changing and shifting as new cultural influences rise, new celebrities make new things cool (or uncool), and create new vocabulary or import words from other languages, possibly bringing new sounds into the language. In this article by Jeff Henning he mentions sound changes and shows a table of common sound changes (look for a 10 X 9 table). Sound changes can be something that happen over time in a language, or in a region (New England vs. Southern vs. California dude accents) and/or something grammatical. I wanted to s...

And now for something completely different. I don't know about you, but I was always intrigued by the language Boushh/Leia spoke in Return of the Jedi. There were only a few examples of it in the film: "Yatay, yatay, yotoh," supposedly meant "I have come for the bounty on this wookie." "Yotoh, yotoh" = "$50,000, no less." "Ey, yotoh" = C-3PO paraphrases this as "Because he's holding a thermal detenator!" "Yatoh, cha" = C-3PO paraphrases this as "He agrees." There is something else Boushh/Leia says after the business with Jabba is concluded but I can't really make it out. But the 'yatay yotoh' stuff is what fascinates me. After a bit of searching I discovered that it was called Ubese . After all this research into linguistics and blogging about conlangs, I thought it would be fun to explore an unknown language, and see if I can deconstruct it, and extrapolate on it. Of course, ...

Here's another conundrum I spent many hours figuring out. How can I generate a vocabulary, or lexicon , without it taking YEARS? There are a few different schools of thought on this. Some people feel that each word needs to sound like what it is, within the confines of their phonology. Meaning, you think about and create each word. This is very abstract, but you just might come out of it actually being able to remember a lot of your words, maybe even be able to speak your conlang (Remember, VERY few conlangers are fluent in their language, and the ones that claim to be are suspect, because who can really judge them?). Plus, you're guaranteed to get a conlang that sounds the way you want it to. The opposite extreme is to randomly generate your vocabulary, after keying in your phonology to a word generator program . The advantage is you get a big vocabulary quickly, the down side is that you won't know any of the words off the top of your head until after some st...

This is kind of a special post, cuz I realized it is my 25th post, so I wanted to digress a bit and post about conlangers, not conlanging, just for fun. This post is a little bit self-serving, but I won't do this often, I promise. Conlanging is something I do that I can honestly say I have no good reason for doing. It would make more sense for me to learn a third language than to make one up, wouldn't it? There are other hobbies I have that are kind of pointless, but have at least some merit to them. For example, I like to study and practice medieval sword fighting and martial arts. Now, sword fighting is not exactly a crucial skill to master, but I started it and have kept at it because 1) it helps keep me in good shape 2) I learn some history as I study it 3) I learn a martial art as I study it. Conlanging, I guess you might say that it is keeping my mind active and I'm learning some linguistic stuff... but really, I have no reason to do any of this stuff. I just...

So I wanted to pick up where I left off on the last post before Christmas, and talk about syntax and grammer a bit. " Fa meshsak sosha o kulntht to tisiks afshra pefsi. " This pancake is going from zero to sixty within five seconds. Or, more literally, This pancake is going from stop until sixty within five. We're going to break this sentence down and figure out how you can construct grammer and syntax. Syntax could be defined simply as how words are ordered in a sentence. In English, we describe nouns with adjectives, or tell what the noun is, like so: "the bright room," "the room was bright," "the smooth, round ball," "the ball was smooth and round." In the case of "the room was bright," the room is the subject, was is the verb, and the brightness is the object. English is a SVO language, meaning that the ordering of the subject, verb and object are respectively, first, second, and third. In an SOV language, the sen...

After reading Rick Morneau 's wonderful summary of morphology for the umpteenth time, I thought I should write a post, in my words, about the relationship between phonology and morphology, or phonotactics. I think once this relationship is understood better, it makes your conlanging more enjoyable and quicker. A quick and dirty definition of phonology is that it is the sounds permitted in your conlang. Anything not in your phonology, speakers of that language would have a hard time saying (kind of like how Japanese are famous for speaking Ls like Rs). Lets break down the phonemes of your language into a few categories: consonants, clusters, vowels and semi-vowels. Just these four categories, for now. In fact, lets make up a phonology for the purposes of this post. P, t, k, f, th, s, sh, m, n, r and l for consonants. Ee, ei, au, oo, and o for vowels. 11 consonants, 5 vowels. Now, phonotactics. Lets keep explanations, and these phonotactic rules, simple. The phonology shoul...

Don't have time for a long post today, so I thought I'd make a quick post about one of the common conlanging pitfalls I've experienced and hear others talking about a lot. I've been guilty of as this as well: throwing in TOO MUCH. Putting in too many phonemes, morphemes, and basically throwing in everything INCLUDING the kitchen sink! I think this happens because all of us speak a very developed, rich language, whatever it is. We want our conlang to be as full and rich, but this will NOT happen overnight or even in a few years. THINK SIMPLE. ESPECIALLY if you are working on your first conlang. Think about this for a few minutes. When are we most creative? When we have less to work with, because we have to be. Think of preparing a meal: you are in a huge kitchen with fully stocked cupboards and freezer. You can make ANYTHING. What do you make? You're paralyzed for a few moments as you consider the possibilities. Then maybe you start making something, but ...

This is Part One, Part Two , Part Three The idea of making up my own alphabet was probably the first thing that attracted me to conlanging. After I learned Bulgarian, I made up a code that was based on Cirth and Bulgarian . I sent my brother the code and would mail him letters using it, just for fun. I started thinking about developing a new alphabet later, when I was playing the Myst games, and I saw the flowing script of D'Ni  (D'Ni is a conlang Cyan/Richard Watson developed for their games and books). First things to consider as you start developing your alphabet - What do you want? a phonetic alphabet a non-phonetic alphabet (like English) or a syllable-based alphabet (meaning one character per syllable, like po, kee, ot, or kel, would be represented by one character/Tibetan is syllabic) or an abjad, which would be a consonant-only-alphabet, and all vowels would be represented by diacritic marks (Hebrew and Arabic are examples) A little research on Omniglot will...

If you don't know a second language, please don't learn one just for the sake of creating your own language, unless you are a genius like that guy Jared in The Pretender . But do learn one to enrich your mind, broaden your understanding of another culture, and to stave off dementia. I happen to speak pretty fluent Bulgarian and it has definitely helped me with Conlanging in a few ways. 'Pretty fluent' because i lived there for a couple years and spoke it well, but haven't had many opportunities since I've been back to speak it. Can't remember all the vocabulary words so well anymore. But being able to think in another language and knowing the grammer can free up your thinking as to what is possible for your conlang. It could be argued that knowing a language or two might also limit your vision as to what you will and won't attempt, but my experience has taught me that this is NOT a bad thing. When I was reading through conlang websites, I was bombar...

Alrighty, I pulled out my conlang binder and looked up the random Language Kits I found and printed up over the years. Unfortunately, the only one that I have a link for is the Zompist Language Construction Kit , but it is one of the best. I might scan the others and post a PDF file or something later. Initially, none of these did me much good, because I didn't really know how to experiment with language fully. I mostly played with word generators, plugging in slightly different sets of phonemes, giving different morpheme rules, to see what I got. You can do this yourself very quickly at the Fantasist link in the corner up there. But because I didn't push forward I really limited my own progress. All I was doing was looking at words. Once I had a phonology and morphology, I should have tried grammer, developing cases and so on. I was stuck! BUT, something got me unstuck and catapulted me ahead in ways I wouldn't even guess. One time while I was visiting Langmaker.com , I sa...

So Phonology is what sounds are included or allowed in a language. For example, larple could be an English word, but zhangkonn doesn't look like an English word by a long shot (maybe more of a Chinese/German hybrid word?). Phonotactics is also related to this, because the morphology of your language dictates how the sounds can be put together. CVC, consonant-vowel-consonant, could be one way to make a simple word. This would be a "closed syllable," meaning there is a consonant on each end of the vowel sound. In the morphology of your language, do you want to allow consonant clusters? (CC) St, sht, lmthk? Or maybe you want to allow clusters at the end of words or syllables, but never at the beginning? Will your morphology allow for vowel sounds to be put together? (CVVC) Lion, poet, joey? Or do you want lots of open syllables? Once you step into morphology there is a LOT to consider. The thing that made it simple for me again though was simply reflecting on what ...