Make A Lang

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...

I want to share some new resources I just found out about. This is for everyone that wants their own font for their conlangs, but don't want to spend the money for font software. Go to www.yourfonts.com NOW, and follow the easy steps. You can have your own conlang font in MINUTES for FREE. It doesn't get any easier or cheaper than this, folks. This is designed for you to make a font out of your own handwriting in English, but there's no reason it can't work for conlanging purposes! If you don't want a hand-written font, the other resource I found is called FontStruct and you can check it out at Fontstruct.com . Free!

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, ...

Today I want to start talking about morphology , which means how words are structured. If you've been reading MakeALang for awhile, I posted last year about phonotactics a little. Phonotactics = phon ( sound) + tact (touch). Phonotactics is about what sounds can touch other sounds in a language. Example: in English, s and r cannot be next to each other. Sri Lanka is obviously a foreign name to us because we just know that s and r aren't supposed to be together. Morphology is different. Morphology is not about the sounds that make up words, but about the structure of words. Its about what a word is in your conlang, and how it works to convey meaning. This is actually a huge subject (for me, at least) and I've been struggling for MONTHS to try and break it down to a point where its digestible. Well that, and my wife and I had a baby boy end of September. :D I won't be covering all morphology concepts in this post, but there will probably be a Morphology 202 po...

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...