![]() If you want to translate a complex word, first try breaking it down into its bare bones. Finally, you can start coining words! If we’re sticking with the idea that this is supposed to be a naturalistic conlang, instead of just coining words willy-nilly, it’s better to do a few simple words and work from there. This would probably be the place to add in your grammatical particles if you would like to have them. If you get stuck here, I would recommend doing some more research into real-life languages to see how they deal with these concepts. In this step, you’re going to want to figure out what type of sentence order you have, and how your language deals with plurals and tenses, among other things. This is my formal apology to the linguistics community. I’m including syntax alongside grammar because it’s taught in grammar class in school. This is probably also the stage where you may want to decide which direction your language is written in. Clay and stone allow for more pointy letters (as seen with Cuneiform and Latin) while writing on leaves allows for more loopy letters (such as old Javanese and old Thai). ![]() What may help as a starting point for orthography is thinking about what sort of material your people are writing on. ![]() I would recommend starting from scratch, or a different language. If you have decided to create your own, then great! Now you get to design your very own writing system! Speaking from experience, I will say it is very difficult to not accidentally create “Greek 2” when working with an Aramaic base. If you’ve chosen to have your language use the Latin alphabet (A-Z), then you can skip this step. Now, you don’t have to do either of this step and Step Four in any particular order, you could do your grammar before you figure out your orthography, but it might be a bit difficult. Just pick some consonants you like, and a few vowels while you’re at it, and throw them in a Google Doc while we do this next bit. I guess, if you wanted to make your life incredibly difficult, you could pick some of those sounds. And, in a handy video from your friend and mine Tom Scott, it is noted that there are some sounds that aren’t filled in on the chart that are still possible to make. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a chart that has every sound that is currently known to exist in a language. Now that you’ve got your backstory and your resources, we can move on to picking sounds. If you want your language to sound similar to a real-world language, look up that language’s Wikipedia article! These articles feature a history of the language, what sounds are included in the language, and for those that don’t use a Latin alphabet, what the writing system looks like! Another great resource could be Wikipedia articles. Artifexian has lots of world-building videos (including a spreadsheet on how to make your own solar system from scratch) and Biblaridion has a playlist on how to create a naturalistic conlang. Both channels are really great for getting into the nitty gritty of creation. If not, I would recommend YouTube channels such as Artifexian and Biblaridion. There are lots of resources out there to help you build your language! If this isn’t your first rodeo, or if you’re familiar with some linguistic concepts, jumping straight to an IPA chart may be for you. Even though this article may help you, it is not the end all be all of conlang help. What sort of climate are they from? Who are their neighbors? How do they view family? These are all important questions you need to ask yourself before and as you begin to create your conlang. ![]() Since the aim here is to make a language with history and variation, it would benefit you to come up with some backstory for the people who speak this language. The type of language that I’ll be helping you create is a naturalistic language since I’ve had the most experience with those. An auxlang is also created out of nothing, but with the idea that this language should be easy to speak, and is meant to be a common language for those who don’t have a real language in common. A naturalistic language is created out of nothing but is simulated to have had growth over time and a rich history, such as Klingon or Elvish from Tolkien’s books. Most well-known conlangs fit into two main categories of conlangs: naturalistic languages and auxiliary languages, or auxlangs, such as Esperanto or Toki Pona. How do you make a conlang? Firstly, what even is a conlang? A conlang, or constructed language, is a language that doesn’t really exist and is simply fabricated into existence by one person or a group of people. ![]()
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