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View Full Version : I wana make a language <.<. . . . >.>



Froogleyboy
2009-11-06, 11:12 PM
Okay, I wana make a SPOKEN (I have a written language) language but I have no idea where to start. Can a linguist/person who knows other languages help me

Moff Chumley
2009-11-06, 11:46 PM
Google Conlang. Conlang, fyi, is the art of constructed language.

Yarram
2009-11-06, 11:48 PM
I'm interested, why you want a language. Not that I disagree with the practice.

cycoris
2009-11-06, 11:50 PM
Take a look at this site (http://www.zompist.com/kit.html). It's got a whole language building kit that is wonderful. :smallsmile:

Froogleyboy
2009-11-06, 11:51 PM
I'm interested, why you want a language. Not that I disagree with the practice.

idk, boredom

Moff Chumley
2009-11-06, 11:54 PM
I hear ya. The wiki article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructed_language) provides some cool excuses.

Icewalker
2009-11-07, 12:19 AM
My friend has made a language, and bits and pieces of others for her giant overly detailed world. It includes a new script as well. Pretty extensive. I'm not sure how she went about making it initially, but she's beginning to put together lessons in it to teach others by going through introductory books on other languages and putting together lessons in the same style.

Froogleyboy
2009-11-07, 01:09 AM
Okay, I've got my noises and such, but how do I make words?

cycoris
2009-11-07, 01:13 AM
Okay, I've got my noises and such, but how do I make words?

*cough* There's a whole section titled 'Word Building' in the language construction kit I linked earlier. *cough*

Linky to the kit. (http://www.zompist.com/kit)
Linky to the word construction section. (http://www.zompist.com/kitlong.html#lexicon)

Lissou
2009-11-07, 01:13 AM
Okay, I've got my noises and such, but how do I make words?

You just... Make them up ?
Start with simple one. Then find "roots". It's common for similar words to sound the same.
Decide how verbs will be contructed, and where they go in a sentence. Beginning, middle, end?

You have a lot of work to do but it's possible if you give it your all.

I'd suggest starting with grammar then working on the vocabulary.

Froogleyboy
2009-11-07, 02:05 AM
okay, if anyone cares, here is my phonology:
Nasal-Labial: M
Nasal-Dental: N
Nasal-Palatal: ɲ
Nasal-Velar: ŋ

Plosive-Labial: P B
Plosive-Dental: T D
Plosive-Palatal: ɟ C
Plosive-Velar: K

Fricative-Labial: F V
Fricative-Dental: S Z
Fricative-Palatal: ʃ ʒ
Fricative-Velar: X

Approx.-Labial:
Approx.-Dental: ð
Approx.-Palatal: j
Approx.-Velar: W

Lateral-Labial:
Lateral-Dental: l
Lateral-Palatal: (ʎ)
Lateral-Velar:

Ichneumon
2009-11-07, 03:34 AM
This is amazing. My inner geek laughs maniacally.
I will be the father/mother of an entire new language.

Lissou
2009-11-07, 04:55 AM
What about vowels? They vary from one language to the next, too.

golentan
2009-11-07, 05:12 AM
If I may, I'd like to make a plug for a feature from my native tongue. Universal suffix/prefix system. It can make things archaic quickly, but can add emphasis. For example:

-a (placeholder, unmodified word, most often while searching in conversation like an "ah" or "um")
-se (Affirmative sound, is true)
-ta (negative sound, is not true)
-uan (antithesis, usually a sarcastic connotation)

And a couple others, such as -uru- which made the word plural. So a quick example with the verb Jeen (to be):

Jeena: "To be"
Jeense: "Subject (it) is."
Jeenta: "It isn't"
Jeenuan: "Suuuuuure it isn't."

The full list of suffixes is extensive, and bears some conjugatory suffixes which can get a little tricky, but lets you get an amazing depth of meaning without a crazy mucking about sentence structure.

Morty
2009-11-07, 08:38 AM
Just so you know, be prepared for a huge amount of work. It took Tolkien what, several years to make the elven language for his book? And he was a philologist.

Froogleyboy
2009-11-07, 12:52 PM
So . . . i pretty much just decide the words. there is no system to it?

Ichneumon
2009-11-07, 01:06 PM
So . . . i pretty much just decide the words. there is no system to it?

Well, depending what you want your language to actually look/sound like, you could do something like this:

You want the word for chair. You search for the word in another language.
For example French, you twist it and take it.

Froogleyboy
2009-11-07, 01:11 PM
idea! I'm designing a smooth beautiful language, maybe I could twist some rough guttural languages into my lang. would it work?

Ichneumon
2009-11-07, 01:34 PM
Words, their sound and grammar must sound natural, for the language to be easily spoken and realistic.

Froogleyboy
2009-11-07, 01:42 PM
okay, the kit that Cycoris listed said I should make the alphabet after my sounds but I don't really get it.

Ichneumon
2009-11-07, 01:47 PM
I think you should first and foremost have a concept to go on. What kind of a language do you want to make? The language of the fantasy dwarves is something entirely different than the language of Vulcan/Romulan or Klingon language and that's something entirely different than 18th century French. It will be hard creating a language if you don't know what direction you want to go. You'd have a hard time creating a unified "theme".

Morty
2009-11-07, 01:48 PM
I haven't read it in depth, but I think the point is, you need to have a letter in the alphabet for every sound its speakers can use when talking. Also note that humans first started speaking and then invented written language.

Froogleyboy
2009-11-07, 01:50 PM
I'm using it for my fantasy world, It's gonna be the language that Treants and gods use (The Treants were the first beings in my world)

Ichneumon
2009-11-07, 01:51 PM
It would also be handy to have it type-able in your native alphabet, if only for your own convenience of writing down the words and recognising them. That's if you want to learn the language yourself.

Froogleyboy
2009-11-07, 01:53 PM
Allright, well I've got all my sounds represented by Roman letters if thats what you mean

Ichneumon
2009-11-07, 01:58 PM
Allright, well I've got all my sounds represented by Roman letters if thats what you mean

Yeah, that's what I meant.

If you are going for an ancient god-like language. It makes me think of either Greec or Latin. You could make words with lots of sounds like good or Mordor or Eldoran or Darth Vader etc.

Froogleyboy
2009-11-07, 01:59 PM
Well, the base language is french with some sounds removed, and I added a few Icelandic and German sounds

Ichneumon
2009-11-07, 02:08 PM
Well, the base language is french with some sounds removed, and I added a few Icelandic and German sounds

Yeah that's what I meant.

If you are using it in your campaign setting, you should focus on creating the words you actually are going to need. For example, no use in making words for television or cutlery, and more use for words like Arcane, magic, soul, gods, angels etc.

Froogleyboy
2009-11-07, 02:13 PM
Well, funny thing, I've never actually used this world for a campaign. Its just a notebook full of Myths, Legends, Maps, and Race/Kingdom info

Froogleyboy
2009-11-07, 05:09 PM
Every sound my language makes:
M as in Mom
N as in Nothing
ɲ as in oNIon
ŋ as in siNG
P as in Papa
B as in Back
T as in Tada!
D as in taDa!
ɟ as in Jir (Dinkan word and pronunciation)
K as in Kiss
F as in Fill
V as in Velcro
S as in Sandy
Z as in siZe
ʃ as in SHeep
ʒ as in viSIon
X as in loCH
ð as in THat
J as in You
W as in Weep
L as in Let
ʎ as in miLLion
A as in cAke
I as in kEEp
U as in tOO

(the capitalized letters in the words are the sound)

Froogleyboy
2009-11-08, 01:59 AM
so.... bump and stuff

Jokasti
2009-11-08, 03:17 AM
Well, after reading this, I decided to make my own language. However, I've only just started and I'm not doing anything phonetic; just making my own alphabet, root wordS, prefixes, suffixes, and numbers, etc. Hope you finish yours.

Froogleyboy
2009-11-08, 03:40 AM
I'm working on my lexicon as we speak type

Lissou
2009-11-08, 03:54 AM
Well, so there are only 3 vowels (and 2 half consonants)? That's really not a lot. I'm sure you can work with that but t seems weird to have so many cosonnants and so few vowels. You said you started with French and removed some sounds but French has 12 vowels, not including nasal vowels and semi-vowels. Keeping only 3 out of 12+ isn't much.

Volos
2009-11-09, 04:07 PM
I made a language, but I can't release it yet.

Froogleyboy
2009-11-14, 02:32 AM
check it babies
(http://cals.conlang.org/language/aveata/)

golentan
2009-11-14, 02:53 AM
Cool beans, but I don't see any actual words except the greeting.