Welcome to the r/conlangs Official Checkpoint. You have been selected for a random check of your language. Please translate one or more of the following phrases and sentences:

"I like the idea of going to hell, I just don't like doing it in practice."

"If you find yourself completely naked, confused, and in an unfamiliar situation, it is best to act like being naked is the most natural way to be in that situation."

"They minorly inconvenienced me that means I must commit 9/11"

"Gotta recycle in order to keep the plastics out of the ocean that way the fish don't eat them and cause climate change!"

"I can cast fireball! I can do the thing that wizards do where they go into a 20ft room and yell "I CAST FIREBALL!!""

"Stop!"

If you have any ideas for interesting phrases or sentences for the next checkpoint, let me know in a DM! This activity will be posted on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The highest upvoted "Stop!" will be included in the next checkpoint's title!

Hi conlangers,

I'm making a conlang that's highly inspired off of Finnish.

The conlang has a very strict phonology, as it has a lot of double letters and only m, n, r, l, a, i, o, u, ä.

I also plan for it to have maybe about 500-ish grammatical cases, and only about 70 base words.

Any ideas?

I've created this system of cases for my conlang which pretends to be real. And I have a question: can the case system exist?

CASES:

1. Nominative —

subject

1. Accusative —

direct object

1. Genitive — possession and relationships between nouns

2. General oblique case — indirect object(it has the roles of the cases such as instrumental and dative, for example)

3. Spacial case —

location, direction, position

1. Causal case—

reason(case equivalent of "because of, due to")

1. Purposive case — motivation, purpose, i.e. what something is for(case equivalent of "for")

I have been building my language and its religion for a while now, and at some point it stopped being something I was building and started being something I use. Like I have previously explained.

This is a morning prayer I wrote for myself, just because I wanted to give thanks in my own language, on an ordinary day, for ordinary things:

Cu manum minaw sabaya, dilawaca ca hwinacra wu manum duraya. Dilawaca wac ca sabuni wun cu ab sabicu, ci wun cu ab damwaci, bayaw wiy cu ducyam cu carami, wu wuhiçi wiy cu.

"I am very good today, thanks to Hwinacra (the Great Spirit) and the many ancestors. Thank you, for the food that I ate, the water that I drank, my home where I relax, and my family."

I don't fully know what to call what happened over the course of building this. it's not that I "believe in Hwinacra" the way I'd describe belief in a religion or set book of rules. Rather, Hwinacra is in us all and I'm nature all around us. It can be felt, and when I ray in ICM it males me feel more connected to the land, and the spirits.

Anyways, that's where this project actually is now.

As the title suggests, I am currently working on a conlang for my fictional world, where time travel is possible. Thus I am looking for a vocabulary generator (or other type of sortware / perhaps even an Excel algorythm) for my conlang, that could help me automatically apply sound changes to my current vocabulary.

What I mean is a generator / algorythm, where I put a set of sound changes in, so when I input a current version of a word it will automatically apply those sound changes and give me a version of the word "from the future".

Any advice highly appreciated.

NONRANA GRAMMAR PROFILE

in progress?

1. NONRANA SCRIPTS AND PHONOTACTICS

Nonrana uses Chinese characters (漢字hon¹ze₅) and has a specific romanization strategy. The phonology is very simple and shares many phonemes, mostly consonants, with English.

• Consonants
• b - /b/
• c - /ts/
• d - /d/
• f - /f/
• g - /g/
• h - /h/
• j - /dʒ/
• k - /k/
• l - /l/
• m - /m/
• n - /n/
• p - /p/
• q - /tʃ/
• r - /ʐ/ (When paired with another compatible consonant, it turns into /ɾ/)
• s - /s/
• t - /t/
• v - /v/
• w - /w/
• x - /ʃ/
• y - /j/
• z - /z/
• Vowels
• a - /a/
• e - /e/
• i - /i/
• o - /o/
• u - /u/
• eo - /ɵ/
• eu - /y/
• Loaned Systems

For foreign in names, you use the Cyrillic.

• a - а
• b - б
• c - ц
• d - д
• e - э
• f - ф
• g - г
• h - х
• i - и
• j - ж
• k - к
• l - л
• m - м
• n - н
• o - о
• oe - ы
• p - п
• q - ч
• r - р
• s - с
• t - т
• u - у
• eu - ъ
• v - в
• w - ь
• x - ш
• ya - я
• ye - е
• yi - й
• yo - ё
• yeo - є
• yu - ю
• yeu - ѥ
• z - з

For a furigana-like system, you use a modified Hangeul that cannot be typed normally.

• Assembly

Just about every syllable follows the structure (C)(C)V(V)(n), where both consonants are of different areas of the vocal tract that move forward in the mouth, for example, *pw- is an illegal combination for they are both bilabial, but there are some cases where two very different consonants together would be illegal. Those exceptions are:

• *kc-
• *kq-
• *kt-
• *kd-
• *kj-
• *lb-
• *lc-
• *lp-
• *lq-
• *lj-
• *gc-
• *gq-
• *gt-
• *gd-
• *gj-
• *rw-
• *ry-
• *rm-
• *rn-
• *rb-
• *rp-
• *yb-
• *yp-
• *ym-
• *yn-
• *yw-

There are very few cases when they can move back in the mouth, the only ones being:

• bl-
• pl-
• fl-
• vl-
• sk-
• fr-

And the only time two consonants of the same articulation interact is

• sr-

For vowels, there is only one rule. Any two different vowels can go together via apostrophe to make a diphthong. If there’s only one vowel, nothing is needed. The only diphthong that can’t exist is *-ei. If in a loanword, it will be adapted into -eoi. 

EXPLICIT CLARIFICATION: Only the consonant n can end a syllable. Only the vowel i or u can end a diphthong.

• Tones

There are 9* tones. 

• *9 tones that exist in words, and a neutral (zeroth) tone that’s never in the real lexicon. These are notated with subscript or superscript numbers. 1, 4, 7, 8 and 0 are superscript, and 2, 3, 5, 6 and 9 are subscript. Examples of all them are:
• 筆 peo’i¹ - Pen
• 他 teo’i₂ - 3rd person singular neutral human pronoun
• 咖 ga₃ - Interrogative Marker
• 是 si⁴ - Is / To Be
• 處 qo’u₅ - To Stay [in a state of being]
• 葬 zan₆ - Buried
• 傢 kya⁷ - Landlord
• 大 ta’i⁸ - Big / Giant
• 九 ta’u₉ - Nine
• 哦 o⁰ - Oh (interjection or vocative or emphatic)

These tones are called, in order:

• 1 - High tone ˥
• 2 - Low tone ˩
• 3 - Mid tone ˧
• 4 - High Falling tone ˥˧
• 5 - Mid Falling tone ˧˩
• 6 - Low Rising tone ˩˧
• 7 - Mid Rising tone ˧˥
• 8 - Rising Falling tone ˦˥˩
• 9 - Falling Rising tone ˨˩˥
• 0 - Neutral tone
  • NOTE: Most times, in fast conversation, 8 and 9 are simplified. Instead of being ˦˥˩ and ˨˩˥, they’d be ˥˩ and ˩˥, known as the Drastic Falling tone andDrastic Rising tone. 0 has no tone mapping beside it because it can be any tone or a different tone. It’s an undefined tone.

2. POSTPOSITIONS AND PARTICLES

A lot of these are borrowed from Japanese*. Not every single one, though. For example,

• 喔wo₃ - Object marker 
  • Example: 我哈家喔買昔o₂ha₃kya¹wo₃me₂xa₃ (I [sbj] home [obj] buy [pst]) - I bought a house 
  • Etymology: Japanese 🇯🇵をo
• 哈ha₃ - Subject marker
  • Example: 你哈庠呃行后 ne₂ha₃qan¹e₃ve₂xo₃ (You [sbj] school [dir] go [fut]) - You’ll go to school
  • Etymology: Japanese 🇯🇵はwa
• 呃 e₃ - Directional marker 
  • Example: 我哈家呃行 o₂ha₃kya¹e₃ve₂ (I [sbj] house [dir] go) - I’m going home
  • Etymology: Japanese 🇯🇵ヘe
• 呢 neo’i₃ - Dative marker
  • Example: 我哈我喏家喔你呢奉后 o₂ha₃o₂nu₃kya¹wo₃ne₂neo’i₃pon¹xo₃ (I [sbj] me [pos] house [obj] you [dat] show [fut]) - I’ll show you my house
  • Etymology: Japanese 🇯🇵にni
• 哋 de₃ - Locative marker
  • Example: 我哈南里哋步 o₂ha₃non¹ra₂de₃pa¹ (I [sbj] Nonra [loc] walk) - I walk in Nonra
  • Etymology: Japanese 🇯🇵でde 
• 喏 nu₃ - Possessive marker
  • Example: 我哈我喏家喔你呢奉后 o₂ha₃o₂nu₃kya¹wo₃ne₂neo’i₃pon¹xo₃ (I [sbj] me [pos] house [obj] you [dat] show [fut]) - I’ll show you my house
  • Etymology: Japanese 🇯🇵のno
• 哪 no₃ - Negation marker
  • Example: 我哈行哪后 o₂ha₃ve₂no₃xo₃ (I [sbj] go [neg] [fut]) - I won’t go
  • Etymology: Hafau no
• 啊 a₃ - Imperative marker
  • Example: 啊行！a₃ve₂! ([imp] go) - Go!
  • Etymology: Native
• 咖 ga₃ - Interrogative marker
  • Example: 你哈行昔咖？ ne₂ha₃ve₂xa₃ga₃? (You [sbj] go [pst] [int]) - Did you go?
  • Etymology: Japanese 🇯🇵かka
• 佣 yon₃ - Instrumental marker
  • Example: 你哈筆佣聿 ne₂ha₃peo’i¹yon₃ya⁴ (You [sbj] pen [ins] write) - You write with a pen
  • Etymology: Mandarin 🇨🇳用yòng
  • Etymology: Native\ (It takes a foreign use of a word and adds a radical for it to clarify the use)*
• 唬 kra₃ - Ablative marker
  • Example: 你哈南里唬行 ne₂ha₃non¹ra₂kra₃ve₂ (You [sbj] Nonra [abl] go) - You leave Nonra
  • Etymology: Japanese 🇯🇵からkara
• 吓 gra₃ - Subessive marker
  • Example: 魚哈水吓是 a’u¹ha₃lya’u₂gra₃si⁴ (Fish [sbj] water [sub] [cop]) - The fish is underwater
  • Etymology: Native\ (It combines a native word with the mouth radical to turn it into a grammatical marker, it’s not a borrowing.)*
• 唑 cwo₃ - Superessive marker
  • Example: 我哈樓唑是 o₂ha₃leu¹cwo₃si⁴ (I [sbj] tower [sup] is) - I’m on top of the tower
  • Etymology: Native\ (It combines a native word with the mouth radical to turn it into a grammatical marker, it’s not a borrowing.)*
• 𠯪 to₃ - Comitative marker
• Example: 我哈我喏媽媽𠯪行昔 o₂ha₃o₂nu₃ma¹ma¹to₃ve₂xa₃ (I [sbj] me [pos] mom [com] go [pst]) - I walked with my mom
  • Etymology: Japanese 🇯🇵とto
• 們 men₃ - Plural marker
  • Example: 他們南里哋是 teo’i₂men₃ha₃non¹ra₂de₃si⁴ (They [sbj] Nonra [loc] [cop]) - They’re in Nonra
  • Etymology: Mandarin 🇨🇳們men
• 后 xo₃ - Future marker 
  • Example: 你哈你喏家喔我呢奉后  ne₂ha₃ne₂nu₃kya¹wo₃o₂neo’i₃pon¹xo₃ (You [sbj] you [pos] house [obj] me [dat] show [fut]) - You’ll show me your house
  • Etymology: Native
• 昔 xa₃ - Past marker 
  • Example: 你哈你喏家喔我呢奉昔  ne₂ha₃ne₂nu₃kya¹wo₃o₂neo’i₃pon¹xa₃ (You [sbj] you [pos] house [obj] me [dat] show [pst]) - You showed me your house
  • Etymology: Native
• 延 lyan₃ - Continuous marker
  • Example: 你哈你喏家喔我呢奉延 ne₂ha₃ne₂nu₃kya¹wo₃o₂neo’i₃pon¹lyan₃ (You [sbj] you [pos] house me [dat] show [cont]) - You’re showing me your house
  • Etymology: Native
• 嗏 te’i₃ - Habitual marker
  • Example: 你哈你喏家喔我呢奉嗏 ne₂ha₃ne₂nu₃kya¹wo₃o₂neo’i₃pon¹te’i₃ (You [sbj] you [pos] house [obj] me [dat] show [hab]) - You show me your house
• 哆 do₃ - List particle
  • Example: 伕哈這哆那喔喜 to’i₂ha₃ze¹do₃no¹wo₃geo’i₂ (He [sbj] this [and/L] that [obj] like) - He likes this and that
  • Etymology: Japanese 🇯🇵とto
  • and/L is short for and/List
• 㖀 ya₃ - Example particle
  • Example: 㚢哈之㖀那喔喜 ta’i₂ha₃ta¹ya₃no¹wo₃geo’i₂ (She [sbj] this [and/X] that [obj] like) - She likes this and that and alike
  • Etymology: Japanese 🇯🇵やya
  • and/X is short for and/eXample
• 但 tan₃ - Contrastive particle
  • Example: 伕哈步但㚢哈言 to’i₂ha₃pa¹tan₃ta’i₂ha₃nan¹ (He [sbj] walk [but] she [sbj] talk) - He walks but she talks
  • Etymology: Mandarin 🇨🇳但dàn
• 或 hwo₃ - Disjunctive particle
  • Example: 你哈湯或菹纍喔欲咖？ ne₂ha₃san⁴hwo₃sa¹le₃ga₃? (You [sbj] soup [or] salad [obj] want [int]) - Do you want soup or salad?
  • Etymology: Mandarin 🇨🇳或huò
• 咽 yan₃ - Causal particle
  • Example: 伕哈食咽伕哈飢是 to’i₂ha₃lo’u¹yan₃to’i₂ha₃kra¹si⁴ (He [sbj] eat [bc] he [sbj] hungry [cop]) - He eats because he’s hungry
  • Etymology: Native\ (It combines a native word with the mouth radical to turn it into a grammatical marker, it’s not a borrowing.)*
• 間 kan₃ - Temporal particle
  • Example: 伓哈3年間食哪 teu₂ha₃can₃na’i¹kan₃lo’u¹na₃ (It [sbj] three year [tem] eat [neg]) - It didn’t eat for 3 years
  • Etymology: Japanese 🇯🇵間kan
• 嗯 eon₃ - Benefactive particle
  • Example: 我哈伓喔你嗯為昔 o₂ha₃teu₂wo₃ne₂eon₃weo’i¹xa₃ (I [sbj] it [obj] you [ben] do [pst]) - I did it for you
  • Etymology: Native\ (It takes the Causal Particle and adds a heart radical, it’s not a borrowing.)*
• 𠱋 ya’u₃ - Reason particle
  • Example: 他們哈伓喔錢𠱋為 teo’i₂men₃ha₃teu₂wo₃ce¹ya’u₃weo’i¹ (They [sbj] it [obj] money [res] do) - They do it for the money
  • Etymology: Cantonese 🇭🇰由jau4
• 抽 ja’u₃ - Purpose particle
  • Example: 他們哈冊喔共抽為昔 teo’i₂men₃ha₃ca¹wo₃gon¹ja’u₃weo’i¹xa₃ (They [sbj] document [obj] collaborate [pur] do [pst]) - They made the document to collaborate
  • Etymology: Nonrana 𠱋ya’u₃
• 則 ze₃ - Consequential particle
  • Example: 你哈我喏家呃行則我哈伓喔你呢奉后 ne₂ha₃o₂nu₃kya¹e₃ve₂ze₃o₂ha₃teu₂wo₃ne₂neo’i₃pon¹xo₃ (You [sbj] me [pos] house [dir] go [cns] I [sbj] it [obj] you [dat] show [fut]) - If you come to my house, I’ll show it to you.
  • Etymology: Native

3. PRONOUNS

• Personal Pronouns
• add -己ga’i₂ to make the pronoun reflexive
• 我o₂ - I/Me
• 我們o₂men₃ - We/Us
• 你ne₂ - You (singular)
• 你們 ne₂men₃ - Y’all
• 伕toi₂ - He/Him
• 伕們 toi₂men₃ - They/Them(masculine)
• 㚢tai₂ - She/Her
• 㚢們 tai₂men₃ - They/Them(feminine)
• 他 teo’i₂ - Ze
• 他 teo’i₂men₃ - They/Them(human)
• 伓 teu₂ - It(abstract)
• 伓們 teu₂men₃ - They/Them(abstract)
• 牠 to₂ - It(non-human)
• 牠們 to₂men₃ - They/Them(non-human)
  • The 5 types of the 3rd person: Masculine (伕) refers to anyone/thing male, Feminine (㚢) is anyone/thing female, Human (他) is anyone unspecified or used for a mixed group in the plural.  Abstract (伓) is any “it” that doesn’t manifest itself in a physical form, like a task or a thought, or anything that does but is non-living or anything too small to be thought as living like paper or germs, even though germs are alive. And finally Non-Human (牠) is for anything living that isn’t a human that manifests itself in a physical form, except germs and things too small to be considered alive.
• Demonstratives
• 這 ze¹ - This
• 這們 ze¹men₃ - These
• 那 no¹ - That
• 那們 no¹men₃ - Those

4. INTERROGATIVE

• 誰 cweo’i₉ - Who/Whom
• 何 nan₉ - What/Which

This is literally every single question word. Only two. For other concepts, you combine 何 with postpositions. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• 何間 nan₉kan₃ - When
• 何哋 nan₉de₃ - [at] Where
• 何𠱋 nan₉ya’u₃ - Why
• 何佣 nan₉yon₃ - How

You can use this with any postposition to change its meaning. Always add 咖ga₃ after every question.

5. EXTRA CLARIFICATIONS

何nan₉, when used to mean “which”, is ordered as if it’s an adjective. 

• Example: 何筆咖？nan₉peoi¹ga₃? - Which pen?

Adjectives come before the noun their modifying, possession does not apply to this.

• Example: 悁傢 wa’i¹kya⁷ - A grumpy landlord

延lyan₃, when paired with a tense marker, comes before that tense marker. Same for 嗏te’i₃.

• Example: 你哈我呢奉延昔 ne₂ha₃o₂neo’i₃pon¹lyan₃xa₃ - You were showing me sometimes
• Example: 你哈我呢奉嗏后 ne₂ha₃o₂neo’i₃pon¹te’i₃xo₃ - You’ll start showing me sometimes

I’ve been a linguistics nerd for as long as I can remember, which inevitably dragged me into the world of conlanging over 30 years ago. Like most people back then, I started with a posteriori languages before moving on to artlangs and engelangs.

Over the decades, I've had existential phases where I questioned the point of conlanging when there are so many breathtaking natlangs already out there to study (yet the creative urge always pulls me back like a black hole).

Without wanting to make this sound too melodramatic, I'm asking this to see whether I've just been taking the hobby way too seriously, or this is something we’ve all felt at some point.

Now that I'm older, a question has been on my mind: If a natlang reflects the psyche, history, and collective unconscious of a people, doesn't a conlang do the exact same thing for its creator? It feels like such an intimate self-portrait. Looking back at my dozens of unfinished projects through the lens of maturity, I finally accept them for what they were: distinct chapters of my life, frozen in time as syntactic rules, phonological constraints, or overly complex writing systems.

Have any of you experienced your conlangs this way? I’d love to hear how your older, abandoned, or ongoing projects reflect your own personal history and psychological growth.

TL;DR: After 30+ years of conlanging, I’ve realized our languages are deeply intimate self-portraits. Just like a natlang reflects a culture's collective psyche, our unfinished projects capture specific chapters of our lives through syntax and phonology. Do you see your conlangs as reflections of your own psychological growth?

This is my translation of a part of the Odyssey, it is no particular part of the text, just the one that I worked on the last.

Gloss:

Voices

OBL1: voice that promotes an indirect object or adjunct to subject, OBL2: is the same thing except when there is no direct object.

PAT: patient voice, promotes the patient to subject. MID: the lexical middle/reflexive/intransitive class of verbs. ACT: actor voice.

Aspects:

SP: unmarked aspect, can mark iteratives and habituals. IPF: in the present its almost always progressive, in the past, it can be progressive, imperfective, bounded ongoing action. PFV: perfective, one event. PF: perfect: can be anterior, stative, resultative.

Moods:

IND: usually not marked, SBJ: can be present or past, marks non reality, counterfactuality, ability, and sometimes hortatives. OPT: past only, marks wish or desire.

Converbs and Participles also mark mood, for example rav-a-ri-l eat.IPF-SBJ-PTCP-NOM is one with which (something) could be eaten with. and rav-ie-ri-l eat.IPF-OPT-PTCP-NOM is one with which (something) I wish (weaker) would be eating with.

ána-nin-pi ótruhēme zhãnēme vōbhũ phūmẽhas

ána-nin-pi     ótruh-ēme     zhãn-ēme  vōbh-ũ   phūm-ẽhas
over-still-and boundless-ALL earth-ALL wind-GEN blast-INST.PL

"And still, over the boundless earth, with the blasts of wind"

áugiu-sh' akimbhú tagel

áugi-u       sho       akimbh-ú  tag-el
valliant-ACC therefore spear-ACC take.PFV-3SG.PST

"So the valliant spear she took."

ghãltā-pi raskhõlu

ghãlt-ā     pi  raskhõl-u
bronze-INST and sharpen.PF.PAT-ACC

"and sharpened with bronze"

ghvíthru pēlú shrebrú

ghvíthr-u pēl-ú     shrebr-ú
heavy-ACC great-ACC sturdy-ACC

"heavy, great, sturdy"

givãtel thíkūs beréshittu

givãt-el   thík-ūs     berésh-itt-u
heroes-GEN rank-ACC.PL break.SP-OBL1.PTCP-ACC 

"with which it breaks the ranks of heroes"

Vẽrkessēs-pi murmĩttūs

Vẽrkess-ēs           pi  murm-ĩtt-ūs
Mighty.Fathered-INST and grudge.SP-OBL.PTCP-ACC.PL

"And against whom the Mighty-Fathered one held a grudge."

Ólimpū-sho trãhigo appádaimá ishel

Ólimp-ū     sho trãh-igo    appád-aimá       ish-el
Olympus-GEN so  peak-ABL.PL swoop.PF-MID.CVB go.PFV-PST.3SG

"So she swooped down from the peaks of Olympus"

Ithákan-ga stávashi Udhussũ rasálmiash' entá mnes

Ithák-an   ga  stáv-ashi Udhuss-ũ     rasálmi-ashi  entá mne-s
Ithaca-GEN and land-LOC  Odysseus-GEN courtyard-LOC on stand.PFV-MID.PST.3SG

"And she stood in the land of Ithaca, on the courtyard of Odysseus.

potushiũ perashí

potushi-ũ     per-ashí
courtyard-GEN boundary-LOC

"at the boundary of the courtyard"

lámmashi-da ghálti' akimbhú bá zhezhel

lámm-ashi da ghálti-u   akimbh-ú  bá zhezh-el, 
palm-LOC and bronze-ACC spear-ACC in have.IPF-PST.3SG

" And in her palm, she had the bronze spear"

askémiu péhandu

askémi-u     péh-andu
stranger-ESS seem.SP-CVB.ACT

"seeming like a stranger"

IPA:

[ána nim pi ótruɦume ʒa᷅ːneːme ʋoːbʱu᷅ː pʰuːme᷅ːɦas 

áwɣʲu ʃ akimbʱú taɣel 

gʱa᷅ltaː pɪ ɽaskʰo᷅ːlu 

gʱwítʰru peːlú ʃɽeβɽʊ́

ɣiʋa᷅ːtel tʰíkuːs βeɽéʃɪtːu

ʋe᷅ɽkesːeːs pi mʊɽmi᷅ːtːu 

ólimpuː ʃo tra᷅ːɦiɣo apːáðajmá ɪʃel 

itʰákaŋ ɣa stáʋaʃɪ udʱusːʊ᷅ː ɽasálmʲaʃ entá mnes

potʊʃʊ᷅ː peɽaʃɪ́

lamːaʃɪ́ ða gʱáltʲ akimbʱú βá ʒeʒel

askémʲu péɦandu]

Creating a conlang for the first time for a project I'm working on atm. And by "a conlang" i mean um...... nine......conlangs........ *gulp* So basically what I'm wondering is since the conlangs I'm creating aren't super integral to the project I'm working on besides things like names (both people and locations), signage, people muttering swears in their native tongue under their breath, and just some general additional depth to my world's cultures, would phonological/grammatical evolution be required to avoid anything feeling forced or making no sense or would I be able to skirt around it for the most part without causing any problems.

*I know I probably don't actually have to make 9 languages but I want to. I just don't really wanna go THAT far into each of them if I really don't have to, especially because I've become attached to the first language I've created and don't want to have to change it all up

This is a game of borrowing and loaning words! To give our conlangs a more naturalistic flair, this game can help us get realistic loans into our language by giving us an artificial-ish "world" to pull words from!

The Telephone Game will be posted every Monday and Friday, hopefully.

Rules

1) Post a word in your language, with IPA and a definition.

Note: try to show your word inflected, as it would appear in a typical sentence. This can be the source of many interesting borrowings in natlangs (like how so many Arabic words were borrowed with the definite article fossilized onto it! algebra, alcohol, etc.)

2) Respond to a post by adapting the word to your language's phonology, and consider shifting the meaning of the word a bit!

3) Sometimes, you may see an interesting phrase or construction in a language. Instead of adopting the word as a loan word, you are welcome to calque the phrase -- for example, taking skyscraper by using your language's native words for sky and scraper. If you do this, please label the post at the start as Calque so people don't get confused about your path of adopting/loaning.

Last Time...

Yhó by /u/Zephreyt

金星 twán /tʷa˥n/ - decoration, ornament

家些為 金星些被 送問、它些 果小為 枝些被。
Kámo twánumé yuú, cékum zímo dzamé.
/ka˥-m-o tʷa˥n-ɯm-ɛ˥ jɯ-ɯ˥ | ɕɛ˥k-ɯm zi˥-m-o d͡za-m-ɛ˥/
room-PL-DAT decoration-PL-ACC give-SJV | 3SG.INAN-PL berry-PL-GEN branch-PL-ACC
“Give decorations to the rooms, they are berries’ branches.”

Take care of yourselves

Peace, Love, & Conlanging ❤️

Putting myself out here. A little nervous. I am building a tool in Python to construct taxonomies and apply ontological structures. This is for natural languages and constructed languages. There is a lot of philosophy involved including work from Aristotles “Categories” and the work in Ontology from the book, “Ontology, Laying the foundations.” I have been studying so hard to get to this point. Eventually it will have a way to add word banks

Nahánnà agráq'tal hàn qhá tarálagátànà.

/ɴɑ.χɑ́ɴ.ɴɑ̀ · ɑ.ɢ͡ʁɑ́.q͡ǂɑʟ̠ · χɑ̀ɴ · q͡χɑ́ · ʔɑ.ʁɑ́.ʟ̠ɑ.ɢɑ́.ʔɑ̀.ɴɑ̀/

worker-ANIM.PL forum to IRR summon-now-2SG

"Summon the workers to the forum now."

This sentence showcases several critical features of Naqhanqa. In no particular order:

• Idiosyncratic phonology: exclusively uvular/glottal articulation including click, one vowel
• Lexical tone to increase number of legal syllables: high (á), mid (a), low (à)
• Three-way animacy distinction: animate/inanimate/intangible
• One irrealis mood that encompasses the imperative (parsed as “if only you would”)
• Optional verb interfixes that specify manner or aspect

P.S. If any of this feels familiar, it’s because this is an old project originally posted under the account /u/destiny-jr. The account got suspended for reasons unknown and my recovery email was closed by the university, yay!!

as I can see, languages can grow all the time so conlangs as well. However, I do know that I can't do conlang my entire life but idk where the end for active creating conlang stage. When are you tell yourself like "phew, I did it. I'll do next conlang soon"?

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" "情人眼里出西施" "In the eyes of a lover, Xi Shi appears"

Make a proverb in your conlang that expresses that things that some things that people find ugly, some find beautiful.

In Hanto, There is a proverb:

**Suro Fōuzīe Bi Īfōe**

/suɾo foːud͡ziːe bi iːfoːe/

`good.things different.toeachother for people.different`

**What is good is different to different people**

hi, i am making a conlang and its writing system will be an abugida ish system so i use a lot of diacritics. i was wondering how one might make diacritics in things like fontforge or inkscape. i cant seem to find any resources online to make a conlang with diacritics without making every base syllable with every combination of diacritics

This is just a stupid thought that occurred to me (and probably many of you, too), but has anyone done any musing or serious work on incorporating burping into a conlang’s phonology? Would it be a consonant, vowel, both??

Obviously one would have to imagine a world where speakers have a different physiology from ours, but alas… Feels like something someone might try for the Cursed Conlang Circus lol

My conlang is a compounding monosyllabic loglang & I've been having trouble naming animals. Major groups are usually easy. Some examples with direct translation:

1. Arthropods: "segment-limb animals"
2. Birds: "feather animals"
3. Fish: "water scale animals"
4. Reptiles: "air scale animals"
5. Insects: "6-limb animals"
6. Squids: "beak 10-limb animals"
7. Trees: "wood plants"
8. Grass: "land plants"
9. Moss: "rock plants"

But most animals/categories (like cats, primates, cetaceans, ants, & apples) don't have 1 or 2 defining traits to base it on.

I'm thinking of using the Mandatin method for some & borrowing words (probably mainly from Latin) for others. What do you guys think?

For one of my A.P. Language classes, I had to read a poem which resonated with me. Here is my take on the poem.

« Tává Kánýceur »

Volsem p'nháré, der — tá vtúkáyn túrsan
naskapal urydeĵan með vjúr ;
vjúr pou̧na edsov eýlu glipdejvært
élre p'hjváudinýňes gæráĵétn frá kávyhú p'i hválelyost—
Hosna, der jhyd eu das aðmúnt
Rsésærnálh, der húd
Mnkeu̧sa kluk̨emýrtuenæs, dér çérié.

Enỷ taul túrsan ódaĵek e'y úral eu sér páesis
ku à fyrde enỷ faĵúsknálhpá há —
p'kéyrt þhgýrtælnálh tnó fǣkpe
oú p'lnáerulýbraðeurshóan gráetypá eu ený om tváe.
Ku kánétn evrælt pa háftýsæt mætaróus — kávrékælyr algéĵy érmu
Pa huu̧na vaúðétn karinal, de Áravía.
Phỳnasétn vtúkayn kerósdæ ndó-ne pou̧na
dansa cvafkákétnpá óĵejáo, der ynméas párkiælėju.
Pa fávni — váuðétn þbváraðtóuf — pa sasá ; kóngņa.

ku náou — ņupaset, de ðalsae
kásjíle g'ílurrévætóneðlyost.
Itỹrmas tá nouvá kýd puĵyt craépnálhvyhe,
de þóiðdésdésparg, cí ugævlou éfað
oú mæg visivtól nouvá p'klatusmaŝerpá, ký poŗaje
om tá riĵykle ìra háidá'gað
Fásleu p'kcáeleðegvélocæta kókpepá úty pa, de.

Pau, der p'káæghép das craépnálh — sápá eu kerósdæ —
Ņad isripétn éĵaeĵur g'Cíþplau háftýsæt i fjænmeu.
Ódaĵek týd eu sáĵer tília eu mæg rívæsklædeþæðýrndre
týd eu oilglá p'fróst márægérmu.

Pau vaúð tá vostar étháfaĵerétn
tér vaúð gýliĵersánát káluĵoe ku lyost.
Ņad enỷ nmkeu̧sa — phỳnasétn ulýdet.
Ku náou nár fægsá, der lóvea
Mæg kiŝer edetíképá.

Hey everyone,

I want to make conlangs for a Dungeons and Dragons: Forgotten Realms setting and an idea I have is to make three of the human Faerunic families related: Faerunian, Imaskari, and Rauric. I read some material about the (incredibly controversial and probably not true) Nostratic hypothesis and I think it’d be interesting to use it as inspo for my DnD conlangs, but would there be anything problematic about doing this or am I overthinking things? Because each of these groups represents a real life ethnic group and I don’t want to misrepresent them or for it to come off as weird. Would using the Nostratic hypothesis as the basis for my Faerunic conlang family be problematic in anyway or do you think it’s fine?
(Posting under a throwaway btw)

Thoughts?

In Hanto, The Solar System is just ordered.

Hey,

I'm working on very early stages of an experimental language learning app, aimed at taking absolute beginners to a basic knowledge that enables immersion. I picked toki pona for the proof of concept because of how tiny and simple it is.

The app is still early stages, but I'm looking for experimental users that love languages and think it would be fun to learn toki pona (a language of only 120 words!). The feedback could really help me figure out how to develop it.

If you're curious - the app aims to combine spaced repetition, contextual practice from the beginning, and explicit grammar instruction to build knowledge through translation exercises at the level of the student from day 0.

If you're interested please PM me!