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")

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

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

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.