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Conlang - Blog Posts
ADHD hobbies are so odd because it's 830 pm and I'm trying to decide if I want to organize the alphabet of my artlang or finish hand sewing my purse made out of denim from jeans I've been saving for 3 years, and I started both of these projects this morning
New Scugsona..
Drawing anthro Saint for the first time!
I apologize if Saint's design seems "boring", however I did not want to adorn him in order to match his beliefs. If I were to, I would put each accessory with purpose; each having meaning as to why they would be on him, but I need to brainstorm for a teensy bit. For example, the malas beads have purpose! They help one count how many times they have repeated their mantra.
The long quote, Saint says, "taw'ag samsadasaŋ sahija aŋsagil. seimpojani yoŋija lam pagsimagilhaj kol'o amanja sagilgo. tul dakikonnawa kol sak'o dakilgochigol sahiga naka." Essentially, it is another (lengthened via the last sentence) mantra he just repeats from time to time. The language he is speaking is a conlang made by @opashoo here on Toomblr!
Let me know if I should color this and draw more of Smnainmmtnian anthro version.
yapyapyap
Watercolor with Yoŋasabi
The most recent one was finished—I think—two days ago, which is before I gained access to Yoŋasabi's font-thingy, so the glyphs aren't written properly. Sorry!
Yoŋasabi Glyph Practice.
Ah! I have tried my best...! I don't *exactly* know what I'm doing with all of this, but I am sure I have a decent grasp. I am still making a bunch of mistakes of course—some I most likely don't even notice, haha! For example, the Monk glyph is pretty confusing (you can see my confusion at the top of the page with the least writing). When there is the sound "aki", do I put the Monk glyph *then* "ki"? Do I attach both vowels like I did? Unsure, but that is the best part. Yoŋasabi is a conlang created by @opashoo here for oPashoo's Rain World AU! It is free to use and learn, yet it is still being tweaked and updated. Tell me how I did, y'all! (First post BTdubs).
man i want to worldbuildd soooo baddd..... no creativity.....
all my homies hate creating a pleasant sounding phonology and phonotactics this shit sucks how do i do this
she a 10 but she use absolutive-ergative alignment
Currently making a conlang.
"Rock" in this language is "yey". It's pronounced exactly that. Sash lim yey tit.
There's also "Pashsal" meaning "white, bright or day". "Black, dark or night" is "lasshap" the opposite of "pashsal". Sash pashsal piy lasshap lim shammur tapsat.
"Tarrat" is "fire". Sash rishlem tarrat map ruj. :3
Longest word with over 13 letters iiiis "Tutpuysemrishlem", which just means "fisherman". Three word combo.
And now for something completely different... again...
We’ve all heard of aUI, right? A theoretical universal language constructed by Viennese psychoanalyst W. John Weilgart, with a dictionary of over 11111 words compiled by whoever Andrea G. Weilgart Patten is. It was designed to construct words from singular elements of meaning, each with their own intuitive grapheme and phoneme, arranged such that all homophonous words are also related. The lofty idea of the language of space is that these elements are so fundamental it could be used and understood effectively and efficiently by any intelligent creature in the universe, hence its title: the Language of Space. O△~
I… LOVE THIS IDEA! Love it to bits! It’s a beautiful intersection of linguistics, psychology, the philosophy of consciousness, symbolism, and emergence. It’s exactly the kind of project a nerd like me would work on if I believed I could and had thought of it first. But does aUI actually achieve that idea? I have several doubts.
So great was that initial inspiration that I took it upon myself to help it over its stumbling blocks, to produce... aUI2. Really.
I am aware of efforts such as this which aims to tweak the vocabulary and grammar until it's a bit more bearable, but that doesn't satisfy me. It's not up to the VISION, you understand! Unity, precision, so irrefutable it could be the words of reality itself. The language of space and time and all that ever was. I'll let you be the judge...
Yeah I also don't know what to do with this but it's pretty neat, right? :P
⇂Λ •4♡ϟ •
⎯⇀ᘓ⁀4△~!
If you are a conlanger, a group from the University of Washington is looking for your input as they set about to create some conlanging software! The survey is fairly short (~5 minutes), and please feel free to share!
Documentation from my final critique in drawing!
I loved this class and everyone in it, critique was great and everyone's work was stunning :]
I'm scared that duolingo will pick this up now
Yes I'm serious, no I'm not okay
(I'll be tagging this and further parts as #buzzkill aquatic so feel free to use that tag too if you use my aquatic expansion in your art/animations/fanfics etc)
Next part (tail edition):
Jack! I need urgent assistance!
Why the fuck is it so hard to make a realistic fictional language?!
I have literally scoured the deepest, darkest places of the internet to try and understand how to make my own fictional language that is important to story but I just don’t get it.
I have watched behind the scenes Star Trek, Game of Thrones, and Avatar to try and understand how they came up with such beautiful and articulate languages but once again, came up empty, it’s like trying to explain physics to a donkey AKA me.
Can you help me? And if you can, please explain it to me like I am a dumb toddler trying to learn how to write my name for the first time?
Oof. Now, there's many conlang guides out there, but they're all for people who actually like conlanging and I, dear reader, do not. I hate conlanging, I suck at it, and analytic grammar is a consistent foe of mine that I cannot beat. But, conlanging is one of the best ways to introduce a whole heaping helping of realism to your setting as well as getting you to really think about how said setting works as you need to figure out what would have an individual word and why. Now that'll make sense in a moment, I promise.
But first...
Jack's Quick 'n Dirty Guide To Conlangs For If You Hate Conlanging
Step One: sounds.
Sounds (ha!) easy right? Weeeeeell... yes and no. Now, the easy part is making the sounds, really. Just start babbling in a way that you want your conlang to sound like and get going! Sing a bit, put on whatever accent you want, really have some fun with it until it sounds right. You got that? Good, now note that down in plain text as best as you can. Do whatever makes sense to you, but make sure you know exactly how to pronounce the sound once you've annotated it so you can reproduce it later, trust me on this one. But now comes the hard part.
Step Two: IPA
If you don't know what IPA is, bless your heart you innocent soul, you're about to learn something that will make you lose a bit of innocence today. IPA stands for the International Phonetic Alphabet and it can annotate the exact pronunciation of any words in any language in the world. If you've ever had a dictionary in front of you and you see that little section underneath the word where it's written again but like, with upside down Es and symbols that look like æ and đ and even ɮ? Congrats, you know what IPA looks like. Now, this thing was designed by some very clever people with an eye for thoroughness but not for practicality. See, it can notate every pronunciation there is, but boy oh boy, will it not make that easy for you. Read up on it anyway, learn how to use it, pull out an afternoon for it, you're gonna need it. IPA Chart is a good website that will help you out here, it's an interactive version of the IPA alphabet with short pronunciation sound clips attached to each symbol. Done all that? Good. Now we get to the really bitchy part.
Step Three: notate every funny sound you made down in IPA
Yes, every single one. Pull up an excel spreadsheet, notate the plain text in one column, a pronunciation in the second, and leave a third open for later. Notate every single word as best as you can, and make sure to save your work. This is gonna be long work, this is gonna be tedious work, and it's gonna be necessary work. You won't like it, you won't have fun, but future you will thank you and you would do anything for that bitch so get notating until you get to
Step Four: What does anything even mean????
Finally, some fun again. Now we get to the part where you get to assign meaning to each sound you've produced. Remember how I advised you to sing a little song? Yeah? Excellent. A quick and easy way to get a bunch of words sorted is to write a roughly similar song in a language that does exist and one you preferably understand already, and use that as a "guide" of what each word is "supposed" to mean. Make your own rosetta stone! Give yourself a break, trust me, it's much easier this way. And don't be afraid to get creative. See one sound or syllable you used a lot? Great, that can be a pronoun or an article or something else that's often used in a language.
Example: I liked the word "ra" a lot, so that's the word for "I" in Karilaa. From there I picked a few other words I liked and roughly hashed out the following
Ra = I
Ta = You
Su = We
Vu = They
Easy, good, simple. I don't bother with gender because fuck gender, but if you want it, go for it champ, now's the time. And you know what else I noticed while doing this? I was using "ra" and "ta" a lot in the last syllables of words, so I figured out how tenses work in my language as well in one fell swoop and made them affixes to verbs.
Really, there are no rules, so make them up to suit whatever aesthetic you want your language to have, but make sure to write everything down. No exceptions. Everything has to be written down.
Step Five: Rinse and repeat
Congrats, you now have some basics of a language! You can basically use and reuse this recipe to get More Language of the language you already have and guess what! Now you already have some language so you won't have to start from scratch! It's like a sourdough starter! Now ain't that neat. Now, if you do this and keep meticulous notes like I told you to you'll essentially be building up your own dictionary as you go, ready to consult for all your future conlanging needs.
Now, is this how good conlangers do it? No! Hell no! Absolutely not! But I'm not a good conlanger, and if you want this guide, neither are you. I'm sorry, but I'd rather you hear it from me than them when they invoke J.R.R. Tolkien's ghost to roast you. This is a guide for people who want a conlang but suck at conlanging. This is a guide for people who can't do it all neat and according to the rules but need to brute force a bitch in order to get some practical results for immediate use.
Now go forth and create!
Naughty words in a godless world
Imagine you're writing a story that takes place in a world that has no God, or gods, or saints. What do you do with exclamations like "Oh gosh!" (derived from "Oh God") or "Jeez!" (derived from "Jesus!")? And - oh god - what do you do with curses and swear words? If your characters can't say "Oh my god", "hell no", or "damn" because there are no gods to damn anyone to hell... what are your options?
Here is a list for inspiration
In general, non-religious curse and swear words refer to local cultural taboos.
Many languages swear by referring to cleanliness: dirty, sweaty, sticky, smelly etc. This includes things you do on the toilet.
Some languages, like Dutch, use diseases as curses and insults. For example, someone nasty/bothersome might be called a "cancer sufferer" in Dutch. These swear words are combinations of (derivates of) typhus, cholera, and cancer.
Societal hierarchy and family trees, mainly the inferior positions like a bastard (seen as inferior in the family tree) or a derogatory word that refers to lower class people (seen as inferior in that society).
On the other hand, you could insult a highly valued member of the other person's family, like their mother, or of their society, like their Queen/Emperor.
Sexual taboos, often implying someone (or their mother) is more sexually active than society accepts of them.
Calling someone the word for someone's genitalia refers to the same taboo.
How do you apply this to your language?
You could use explicit/taboo words as ... :
... an intensifier: "It was a shit-hot day."
... a negative adjective: "This is a shitty job."
... an insulting noun: "This journey is shit."
Or try to be creative and combine different taboos for a multi-hit offense. My favorite one is the Spanish "I shit in your mother's milk", which combines insulting the other person's mother, the taboo of bodily functions, and the taboo of cleanliness.
During my research I came across this article, which contains a number of concrete examples from all over the world you can draw inspiration from.
And on a less offensive note, you could always make up your own equivalent of "Merlin's beard!", "Great Scott!", or "For Pete's sake!" (Pete, by the way, is a catholic reference: Pete is Saint Peter.)
I hope this was helpful. Don’t hesitate to ask me any questions, and happy writing!
Follow me for more writing advice, or check out my other writing tips here. New topics to write advice about are also always appreciated.
Tag list below the cut. If you like to be added to or removed from the list, let me know.
And if you come up with creative curses, feel free to add them in the comments :)
@therska @writingwordsaddrawingpictures @the-words-we-never-said @writingwhithotchocolate @i-rove-rock-n-roll @maskedlady @no-time-like-write-now @timefire25 @black-lakritz-dragon @nzmayart @fandomrandomness-stuff @dangertoozmanykids101 @anaestheticdisaster @storytellingofravens @purpleshadows1989 @mathematicpony @i-don-t-know-words @notquitenovelist @coffeescribles @reffaces @livingthelovelylife @katsglabella @lokitty-is-my-spirit-animal @thefallenbibliophilequote @watchmewritedumb @sting-the-scribe @kais-writing-shit @dameschnee123 @curiosityonmars @oodlittlething @nonbinarychaoticstupid
Conlang whose pronouns are made by shooting guns
Direct/Indirect reference is controlled by shooting at a target either directly or indirectly Direct Reference: I : Pistol You: Rifle We: Landmine Royal we: Claymore Ya'll/They: Shotgun. For larger groups, grapeshot cannons or howitzers are acceptable alternatives Indirect Reference: I: Though it makes no sense to refer to yourself indirectly, you may do so by firing into the air and running to the location the round will land. You: Rifle/Bow aimed to arc onto the target. (Bows are typically used in more formal settings) We: Grenade(thrown directly up; a held grenade is still direct reference) Royal We: Grenade(Thrown away from yourself) All of You/They: Artillery The degree of politeness is determined by hitting different locations. Highest/Formal: Head. General/Acquaintances: Torso Casual/Familial or Close Friends: Limbs. Missing is considered derogatory.
Though there is more to the language, the sentence structure is SOV, with the addressee spoken first. No one has actually gotten more than 2 words into the language until the advent of Kevlar.
So… I may or may not have written an entire Conlang based on a single joke in Minecraft Parkour Civilization 2. That would be ridiculous. Aha. Hahahaha. Ha.
*cough*
A Quick Guide to Writing in Parkour
Flourish List.
You add these in front of blocks to change their meaning. There’s a key at the bottom containing the Parkour alphabet which demonstrates how the space, 180°, 360°, and 720° Flourishes are used to refer to specific English-Letter analogs.
_ = Space
C = 180° Flourish = 5 spaces
O = 360° Flourish = 10 spaces
8 = 720° Flourish = 20 spaces
? = Reverse = Reverses input
^ = Vertical Jump = Raises Intensity
v = Drop = Lowers Intensity
Block List.
These are the building blocks (lmfao) of the language and are what would be counted as an “input” or “letter”. Also included are short legends under each block describing what each flourish does to each block!
(Note! _,C,O, and 8 cannot be applied to any block other than [ ] and H)
[ ] = Block = Grammatical Value
(?[ ] = Capitalized)
(^[ ] = Impassioned)
(v[ ] = Depressed)
H = Fence = Numerical Value
(?H = Negative)
(^H = Exponential)
(vH = Square Root)
u = Pot = Period
(?u = Comma)
(^u = Hyphen/Equality)
(vu = Parentheses)
I = Pane = Question
(?I = Exclamation)
(^I = Command)
(vI = Sarcasm)
% = Brewing Stand = Addition
(?% = Subtraction)
(^% = Multiplication)
(v% = Division)
Alphabet
a = [ ]
b = _[ ]
c = __[ ]
ch = ___[ ]
d = ____[ ]
e = C[ ]
f = _C[ ]
g = __C[ ]
h = ___C[ ]
i = ____C[ ]
j = O[ ]
l = _O[ ]
m = __O[ ]
n = ___O[ ]
o = ____O[ ]
p = OC[ ]
r = _OC[ ]
s = __OC[ ]
sh = ___OC[ ]
t = ____OC[ ]
th = 8[ ]
u = _8[ ]
v = __8[ ]
w = ___8[ ]
y = ____8[ ]
Numbers
0 = H
1 = _H
2 = __H
3 = ___H
4 = ____H
5 = CH
6 = _CH
7 = __CH
8 = ___CH
9 = ____CH
Now that you have all the tools, let’s put it all together~!
————————————
?8[ ]____C[ ]__OC[ ] ____C[ ]__OC[ ] OC[ ][ ]_OC[ ]__[ ]____O[ ]_8[ ]_OC[ ]?I
____CHH% _HH ^u _HHH
?C[ ][ ]____OC[ ] 8[ ]C[ ] _OC[ ]____C[ ]___[ ]^I
————————————
Big thanks to my friend PrismaticKoi for giving me the idea and helping me figure this all out! Working with her made this process super fun!!!
Enjoy Parkour-!!! I’ll be coding an English<—>Parkour translator at some point, so stick around to find that!!
All of you need to go watch Minecraft Parkour Civilization though. It’s seriously fantastic.
How do you type laughing in your language or conlang?
English: ha ha ha
Russian: ха ха ха (pronounced: kha kha kha)
I’m actually so curious
here’s a quick illustration of the writing system!
Question about the snailiens, have they developed any textiles? If so, what are they made from?
Apologies for such a delayed response to your question!
Snailiens typically don't wear fabric clothing in their daily lives, except for special occasions. Instead, they utilize a native plant called 'brush kelp' that they weave into cloth for ceremonial banners and other purposes. Additionally, they have a writing system akin to quipu, where they knot together strands of brush kelp with beads to convey information and record their history.
Question about the snailiens, have they developed any textiles? If so, what are they made from?
Apologies for such a delayed response to your question!
Snailiens typically don't wear fabric clothing in their daily lives, except for special occasions. Instead, they utilize a native plant called 'brush kelp' that they weave into cloth for ceremonial banners and other purposes. Additionally, they have a writing system akin to quipu, where they knot together strands of brush kelp with beads to convey information and record their history.
I'm currently reading "The Universal Translator" by Yens Wahlgren.
This is the first non-fiction book I've genuinely enjoyed. There have been points where I have laughed or chuckled because it's just so fun.
This is a book about made-up langauges, known as conlangs. This means it covers everything from history's very first conlangs to your favourite fandom's languages. I'm having such a great time going from page to page thinking: "Omg! I've watched that show!"
So would truly recommend for those interested in languages or just any geek. It's got everything from Star Wars to Pingu.
find local theater near you. go to local theater near you. read plays. read non-fiction books. read fiction books written over one hundred years ago. go to the movie theater. watch movies with subtitles. watch slow movies. watch challenging movies. watch movies made for less than five million dollars. watch a documentary. watch television shows that have no fandoms. watch classic television shows. watch television shows starring actors that have no social media. read criticism of your favorite media frequently. think critically about your favorite media often. consume media made for adults.
So, when I started writing up a book, I decided, "Hey, I should make up a language for these little aliens, it won't take that long, right?"
"Oh."
