Creating Conlangs

[Zale]

Right. I tried this in the “Stuff & Bother” folder, but I only got minimal response, so I thought I’d try again here.

I have as a hobby the crafting of conlangs (languages invented by one person, usually for their own enjoyment) and I’ve run out of resources on the ‘web. I’ve been to the Zompist site, but I haven’t found much else of interest.
So, if anyone knows of any good sites that deal with the creation of languages – or writing systems – could they post it here please?

(To see my languages – well, snippets of them – see the thread in “Stuff & Bother”.)

[Lantarion]

I personally think that only variables and affectors that have 'passively' affected you and your style of writing/creating should be used in the creation of languages and such, and that you yourself are the best person to say how to create such things; better, I think, than an other person. If it comes from you alone, it's genuine, nevermind what books/authors/etc. have left their mark on you.
I am in the process of creating a language myself, and because I love Tolkien's creation of Quenya the language sounds somewhat like it; but I have not, e.g., taught myself Quenya to be able to create a language of my own. I only intend to add a similar 'style' (i.e. a sort of "Elvish" or aesthetic air) to the language.

But I can see why somebody would want to have some tips before creating a writing system or language, so that they do not start it form scratch themselves (Tolkien certainly didn't!). But sorry, I don't know of any such sites. :)

[Niniel]

I did some searching and I found some sites:

www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/9219/conlangfaq.html
http://wiw.org/~jkominek/lojban/9108/msg00016.html
http://www.glossopoiesis.net/conlangs.html
http://yhl.freeservers.com/conlang.html

Maybe they're useful, but there are many more. But I suppose you've seen these all before, since you're so interested I guess you've searched harder than I have.

[Lantarion]

Wow, those sites were excellent!
Really interesting.. Especially the second-last link.. I wonder if that language and the histories have been used in any published works.. Sounds very cool! :cool:
And though some of those conlangs sound a bit silly, most of them sound perfectly pllausible. And the fact that the epople inventing them are actually adults, who are probably experts of languages and phonetics and the aesthetics of tongues etc., makes my feeble attempts of a language (which I call Rómocantë :)) seem quite funny.. I try to make it sound impressive and generally as naïvety-free as humanly possible, and to include all the needed rules and grammar, but I think I need to learna lot more about languages and their compositions before I can actually complete it properly. :rolleyes:

[Zale]

Wow! Response!
Strangely enough, if you know another language well, your conlang is a lot less likely to sound like a cypher (sp?) of English. What I'm interested in is how other people have put their grammar together; I've seen some truly innovative things, like languages without nouns, and another without verbs. Writing systems I tend to need more inspiration, or mine just end up looking the same. Although I have 2 that I'm really proud of, and look great on paper, but not on the PC.
I'll look at the links when I have a bit more time, but thanks in advance.
For the rest of you, the Language Construction Kit was really useful to me, & I'd reccommend it to anyone.
My languages do not have names, strangely enough; even though I know who speaks them. I'll think on that.

[Raithnait]

Rhian and I both have our own languages started(she's got all the verbs, I have more nouns & relations so far, and she's got the abstract emotions like love/hate. etc). and I think it's really funny that we started them at the same time and yet they have such different sounds. I do think knowing the general structure of another language helps not to have such an Anglican structure to it. I studied Japanese for a while and and am currently learning German and my language(Bel'fazarean), while having parts of words that in and of themselves could sound Asian, it also has a European twist to it, and yet the grammer rules are completely different from either style.

[Raithnait]

I didn't see that about wanting to know about the grammer... um, hang on to your staffs!

each word is a root and can be a keno or kena(one means prefix the other suffix, and I don't really remeber which is which). the longer a word is, the more descriptive because of the more keni added(ie, for uncle "Ankan"(father-brother) is the simple version, used by the Derojana despite the uncle's actual relation, the Aelanwaithena are much more conscious of eactly how the person is related, like "son of my father's mother"Kananam")no two consonants can touch each other(as these people are overly fond of vowels) and if in the adding of kenoa and kenae two consonants would end up next to each other they are connected by a ' (ie, Bel'fazare), which is said as a very minute pause, but not long enough to denonte another word entirely. K is maculine and C is feminine(often said as "ch" in instances like girl "cha" vs. boy "ka" where it must be audibly apparent wich you mean as all C's are hard as in Anglican "cotton"). Um... I know I had more.... am too tired to think of the rest.

[Lantarion]

Sounds very interesting! I was ever so slightly put off by the "Kananam".. Kana means 'chicken' in Finnish. :D
But perhaps a new thread should be created just to show others our work.. I have been quite unwilling to post anything on here, because I was afraid someone might 'steal' my thoughts. I suppose it's still a possibility, but perhaps we can be civil enough to dismiss such thoughts. :)

I very recently invented a writing system, which is used by a race of "lion-men" (A'tagri) but adopted by more cosmopolitan countries. It is called Sarr'Anir in the "lion-man" language, and translated into Rómocantë as Arnohanto, which means "lion's tail". I wish I could show some of it, but I'm a real klutz with scanners and cameras and things..
I was surprised myself how well it came out.. I only worked on it for one evening! I've obviously been editing it over the past few days, but nevertheless. I had been formulating an idea in my head of something with long, spidery symbols and the like, and I feel great because I feel like I've done that now.

[Zale]

The problem with writing systems is that unless you have a scanner (which I don't), you can't really display them on the 'net. Suffice it to say that both of mine look quite distinct (despite sharing roots) and elegant in different ways.
I think a new thread on 'our conlangs' might be a great idea; like our tribute to Tolkien, by sub-creating (!). We could post ideas for avoiding Anglicisation and so on. As well as admiring excellent phonology. I'd be very intereste to see how similar other people's efforts are to my own.

[Lantarion]

If you want, you can start one as soon as you like! :)
As long as it's in the "Prancing Pony", not in this forum.. This is for the "Languages of Middle-earth", not the "Languages of Middle-earth-lovers". ;)

[Zale]

I think I might do that, then. But not tonight. I'm too busy looking at various university websites...