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wrath-of-conlang · 5 years

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im tired of conlangs with shallow orthographies. they get boring after a while and most languages don’t have completely shallow orthographies unless they continually update spelling. id love to see people mix it up a little

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wrath-of-conlang · 5 years

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Ever wondered how all those traditional space‐opera and epic‐fantasy races – the pig‐faced warriors, the smug bumheads, and all the rest – came up with their wonderfully clichéd alien vocabularies? It’s not difficult; once you’ve mastered these basic rules, you’ll be able to produce names and phrases just as stereotypical as theirs!

LESSON ONE Languages described as “High”, like High Martian, Old High Vulcan, or indeed High Draconic, aren’t from upland regions (as is the case for, e.g., High German) – they’re ancient and complicated prestige dialects preserved from the days when the Empire was much bigger and better and more sophisticated. Speaking them requires considerable effort, dramatic gestures, and often a special capital‐T Talent.

LESSON TWO Sounds (and sequences of sounds) common in English are still possible in Alienese, but much less common – there are no exotic alien worlds called Stritty or Thudgewundle. Sounds (and sequences of sounds) entirely unused in English are also very rare in Alienese – no Star Trek character will ever be named Bwäølh or Ngì! But sounds (and sequences of sounds) uncommon in English are abundant in Alienese; hence the alien races known as the Xeelee, Chirpsithtra, and Githyanki.

LESSON THREE Initial K is especially popular (Kazon, Klendathu, Krell, K'kree). Incidentally, there’s a good reason for this (and one I’ll credit to Steve Mowbray): aliens are obsessed with triangles, a particular shade of green, the number three, and the letter K because they learned everything they know from our TV broadcasts. To be more specific, from a particular episode of “Sesame Street”.

LESSON FOUR Aliens enjoy designing their words to look like Latin or Greek, or occasionally Hebrew; they make heavy use of classical sounds spelt in classical ways, such as X, QU, TH, and PH – hence Thranx, Zarquon, Tholian, Cylon, et cetera. Some, such as the Romulans, Centauri, and Draconians, take it a step further and steal entire words out of Latin dictionaries (or Atlantean TV broadcasts, maybe).

LESSON FIVE What’s more, aliens tend to put classical‐looking endings on their names: ‐ON and ‐OS are particular favourites for planet names (Axos, Auron, Gothos, Krypton), and if there’s any sign of females, their names will end in an unstressed ‐A (Thuvia, Belanna, Dua, Ardana).

LESSON SIX A civilisation of billions of individuals will have no trouble allocating each one a unique, pronounceable name a syllable or two long (e.g. Worf, G'kar, Worsel, Kal‐El). They may even manage to make them all alliterate. Exceptions to this rule usually have very long names indeed, though there are a few planets where everyone is called Bruce to save time.

LESSON SEVEN The names of a species, empire, language, homeworld, homestar and so on will all be self‐evidently related; Ogrons come from Ogros, Arisians come from Arisia, Arcturans come from Arcturus, and Humans no doubt come from Humus.

LESSON EIGHT When the endings aren’t pseudoclassical they usually follow the Middle‐Eastern standard: Pakistan‐i, Minbar‐i, Tymbrim‐i, Kimdiss‐i. Such words often serve both as racial adjective and collective noun, removing the need for a distinct plural; where alien plurals do occur they either end in ‐I (Fyndii) or occasionally ‐N (Thrintun).

LESSON NINE A name dominated by guttural consonants and sibilants (Cthulhu, Troxxt, Chasch) indicates savagery; one with lots of front vowels and sonorants (Alderan, Eloi, Emereli) implies a more civilised nature. Except of course that mysterious gas‐giant races always have names like thunderous farting.

LESSON TEN If they use apostrophes, ignore them – they’re not serious. Some aliens will try to tell you that “'” stands for an obscure vowel (F'lar, T'pau, Sp'thra), or a silent consonant (Dra'Azon, Ka'a Orto'o), but in reality it’s purely decorative. It’s not clear why they choose to use apostrophes rather than, say, umlauts (à la Mötley Crüe) – or peculiar alien squiggles, come to that. Maybe they just want to keep things convenient for ASCII.

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wrath-of-conlang · 5 years

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years ago i messed around with the idea of a conlang where pronouns are coded for class or occupation or life phase instead of gender and im thinking about getting back to that concept when i have some time

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wrath-of-conlang · 6 years

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someone please make a conlang with no vowels. syllabic consonants are okay. i just think itd be fun. thanks

edit obviously sign languages and other languages in non oral modalities would have no vowels by default but lets be clear thats not what i am talking about

#conlangs #conlang prompts #conlanging

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wrath-of-conlang · 6 years

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so i cyrillized french

lə fʁãsɛ > ль фрѧся > m n ɲ > м н њ p t k > п т к b d g > б д г f s ʃ > ф с ш v z ʒ > в з ж l ʁ > л р > j i e ɛ ɛ̃ > й и е э ѩ ɥ y ø œ œ̃ > ю̆ ю ё ӭ ѭ ə a ã > ь а ѧ w u o ɔ ɔ̃ > ў у о ѡ ѫ

Final consonants are silent except in cases of liason; final <ь> and <ьз> are silent except in single-syllable words but ensure preceding consonants are always pronounced. Additionally, final <ѧт> is silent when used as a verb ending except once again in cases of liason, where it is pronounced /t/. Historical /l/ now pronounced /j/ is written as <љ>. Final <эр> is pronounced /e/ normally, but is (as the spelling suggests) /ɛʁ/ in cases of liason.

Tous les êtres humains naissent libres et égaux en dignité et en droits. Ils sont doués de raison et de conscience et doivent agir les uns envers les autres dans un esprit de fraternité. /tu lez‿ɛtʁ ymɛ̃ nɛs libʁz‿e ego ã diɲite e ã dʁwa. il sɔ̃ dwe də ʁɛzɔ̃ e də kɔ̃sjɔ̃s e dwavt‿aʒiʁ lez‿œ̃ ãve lez‿otʁ dãz‿œ̃ ɛspʁi də fʁateʁnite/ Туз лез этрьз юмѩз несѧт либрьз е егоз ѧ дињите е ѧ дрўаз. Илз сѫт дўез дь рэзѫ е дь кѫсйѫсь е дўавѧт ажир лез ѭз ѧвэрз лез отрьз дѧз ѭ эсприт дь фратэрните.

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wrath-of-conlang · 6 years

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The language only has 12 distinct phonemes, is toneless, and also has a very complex case system akin to Hungarian or Finnish.

#im gonna ffucking do it

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wrath-of-conlang · 6 years

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oooooo i just thought of an old project i can rework into this

id really like to try making a conlang that has non concatenating morphology sort of in the style of semitic languages but im very socioling focused and need a concept for a community of speakers in order to motivate myself to do it

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wrath-of-conlang · 6 years

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id really like to try making a conlang that has non concatenating morphology sort of in the style of semitic languages but im very socioling focused and need a concept for a community of speakers in order to motivate myself to do it

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wrath-of-conlang · 6 years

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It’s a fundamental principle of historical linguistics that vocabulary affects material culture: debates about the origins of the Indo-Europeans are substantially colored by the fact there are common Indo-European roots for “wheel” (e.g., *kʷékʷlos, from the reduplicated form of *kʷel-, “turn”) and associated technologies, which we would expect if the Indo-European dialects did not break up before the invention of that device. This is an argument against the Anatolian hypothesis, which has Indo-European originating much earlier, and following the spread of agriculture into Europe, while bolstering the theory that PIE arose on the Pontic steppe, and, like so many cultural invasions after it, swept into Europe from the east. To the extent that wheels were integral parts of subsequent cultures that spoke Indo-European languages, the common word for these objects took on a life of its own and was subject to the normal vicissitudes of sound change: words like chakra, wheel, and cycle are roots in their own right in the daughter languages, not derived forms kept regular by analogy.

In that spirit, I offer the following etymologies from a possible future daughter-language of English, whose technology, though having developed as far past our own as ours has that of the Indo-Europeans, bears the unmistakable marks of an earlier era—if you know where to look.

feshu < pēshɨ < “spaceship”: Simplification of the initial consonant cluster and monophthongization, the reduction of final unvoiced stops to glottal stops before being lost entirely, and the lenition of /p/. The final ɨ of the middle form participates in a chain shift of short vowels, becoming a back, rounded vowel. In a few dialects that experienced tonogenesis, this final /u/ retains its rising tone.

fallan < pārlan < “power plant”: fallan retains its final nasal, but is otherwise subject to similar rules; note also the assimilation of /rl/, part of a general trend away from the complex Indo-European consonant clusters of the parent language, possibly influenced by the adoption of the language by a large number of non-native speakers.

nokhufe < nokkirpar < “nuclear power”: Here, the relentless ablation of trailing syllables, triggered by English’s persistent initial stress, is evident. Unstressed syllables are monopthongized and shortened, and the medial syllable of the middle form is nearly lost entirely—saved by the semivocalic nature of <r> and its position between two stops. Still, an even more abbreviated form, noffe, is attested where dialects rejected /krf/ as a valid consonant cluster.

nitho < netuar < “(computer) network”: More lenition of unvoiced consonants; original /w/ acquires syllabic and vocalic properties, and the final syllable is lost entirely.

atten < (as[u]then <) hāssɨttem < “filesystem”: Merger of final nasals and loss of medial syllable due to the shift of secondary emphasis to the final syllable. Note that in at least one *NIX-using culture, this shift in emphasis did not take place, meaning the intermediate form asuthen was retained and, before this dialect was supplanted, was reborrowed into the standard language to mean “*NIX-derived (ext*-based) filesystems” specifically.

shunia < tshɨnirn < “(genetic) engineering” shinshun < tshintshɨnir < “genegineer” (portmanteau) thirren < tinrin < “(cybernetic) engineering”

A triplet of words originally derived from the same root, English engineer(ing). In each case, the word came to mean “enhancement or repair of organisms via advanced technology,” but in slightly different cultural circumstances. Shunia refers exclusively to plants and nonhuman animals, especially when altering them to adapt them to new environments. Shinshun refers to the practice of altering humans; the original semantic scope has changed from “those who study or implement such alterations” to “genegineers and their area of study” and finally just to “those who are so altered.” The third, thirren, refers to a combination of genetic and prosthetic technology whether applied to humans or to any other organism.

In the first /r/ eventually acquired an attenuated quality akin to German final r /ɐ/, and stress shifted to the first syllable. The second follows the normal course of sound changes given a slightly altered original form. The third word, on the other hand, has passed through either a dialect or another language, before being reborrowed into the standard language sometime in its middle phase of development. As a result, the structure of its vowels are less altered, and the initial consonant cluster has been simplified in a different manner.

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wrath-of-conlang · 6 years

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the word for "eat" in my conlang is "nom." don't let your memes be dreams.

#remember when i made the orc word for to see owo

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wrath-of-conlang · 6 years

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Idea: Make a humming language! The only phonemes would be /m/ and /h/, and it'd need to be tonal, but theoretically, you could make a language that people can speak without open their mouths. It'd be useful for talking while eating.

#oh wow this is a cool idea

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wrath-of-conlang · 6 years

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So I wanna make like a family of languages. But I have little idea as to how certain sounds shift over time

Check out this paper by William Annis. It tells you how various sounds change in various languages. It’s super useful!

#i hope its okay to reblog this #its a really good reference #ref #phonology

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wrath-of-conlang · 6 years

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Learn the Alien Languages of Star Trek: a Masterpost

Vulcan (Vulkhansu)

Vulcan Language Research Project

Vulcan Language Dictionary

Vulcan Writing Systems at Omniglot

Korsaya

Vulcan Language at Memory Alpha

Vulcan Language Institute

Vulcan Language Official Tumblr (No longer active, but still good info)

Cardassian (Kardasi)

Cardassian Language Tumblr

Kardasi Dictionary

Kardasi Grammar Summary

Cardassian Writing System Part 1

Cardassian Writing System Part 2

Cardassian Writing System Part 3 (Numbers)

Kardasi Quizlet Class

Cardassian Language at Memory Alpha

Klingon (Klingonese)

KlingonTeacher on Youtube

Learn Klingon Facebook Group

Klingon Teachings

Klingonska

The Klingon-English Dictionary by Marc Okrand PDF

Klingon Language at Memory Alpha

Duolingo Klingon Course

Klingon Language Institute

Klingon Language Assistant App (For Android Phones only)

Klingon for the Galactic Traveler by Marc Okrand

Conversational Klingon by Marc Okrand

Power Klingon by Marc Okrand

Romulan (Rihannsu)

Imperial Romulan Language Institute

Romulan Writing System on Omniglot

Central Institute of the Romulan Language

Romulan Language and Culture Institute

Romulan-English Dictionary

Romulan Language at Memory Alpha

Ferengi

Ferengi Language at Memory Alpha

Ferengi Writing System Part 1

Ferengi Writing System Part 2

Bajoran

Bajoran Language Project

The Bajoran Language File

Bajoran-English Dictionary

Bajoran Language at Memory Alpha

Trill

Trill Language at Memory Alpha

Trill Language at Holowiki (Not sure how accurate this is)

Dominionese

Dominionese at Memory Alpha

Borg

Borg Language at Memory Alpha

Andorian

Andorian-English Dictionary

Andorian Language at Memory Alpha

Andorian Languages at Memory Beta

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wrath-of-conlang · 6 years

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#515

A logographic language where the character for “loss” is

#change ur url

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wrath-of-conlang · 6 years

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I know this post is pretty old at this point but it's been nagging at the back of my mind because I just don't totally agree.

First off weird things happen all the time in language, and unlikely =/= impossible. I agree that this kind of system evolving naturally is unlikely. I also think it's unlikely for a language to have indefinite articles as prepositions and definite articles as suffixes, but Romanian has exactly that.

Let me walk through how I would evolve a system like the asker suggests, with animate nouns taking a plural marker as a preposition and inanimates taking a plural marker as a postposition.

I'd start with a system of noun classes modelled after Swahili. Different classes roughly correspond to different groups of animacy and inanimacy, and plural marking happens at the beginning of a word.

Say there's one class that applies to humans and some animals. Let's call it the a/nga class. In the singular, the nouns start with a-, but in the plural the prefix changes to nga-.

man: afa men: ngafa

woman: atu women: ngatu

dog: albo dogs: ngalbo

Then let's say we have a class of mostly inanimate nouns, say, small objects. It's called the m/m class and, due to historical phonological shifts, it's lost its singular-plural distinction so that you get

twig: mafa twigs: mafa

cup: mpa cups: mpa

ball: menga balls: menga

But say someone wants to emphasize that a word in the m/m class is plural. Number words follow nouns, so people use the word for "all", ti.

twig: mafa twigs: mafa ti

cup: mpa cups: mpa ti

ball: menga balls: menga ti

People decide it's a useful distinction and over time it becomes obligatory to mark the plural, and -ti is treated as a suffix.

Now say this is a language where the animate/inanimate distiction was already marked, say, with different animate and inanimate copulas. And say that the language underwent extensive contact with another language, like English under the Norman conquests, and a lot of existing noun class distictions got flattened as surviving ones became more generalized. nga- becomes a standard plural for animates and -ti becomes a standard plural for inanimates. Maybe not likely but absolutely possible.

I've just started on a new natlang spoken by an alien race, and I had an idea for syntax I'm not sure about. Nouns are either animate or inanimate and inflect differently, but they also take adpositions in different places e.g. animate nouns take prepositions while inanimate nouns take postpositions. Basically, do you think this feasible for a natlang, albeit a non-human one?

On first blush, no. Upon thinking further, also no. The only possible way I can imagine it is if it so happened that animate nouns developed adpositions from one lexical source, and inanimate nouns from the other (so, say, animate adpositions came from nouns, and inanimate came from verbs)—and nominal possession and object and verbs had different headedness—and the adpositions duplicated each other’s meanings perfectly. So, for example, if the adposition that ended up being “from” derived from the word for “arm” when it was applying to an animate noun, but derived from “come” when it was applying to an inanimate noun, and the word order was SVO but otherwise head-final, then that would do it, but you’d need to come up with a case for each adposition category, and a reason why you couldn’t use one category with other (you can say you wouldn’t use the “arm” one with inanimates, sure, but why not “come” with animates?). In short, it seems highly, highly improbable to have evolved naturally—or at least in such pristine fashion.

#conlangs #commentary

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wrath-of-conlang · 6 years

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One word: Proto-Quenya-Klingon. Why should natlangs be the only ones to have crackpot theories about family relationships?

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wrath-of-conlang · 6 years

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Here it is in the native orthography

Translate Star Trek’s intro Space: The Final Frontier … into your conlang

#kaerket

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