Home Page › Forums › Fiction Writing › General Writing Discussions › Conlangs!
- This topic has 22 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 9 months ago by TheArcaneAxiom.
-
AuthorPosts
-
August 28, 2023 at 2:43 pm #154862
Mae lojasa le’ije’el! Good hello everyone! I decided to make a forum for conlangs!
What are some fictional languages in your world that you’ve thought about at any level. Have you developed it? Is it based off of any existing language? What are your favorite parts of it, grammar, structure, simplicity, complexity, ect. Does it have a writing system?
He is perfect in Justice, yet He is perfect in Mercy, even when we fail Him. For this, He is good.
August 28, 2023 at 2:44 pm #154863btw, I will be happy to help anyone with their conlang:)
He is perfect in Justice, yet He is perfect in Mercy, even when we fail Him. For this, He is good.
August 28, 2023 at 2:51 pm #154864Ohh cool!! I’ve been messing around a bit with some conlangs for a side project. I don’t have much developed yet, lol. I might post more later🙃
In the meantime, I’ll definitely be stalking this topic XD
Any noun can become a verb if you don't care enough.
August 28, 2023 at 2:54 pm #154865😂 Alright, fine with me!
He is perfect in Justice, yet He is perfect in Mercy, even when we fail Him. For this, He is good.
January 19, 2024 at 10:39 pm #173747@highscribeofaetherium @thearcaneaxiom
Hmm… this sure didn’t go far. Let’s revive it!
🏰 Fantasy Writer
✨ Magic System Creator
🎭 Character RPer
📚 Appreciator of BooksJanuary 19, 2024 at 10:55 pm #173749100% I’ll have to start posting all my different conlangs on here!
He is perfect in Justice, yet He is perfect in Mercy, even when we fail Him. For this, He is good.
January 19, 2024 at 11:15 pm #173750Ooo… I’ve been working on a few conlangs… I may share some later.
🤍 Ira | Jara | Evelyn | Flaz | Blaine 🤍
January 20, 2024 at 1:39 am #173752Lasi’el is my most developed conlang. It is spoken by the Shome’el. I originally created Lasi’el with the goal of creating a language out of entirely soft consonants to sound fluid and beautiful. I gave the exception of the glottal stop however, just to add a little exotic flavor, which is represented by the symbol ” ‘ “. (The glottal stop exists in English in weird places, think the stop of air you make in-between the uh and oh in uh oh.)
Lasi’el has a simple OVS sentence structure (Object Verb Subject).
The Shome’el value thought, which is one of a few primary influences in the language. The word for human is Sho’em, coming from esho sem, meaning one who thinks. Shome’el is essentially just this but plural, vwel being the plural suffix. Lasi’el comes from elasi vwel, meaning speak many.
Simple phrases like “Mae esho vwij?” and “Mae sho’ijel omia vwij?” (informal and formal respectively) are essentially asking, “how are your thoughts?”
Mae is a word that essentially can mean “yes” and it can mean “good”, similar to it’s oppisite ma’i, meaning no and bad. When you say something like lojasa (hello), or shele (thanks) it’s considered bad etiquette if you do not include mae at the beginning.
There are only 7 consonants, which are: m, n, s, j (french j), sh, vw, l, and the glottal stop.
There are only 4 vowels, which are: a (as in apple), o (as in so), e (as in elevator), and i (as what English speakers would think of as ee, like feet).
Verbs are usually structured with a vowel on the beginning and end, like esho, or ajioshi. Nouns are usually the opposite, having consonants on the front and back. Nouns actually in most cases made from verbs in ways that have been discribed before. Ajioshi, meaning to walk, combines with the word sem, which more or less means thing, turns into jioshi’em, or one who walks, usually meaning animal. There are many base words like sem that turn a verb into a noun, like sovwal (direction), nijen (sound), soel (substance), ect.
Prompt:
Lasi’el is a favorite language of mine, and I’m glad for this time in which I’ve been able to share it. Goodbye!
Translation:
Lasi’el eloa ivwa len. Elisho, mia’ijel omia ashele len. Mae loja’i!
- This reply was modified 9 months, 3 weeks ago by TheArcaneAxiom.
He is perfect in Justice, yet He is perfect in Mercy, even when we fail Him. For this, He is good.
January 20, 2024 at 1:46 am #173754This is the Lasi’el script. It says: Lasi’el elasi vwij? Lasi’el elasi len. Meaning, Do you speak Lasi’el? I speak Lasi’el.
He is perfect in Justice, yet He is perfect in Mercy, even when we fail Him. For this, He is good.
January 20, 2024 at 7:42 am #173758Cool! Did you create all the rules of this language before you created any words? I have found that it can be a bit annoying to have to fit all the words I have into the language, but it’s also nice to have some as a starting point.
🏰 Fantasy Writer
✨ Magic System Creator
🎭 Character RPer
📚 Appreciator of BooksJanuary 20, 2024 at 8:08 am #173759@everyone
I’ve already showed everyone my Árvendin conlang, but I have a few updates I could share. For quick reference, I’ll put my alphabet here.
I’ve been meticulously deciding how to indicate each letter is latinized characters. There’s still some overlap between letters, but I think most of the possible confusions have been cleared up. Here is how you show each one:A: A
Kah: C or K
Gah: G
Ah: Á
Bah: B
Dah: D
O: O
Jah: J
Ĵah: Ĵ
Oo: oo or u (if the syllable is followed by an e)
Mah: M
Nah: N
Ee (consonant): Y
Ee (vowel): Í, Ee, or Y
Hah: H
Rah: R
Eh: E
Sah: S
Shah: Sh
Uh: A, O, or U
Vah: V
Wah: W
Ih: I
Tah: T
Thah: Th
I: I
Pah: P
Lah: L
That probably wasn’t very interesting 😅
Long story short, a bunch of words have accent marks on them now.
I’ve been contemplating additional Ádonian languages as well. I’m probably not going to flesh them out, but I want a good feel for what they are.
The first one is the Sa Li. (This is the shapeshifting tiger race I’ve mentioned before. So far, I know that all of their names will be composed of one consonant sound followed by one vowel sound. I’m thinking about having their entire language be monosyllabic, but I’m not sure if that would be a viable language.
Secondly, I want to have an ancient language that Árvendin came out of, but is also distinct in many ways. It could also serve as the basis for some other languages in the present. Basically all I have to go on right now is the name ‘Izre.’ This name is definitely un-Árvendin, and not because if the ‘z,’ because that actually is pronounced as an ‘s.’ The name is pronounced ‘eese-ray.’ The ‘r’ is rolled, and the ‘s’ is long and sibilant. Izre also pronounced ‘w’s with a bit of a ‘v’ sound to them, so that would be another part of the language. (More of a ‘vw’ sound than a pure ‘v’ though.)
🏰 Fantasy Writer
✨ Magic System Creator
🎭 Character RPer
📚 Appreciator of BooksJanuary 20, 2024 at 10:11 am #173765@anyone
___________________________________________
Here’s my first attempt at a good conlang. It is, Yojieo—the language of the Burnish.
The sounds I picked for the alphabet are:
- The short and long versions of each vowel are different letters in Yojieo. A, Ā, E, Ē, I, Ī, O, Ō, U, and Ū.
- The consonants L, G, Y, N, M, B, K, J (French j), H, S, and D.
- There are also the sounds: Ph, Ts, Dz, Sh, and Ch.
- When I was looking at the IPA chart, I thought “ɲ” made an interesting sound… so I decided to use that as well.
- And lastly, Yojieo also has some strange sounds: AO, EO, UO, IEO, and OU. (AO is AY-O, EO is EH-O, UO is OO-U, IEO EE-O, OU is Oww).
I really love the way Hangul looks, so I loosely modeled my letters after it. So yeah. Here’s what my alphabet looks like:
I have a lot of words already, but I’m still coming up with more…
🤍 Ira | Jara | Evelyn | Flaz | Blaine 🤍
January 20, 2024 at 12:01 pm #173788This so cool y’all! Bbut I have never even touched conlang before… Not sure if I’d have the patience. XD Maybe I’ll try it someday…
Write what should not be forgotten. — Isabel Allende
January 20, 2024 at 12:15 pm #173789Cool! Did you create all the rules of this language before you created any words? I have found that it can be a bit annoying to have to fit all the words I have into the language, but it’s also nice to have some as a starting point.
What’s worse than starting with the words is also starting with the script. Those are both problems I had making conlangs before Lasi’el. I was always too excited by the pretty pictures that I started with those, and tried turning that into a language. This is the ugly fate of Lopax, Salga, and Thligek.
Lopax was my first conlang, and it’s what I made before I knew conlanging was a thing. I was messing with some math, and created some geometric symbols that looked like an arcane langauge, so I had to explore that, and that’s what led me down that path. The thing is though is that this is simply not how languages develop. They start with words, then potentially writing later on. If you try to do the opposite, it makes it look artificial and forced.
When it comes to words, it can be similar if you start with too many before actually laying down rules. What I think is nice is to make 1 to 5 different words that you like, then reverse engineer the sounds, adding or discarding what you like, or simply start with an IPA chart, and selecting what sounds you like. Too many words that sound too different can work, but it can be a headache to reverse engineer all the sounds, and you now have to figure out how the words you came up with mesh in specific ways that makes them seem like a unified tongue instead of random sounds.
The first one is the Sa Li. (This is the shapeshifting tiger race I’ve mentioned before. So far, I know that all of their names will be composed of one consonant sound followed by one vowel sound. I’m thinking about having their entire language be monosyllabic, but I’m not sure if that would be a viable language.
It could be possible to have a monosyllabic language, it would just be hard, and there would need to be a reason for such a specific quirk, because it would be regarded as impractical otherwise, because it’s not taking advantage of one of the main utilities syllables give. You’d need a pretty substantial consonant and vowel selection to make sure you can have different sounds, but you can also add all sorts of modifiers like tone and vowel length to further diversify.
Some quirks could be unique to there race, like perhaps it’s difficult for them to speak multiple syllables pushed together because of the shape of their mouths, maybe even having something to do with their tiger forms. Perhaps they could have some analogues to growls and roars as well.
Secondly, I want to have an ancient language that Árvendin came out of, but is also distinct in many ways. It could also serve as the basis for some other languages in the present. Basically all I have to go on right now is the name ‘Izre.’ This name is definitely un-Árvendin, and not because if the ‘z,’ because that actually is pronounced as an ‘s.’ The name is pronounced ‘eese-ray.’ The ‘r’ is rolled, and the ‘s’ is long and sibilant. Izre also pronounced ‘w’s with a bit of a ‘v’ sound to them, so that would be another part of the language. (More of a ‘vw’ sound than a pure ‘v’ though.)
Yeah, having a ancestral language is always fun! I’m assuming your trying to approximate the voiced labiodental approximant (ʋ) with the w with a v sound (Totally didn’t have to look up the name)? That’s actually the ‘vw’ I’m using in Lasi’el as well, so that’s cool! So you don’t need to make it line up with Izre directly, but you can riddle it with subtle clues that point to similar ancestral words.
This is cool! I like the alphabet. So what makes Yojieo unique? How does it tie to its native speakers and their culture?
He is perfect in Justice, yet He is perfect in Mercy, even when we fail Him. For this, He is good.
January 20, 2024 at 12:40 pm #173798This is cool! I like the alphabet. So what makes Yojieo unique? How does it tie to its native speakers and their culture?
Hmm… oof, I haven’t yet thought about that. I’ll have to think for a little, and maybe I’ll have an answer later. 😅
🤍 Ira | Jara | Evelyn | Flaz | Blaine 🤍
-
AuthorPosts
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.