Re: New member with a few questions.

Hallo!

John Schlembach wrote:

> Hello all.
>
> Let me preface the bulk of my by apologizing should I be going about this
> the wrong way.
>
> Where do I start?
>
> First of all, I'm an aspiring novelist who knows what I want out of the
> language my characters are to speak. However, I have no idea how to go
> about doing it.
>
> I'm looking to create an a priori language based around two sets of words.
>
> Empty words are words with an implied connotation. A word can seem to
> mean "light" but until it has the proper qualifier in the form of a suffix
> bound word it has no meaning.
>
> Bound words are just that: adjectives or nouns that allow function to be
> known and implemented.
>
> The difficult part is getting this language to be precise. I've created the
> bare necessities so far as they relate to several stories I'm working on,
> but I want more than just token words to provide an exotic feel.
>
> I've read interviews here and there, but information on the subject of
> conlangs is difficult to come across.
>
> Is there any advice you all would be kind enough to give?
Some fruitful advice, such as reading Mark Rosenfelder's Language
Construction Kit (which I warmly recommend, too), has been given
by others here.

One issue that ought to be added:

If you are about to design a fictional ethnic language, you should
look at real-world ethnic languages as models rather than "engineering"
a language to be logical, unambiguous, theoretically elegant, etc.
I don't know, however, what you are going to do with your language.

Greetings,

Jörg.

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