Re: Conlanging techniques

On Tue, 3 Apr 2001 23:04:01 -0000, Bjorn Kristinsson <bjornkri@...> wrote:

>First of all, you've been great! :D Must be the friendliest list I've ever
>subscribed to :)
:)

>Now to my question, I was wondering if you had any conlanging techniques to
>share. Like, do you use computers much and what software do you use?
When I *think*, I mostly need a pencil and a papersheet. Screen radiation
somehow interferes with my brain ;)

OTOH a puter is useful when you have to deal with a large data massive. For
example, one of my projects includes a 3000+ list of protolanguage roots,
and recently I checked sound distribution stats in it - I wouldn't start
if I'd had to do it manually.

I mostly use STARLING (downloadable from http://starling.rinet.ru/). It's
basically a database manager with many features useful for linguists (fonts,
sound changes, glottochronology, etc.). Not user-friendly even for a DOS
program ;)

>Do you
>follow the now-surely-famous The Language Construction Kit guidelines? Or
>what?
The one that uses a two-vowel lang for demonstration? No, I don't ;)

>I personally have found it very difficult making up a whole phonetic
>system with restrictions and the lot before starting with the actual
>lexicon, <...>
Different with me: without a phoneme inventory and some preliminary
vision of sound distribution, I simply don't know what to speak about.

OTOH lately I'm mostly busy with modelling linguistic evolution. All my
recent projects are based on various old natlangs, so I don't bother much
about the lexicon at first.

> and likewise I find it difficult forming a grammar after making up
>a lexicon, but then it's not easier at all doing it the other way around :P
One thing I like especially is *discovering* the grammar: what a given
system can develop into... Oftentimes it's something really surprising.

>So if you've found a good way of organizing things and such, please share
:)

It's interesting to see how different it can be ;)


Basilius