Re: Conlanging techniques

Bjorn Kristinsson sikayal:

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

> 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?
I do most of my conlanging on paper, but I use computers to keep track of
the lexicon.  I do have a computer version of my Yivríndil grammar, but
it's badly in need of an update.

> Do you
> follow the now-surely-famous The Language Construction Kit guidelines? Or
> what? I personally have found it very difficult making up a whole phonetic
> system with restrictions and the lot before starting with the actual
> lexicon, 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
When it comes to determining how to make a language, there are no
hard-and-fast rules.  Just do what works for you, though if you're having
trouble finding something that works (which is what I infer from your
post), here's some ideas from my experiece:

* Start with _basic_ phonetics.  How many points of articulation?  What
kinds of features (voice, aspiration, palatalization, etc.) are relevant?
But don't worry about real specific stuff, like syllable structures and
weird allophonic changes until later.

* Do basic grammar first: case structures, agreement types, noun and verb
classes, etc.  Then do the morphology to fit with the grammar you've made.

* Lexicon can either come right after phonology or very last, depending on
how much you like it.

* Never be afraid to change anything.

Hope that helps.


Jesse S. Bangs jaspax@u.washington.edu

"If you look at a thing nine hundred and ninety-nine times, you are
perfectly safe; if you look at it the thousandth time, you are in
frightful danger of seeing it for the first time."
--G.K. Chesterton

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