Re: probably a bloody obvious question...

Yoon Ha Lee wrote:

>When y'all design languages, do you have a checklist or template you work
>from?  I'm using the Language Construction Kit and Pablo Flores' pages
>for now--I find them an easy-to-use starting point due to my lack of
>experience.
When I first started conlanging I used a checklist.  I moved down the list,
filling in details as I went.

Nouns:
Gender?  If so, what types.
Case: How many? which ones? (Zero was not an option back then)
Dual or no dual? (Plural was a given).

Post- or prepositions?

Adjectives:
Which features does it agree with the noun for?
Noun-Adj or Adj-Noun

Verbs:
Which tenses?
Agreement forms?
Which moods?
Aspect?

I began to feel like I was just assembling things, rather than creating, so I
abandoned checklists completely.  Now I take a much more "organic"
approach.  I
start with a basic idea of a couple features, and pursue it, devising new
traits as they come along.  I have gaps in basic areas following this
procedure, but I'm filling them in as I write my grammar.

Marcus