#conlang resources

[tepat-side]

Payne, Thomas E. “Toward a Balanced Grammatical Description”

Nice short read about writing a grammar. Discusses the various, sometimes conflicting considerations of writing a grammar of a language, such as technical accuracy vs. understandability, etc. Ends with an example table of contents for a linguistic grammar, including both a grammar organized by structure, and a grammar organized by function.

Another link if the first one dies:

Here's just the example table of contents:

[mandoxember]

Conlanger’s Thesaurus

by William S. Annis

A Conlanger’s Thesaurus is a basic wordlist which has been annotated with notes on common paths of grammaticalization, cross-linguistic polysemy and other information mostly from the work of lexical and semantic typologists. The collection itself isn’t innovative in any way, but rather collects this information in a convenient format. Its intended use is to act as a guard against relexing your native tongue in your conlang.

[ualthum]

The 10th Anniversary of Sul'voth begins this year! This is the newest and fully complete list of the letters of the language, complete with both phonetic symbols and their primary runic representations. Dark blessings.

[concerningwolves]

was devastated to discover while setting up my new phone that the app I used to use for recording my conlangs no longer exists. But! In an exciting turn of events, I discovered that there is another app that does the same thing – and does it better!

It's called WordTheme. It's free! There's a paid full version but rn the free one seems fine and the adverts are fairly unobtrusive. I don't know if it's available on Apple but if you're on Android & you like making up languages or words for your SFF stories, I definitely recommend checking this out. ooohhhh the options for organisation are making me salivate. To start with, you get your dictionary list:

Here you can see I have one dictionary called "Conlangs", with sub-folders for my two invented languages, Ysmalír and Kanh'ken. Clicking on a sub-dictionary shows you an alphabetical list of the words in that dictionary, like so:

You can add tags to your words to group them by type (one of mine up there is tagged "noun" from where I was figuring the tag system out. I now have tags for animals, endearments, and terms of address & I'm planning to add more, like a tag for insults).

And here's the feature that makes me so so happy: once you've recorded your word and its meaning, you can then click "add details" & you get MORE OPTIONS.

You can add more text under your word's definition, in groups under headings that include examples, definition, declension and pronunciation. Just like an entry in a real dictionary!! You can also add images and audio but I haven't looked at that yet.

The app has features for revising bc it's also intended to help people who are learning real life languages, but as someone with a scraggly haphazard conlang I'm finding it so useful and easy to ignore the extraneous features.

[translunaryanimus]

Salutations! I recently found your alien world and was instantly hooked by your Chenesht sophonts. The world is captivated - but your conlang truly hooked me. I don't i've EVER seen an alien conlang as fleashed out as yours, and as a nerd of biology (and not linguistics) I have no idea how to start incorporating such a intricate concept into my own world

My question is: what is this Chenesht like? could a human speak it? And most importantly how did you make it and what are your tips & tricks for someone starting their own conlang?

Oh man thank you! Funny enough this isn't even my most fleshed out conlang [that honor belongs to one I made ages ago that will never see the light of day] but I'm exceptionally glad you enjoy it!

Chenesht language is divided into 2 groups, regional and standardized. Regional is an umbrella term used for the several different dialects spoken across the supercontinent, whereas standardized is what's accepted as the 'proper form', ie. what you'd learn out of a textbook. Chenesht isn't 100% pronounceable by humans due to their Ejective Glottal Click consonant [usually romanized as 'CH']. Chenesht make it by exhaling quickly and opening/slamming closed a special set of flaps around their larynx that initially formed for their pre-language pre-sapience mating call. It ends up resonating in their chest/throat, and makes chenesht a shockingly loud spoken language. The closest humans can get is the hard 'k' or the ejective post-alveolar click of Xhosa [represented by q].

The rest of the sounds are nothing special though, and humans can and do easily pick it up!

In terms of overall sound, the closest languages I could point you to are Welsh [due to their 'sh' consonant being identical to the welsh 'll'] and Xhosa [due to the aforementioned clicks], but I'm not sure it resembles any one human language. These are also the human languages Chenesht have the easiest time picking up.

ADVICE SECTION - Making a conlang isn't easy necessarily, but it can be really fun. I always take myself through a small checklist whenever I start one.

1- What sounds could the speaker reasonably produce given their anatomy?

2- How developed does this need to be?

3- What is the 'vibe' of the language?

When I have all of those, I feel comfortable to start. For Chenesht, they can reasonably produce All human sounds + some extra, but I chose to limit myself to their current batch of sounds for the sake of ease. I decided I wanted it to be functional enough to eventually write a couple sentences in it + write dialogue for Chenesht characters if I want/need to. And I decided the 'vibe' was going to be loud and lilting. Vibe is a pretty nonspecific term to use here, but the way I think about it is the way that humans stereotype human languages. To an english speaker, languages like German and Russian may sound 'harsh' or 'scary' because of their rougher sounds, whereas french and spanish sound 'smooth' and 'romantic' due to softer consonants and longer vowel sounds.

After I had all that, I decided on my 'batch' of sounds, you can have as many or few of these as you want to. Chenesht have ~15 give or take borrowed sounds for loanwords. Then I just start smashing them together into words and adding grammar rules where I deem necessary. Chenesht is currently sorely lacking in grammar, but it is in the works. Currently i'm sort of just adding words when I need them and slowly building a dictionary in the process!

For specific resources i'd recommend

- LanguaGen lets you input different letter/sound combinations and will randomly generate 'words' from it following syntax patterns that you input. It also has a handy help page in case you get stuck

- Babelingua isn't educational per se but the channel is excellently fun and has some good videos that helped me understand conlangs, such as their Polysynthetic Languages video and their Upper Tanana series

- Bibliaridion has a Whole Series on Making Conlangs, a playlist of Conlang Showcases and a pretty excellent series for Speculative Biology as well

-Agma Schwa in general has a lot of conlang/conlang content and generally solid advice

Good luck with your conlang endeavors! And thank you for the kind words! [Also lovely bittern pfp, I love bitterns!]

[conlangcrab]

Vulgarlang for funzies generating conlangs and seeing how a conlang is formulated.

Conlang Critic for reviews on existing conlangs and funny stuff.

K Klein for curiosity diving into linguistics.

JasonTank WordGen for making structurally generated words for your dictionary.

Awkwords is another such generator for dictionary filling.

Agma Schwa - the Conlang Circle Jerk (affectionate).

@thecrazyneographist for conscript/neography inspiration (or borrowing, or commissioning).

Omniglot.com for a lot of language info and also the index of all writing systems on Earth today (excluding neographies not submitted by their authors).

Linguistics portal on Wikipedia.

IPA (you can also use Vulgarlang's ^^^ custom phonetic inventory redactor to hear how things sound).

I’ve reached a new low high in my writing procrastination:

I’ve started developing a conlang

Maybe I should do a linguistics degree because this shit is interesting at fuck. I was in a YouTube rabbit hole of rhoticity and velar fricatives for hours.

[indictivity-mu]

some silly little tp resources

feel free to help me add more! replys (or rbs) w/ more info will be added to the list!

Lessons

lipu sona pona

twelve days of toki pona / toki pona lessons

lipu lili pona

toki pona cheat sheet

o pilin e toki pona

lipu sona mi pi toki pona

jan Kekan San

Main Writing Systems

Sitelen pona (1, 2,)

Sitelen Sitelen (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Dictionaries

lipu Linku

Wiktionary

The Other Website

lipu sona pona

Other

Wikipedia page

lipu Wikipesija

toki kala

nasin tempo pona

Translators

Toki Pona Interpreter

English / Toki Pona Translator

Other Resource Lists

Ankiweb

lipu sona pona

lipu sona mi pi toki pona

mun la

[paizau]

this site is amazing, it has so much inforamtion on ancient indo-european languages from early vedic to old irish, on languages of the near east like kurdish, neo-aramaic and georgian, and a whole bunch of mayam languages. highly reccomend checking it out

[felix-lupin]

[ID: Five edited images of the "save me white girl" meme. 1: "nimi.li ... save me.. nimi.li. save me nimi.li." 2: "lipu Linku... save me.. lipu Linku. save me lipu Linku." 3: "telo misikeke pi toki pona... save me.. telo misikeke pi toki pona. save me telo misikeke pi toki pona." 4: "fairfax pona... save me.. fairfax pona. save me fairfax pona." 5: "nasin toki pona... save me.. nasin toki pona. save me nasin toki pona." End ID.]

nimi.li & lipu Linku - toki pona dictionaries

telo misikeke pi toki pona - a grammar checker

fairfax pona - a site to convert toki pona into sitelen pona

nasin toki pona - a grammar guide for toki pona that i personally found to be helpful

[multiversetravelingjournalist]

Things to theme conlangs after

The planets (Venus, Mars, Jupiter, etc.).

Holidays (New Years, Easter, Halloween, etc.).

The Seven Sins (Pride, Lust, Gluttony, etc.).

The Four elements (Air, Water, Earth, Fire).

The Four seasons (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter).

[booklindworm]

Star Wars: Republic Commando Soundtrack (2005)

My best try at transcribing the songs into IPA. If you find mistakes, please tell me.

Vode An (Brothers All)

Kote! -> /kote/

Kandosii sa kaʻrta, Vode an. -> /kantosiː sa kaʔrota | vote an/ Coruscanta aʻden mhi, Vode an. -> /korusanta aʔden mi | vote an/ Bal kote, darasuum kote, -> /bal kote | darasuːm kote/ Jorsoʻran kando a tome. -> /ʝorsoʔran kanto a tome/

Graʻtua cuun hett su dralshyʻa. -> /graʔtua kun het su dralʃiʝa/ Aruetyc talyc runiʻla trattokʻo. -> /aru.etak talak runiʔla trattokʔo/ Sa kyrʻam nau tracyn kad, Vode an. -> /sa kyrʔam naʊ̯ tra.ʃyn kad | ˈvote an/

Kandosii sa kaʻrta, Vode an. -> /kantosiː sa kaʔrota | vote an/ Coruscanta aʻden mhi, Vode an. -> /korusanta aʔden mi | vote an/ Bal kote, darasuum kote, -> /bal kote | darasuːm kote/ Jorsoʻran kando a tome. -> /ʝorsoʔran kanto a tome/

Motir caʻtra nau tracinya. -> /motir kaʔtra naʊ̯ tra.sinʝa/ Graʻtua cuun hett su dralshyʻa. -> /graʔtua kun het su dralʃiʝa/ Aruetyc talyc runiʻla solus cet oʻr -> /aru.etak talak runiʔla solus set oʔor/

Motir caʻtra nau tracinya. -> /motir kaʔtra naʊ̯ tra.sinʝa/ Graʻtua cuun hett su dralshyʻa. -> /graʔtua kun het su dralʃiʝa/ Aruetyc talyc runiʻla trattokʻo. -> /aru.etak talak runiʔla trattokʔo/ Sa kyrʻam nau tracyn kad, Vode an. -> /sa kyrʔam naʊ̯ tra.ʃyn kad | ˈvote an/

[Prologue] [The Egg Room]

Graʻtua Cuun (Our Vengeance)

Motir caʻtra nau tracinya. -> /motir kaʔtra naʊ̯ tra.sinʝa/ Graʻtua cuun hett su dralshyʻa. -> /graʔtua kun het su dralʃiʝa/ Taung! -> /tɔːŋ/

Motir caʻtra nau tracinya. -> /motir kaʔtra naʊ̯ tra.sinʝa/ Graʻtua cuun hett su dralshyʻa. -> /graʔtua kun het su dralʃiʝa/ Aruetyc runiʻla solus cet oʻr prudii an -> /aru.etak runiʔla solus set oʔor prudiː an/

Motir caʻtra nau tracinya. -> /motir kaʔtra naʊ̯ tra.sinʝa/ Graʻtua cuun hett su dralshyʻa. -> /graʔtua kun het su dralʃiʝa/ Aruetyc talyc runiʻla solus cet oʻr -> /aru.etak talak runiʔla solus set oʔor/

Motir caʻtra nau tracinya. -> /motir kaʔtra naʊ̯ tra.sinʝa/ Graʻtua cuun hett su dralshyʻa. -> /graʔtua kun het su dralʃiʝa/ Aruetyc runiʻla trattokʻo. -> /aru.etak runiʔla trattokʔo/ Sa kyrʻam nau tracyn kad, Vode an. -> /sa kyrʔam naʊ̯ tra.ʃyn kad | ˈvote an/

Motir caʻtra nau tracinya. -> /motir kaʔtra naʊ̯ tra.sinʝa/ Graʻtua cuun hett su dralshyʻa. -> /graʔtua kun het su dralʃiʝa/ Taung! -> /tɔːŋ/

Bal kote, darasuum kote, -> /bal kote | darasuːm kote/ Jorsoʻran kando a tome. -> /ʝorsoʔran kanto a tome/ Sa kyrʻam nau tracyn kad, Vode an. -> /sa kyrʔam naʊ̯ tra.ʃyn kad | ˈvote an/

[Improvised Entry] [They Must Be Asleep] [The Ghost Ship]

Darasuum Kote (Glory forever)

Kote, darasuum kote. -> /kote | darasuːm kote/ Te racin kaʻra juaan kote. -> /te ra.sin kæʔra | ʝu.aːn kote/

Kaʻrta Tor (One Heart of Justice)

Kandosii sa kyrʻam ast, -> /kantosiː sa kyrʔam ast/ Troan teroch jetiise aʻden, -> /tro.an terot | ˈdʒɛtiːsi aʔden/ Duraan vi at araʻnov. -> /duraːn vi at araʔnov/ Vode an, kaʻrta tor. -> /ˈvote an | kaʔrota tor/ Kote. -> /kote/

[Com Interference] [The Jungle Floor] [RV Alpha] [Through The Canopy]

Dha Werda Verda (Rage Of The Shadow Warriors)

taung sa rang broka -> /taʊŋ sa raŋ broka/ jetiise ka'rta -> /dʒe|tiː|sika|rota/ dha werda verda'b a'den tratu -> /ta|ver|ta|ver|tab|aten|tratu/ Coruscanta kandosii adu. -> /ko|ru|santa|kan|to|siː|atu/ Duum motir ca'tra nau tracinya a -> /dumo|tir|ka|tra|naʊ|traʃinʝa/ gra'tua cuun hett su dralshy'a -> /gra|tu'a|kun|het|su|dralʃiʝa/

ka'rta tor -> /ka'ro'ta'toːr/ kom'rk tsad droten -> /komuː|urok|tsatuː|udroten/ troch nyn ures adenn -> /to|rok|nin|uriːsu|uː|aten/ dha werda verda'b a'den tratu -> /ta|ver|ta|ver|tab|aten|tratu/ Coruscanta kandosii adu. -> /ko|ru|santa|kan|to|siː|atu/ Duum motir ca'tra nau tracinya a -> /dumo|tir|ka|tra|naʊ|traʃinʝa/ gra'tua cuun hett su dralshy'a -> /gra|tu'a|kun|het|su|dralʃiʝa/

I used this youtube video as source.

[j-esbian]

frustrating how so many craft books have a section about "how to sell what you've made"

like on one hand i get it because the person writing the book has obviously made their craft a full-time job. and they might have some tips and tricks that might be useful, and there are people out there who might be trying to start a small business out of it

but on the other hand it's just exhausting and feels like another voice saying "what's the point of having a hobby if you're not going to monetize it"

[conlangcrab]

A treat for y'all, because I like to dwell there:

[ualthum]

Friendly reminder that the newly edited version of the pronunciation guide is live on my YouTube page. Hear the runes in their clearest forms and feel the presence of Sul'voth.

[cher-coconlangs]

A new conlang, dubbed Devil Speak, that I've been working on for The Living & the Dead. Looks a little disorganized because I am a disorganized person 😂

English text by @john-childerass 🥰

[spruciewyvern]

Wanted to add on a piece for people who were in the Esperanto course on Duolingo like me! Lernu!: Lernu is a great site for learning Esperanto if anybody wanted to! It's a multilingual resource as well, I'm not too sure which languages it supports while learning, however.

Duolingo Sucks, Now What?: A Guide

Now that the quality of Duolingo has fallen (even more) due to AI and people are more willing to make the jump here are just some alternative apps and what languages they have:

"I just want an identical experience to DL"

Busuu (Languages: Spanish, Japanese, French, English, German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Polish, Turkish, Russian, Arabic, Korean)

"I want a good audio-based app"

Language Transfer (Languages: French, Swahili, Italian, Greek, German, Turkish, Arabic, Spanish, English for Spanish Speakers)

"I want a good audio-based app and money's no object"

Pimsleur (Literally so many languages)

Glossika (Also a lot of languages, but minority languages are free)

*anecdote: I borrowed my brother's Japanese Pimsleur CD as a kid and I still remember how to say the weather is nice over a decade later. You can find the CDs at libraries and "other" places I'm sure.

"I have a pretty neat library card"

Mango (Languages: So many and the endangered/Indigenous courses are free even if you don't have a library that has a partnership with Mango)

"I want SRS flashcards and have an android"

AnkiDroid: (Theoretically all languages, pre-made decks can be found easily)

"I want SRS flashcards and I have an iphone"

AnkiApp: It's almost as good as AnkiDroid and free compared to the official Anki app for iphone

"I don't mind ads and just want to learn Korean"

lingory

"I want an app made for Mandarin that's BETTER than DL and has multiple languages to learn Mandarin in"

ChineseSkill (You can use their older version of the course for free)

"I don't like any of these apps you mentioned already, give me one more"

Bunpo: (Languages: Japanese, Spanish, French, German, Korean, and Mandarin)