#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:

[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.

[dayntee]

Cobbling Elvhen 101 (Phrases from the Prof!AU)

One of the things I did a lot of in That Year at Arlathan University was hack together elvish phrases to use for a variety of reasons. I'm not alone in this; a lot of us have used various resources in the past to put together or make up our own phrases.

There are a ton of different (and largely inconsistent) resources out there for doing this, but my favorite to use by far is @kaija-rayne-author's Dictionary of El'vhen/Elvish. They explicitly put this together because there were so many discrepancies between all the various fan efforts out there, and I'd argue there isn't any more comprehensive resource at this point than theirs. Can't recommend enough.

I recently collected all the phrases I'm personally responsible for into a handy list, though, and thought it might be interesting to share here, along with a couple of tips for throwing things together. Kaija's work also has some tips in chapter 1, so be sure to read through that for the context of using their resource.

Finally, please be aware there are some mild spoilers (mostly in specific jokes) for the completed story below under the break! But hey, the story's done, so if you wanna go binge it first, there's never been a better time!

Tips

Elvhen isn't a cipher. Kaija repeats this several times because it's really important to remember that you shouldn't be thinking about everything in Elvhen as being a 1:1 translation. It's a conlang (constructed language meant for fictional work), and the way it's represented in game and described by the developers is as largely interpretive. So don't get caught up in finding the perfect word for a phrase; it likely doesn't exist, so if something's close or close enough, do that instead!

I did an exercise recently with Ch. 28: El'vhen primer to build out a bunch of Dalish names to use in one of my upcoming works. I can't share those yet (it's for Big Bang), but would definitely recommend using this section in particular as a lot of your common prefixes live here.

Direct translations almost never fully match their meanings, and this got even worse in Veilguard in particular. Intent and context are just as important. It also lets you play with innuendo and punnery, so absolutely don't be afraid to get creative.

There isn't, from what I can tell, a specific set of rules on when and where to place an apostrophe in compound words. It does matter though, as placement of particular apostrophes can totally change the meaning of a word. My best advice here is just to be careful; sometimes you can get away with shifting or omitting an apostrophe because it looks better, but other times it may change the entire meaning of what you're trying to string together.

When using the dictionary, I like having it open in Full Work mode and searching for the English I'm trying to build around. Without memorizing the whole language, it's a lot harder to search in Elvhen unless you're looking for a specific word (like vhenan).

Prof!AU Constructed Phrases/Words

If you'd like to use any of the phrases or words below, it's totally fine, but I'd appreciate a shout out in your notes as well as a shout out to Kaija's dictionary. They ultimately did the initial work and I'd really like to see more of the fandom using this resource!

Aragavira - (lit.) “A path to here/a place to go.” Root taken from “aravel.” In the context of the story, a model of vehicle analogous to a modern automobile, but fueled by either a mage’s mana or a type of refined lyrium.

Ar garas ma - (lit.) “I come to you.” Contextually, it’s a pun/innuendo meaning both “I will arrive (physically) to you soon” but also in the sexual manner of “I come to/because of you.”

Ar isala ma - (lit.) “I need you.” Contextually in the sexual sense, but could be used just as sweetly/innocently.

Fen’Harel garas ara - (lit.) “Fen’Harel came here.” This is an innuendo with double meaning; it can be interpreted like graffiti (Fen’Harel was here) or more sexually (Fen’Harel literally came here, in this place).

Fen’Harel tel’him - (lit.) “Fen’Harel Unchanged.” Contextually accompanied Fen’Harel’s depiction of his spirit form, so could be read as “The original Fen’Harel.”

Mythal’enaste lasas Fen’Harel - (lit.) “Mythal gives her blessing to Fen’Harel.” Contextually, describes a depiction of Mythal welcoming Fen’Harel into his elven form.

Tel’athim - (lit.) “Without humility.” In context, used as an insult; essentially equivalent to “arrogant prick.”

Tel ma’dhis’lasa - (lit.) “Do not hold my cock/dick.” Cobbled this together from using “Tel” (Do not) and breaking apart the phrase “Fenedhis lasa” (Suck the Dread Wolf/Solas’ dick).

Were most of these phrased made for smut? Yes. Yes they were.

[foxgloves-garden]

Language hyperfixation go brr again

There are too many cool languages and not enough Kyaru 😢 I want to learn Anishinaabemowin, Nishnaabemwin and Bodwéwadmimwen because those tribes are indigenous to Michigan. Gaeilge and Gaidhlig because my conlang - or maybe remembered language because funky Otherkin things - Mepkael has been compared to both of them. (Possibly because my kintype is faerie-adjacent.. 🤔🤔)

Cymraeg, because Yws Gwynedd makes good music and I want to sing along. Chulym Tatar, Khakas and Russian so I can sing along with OTYKEN. German so I can sing with OOMPH!

... If I list all the artists I want to sing along to this will get too long. Toki Pona because we keep hearing about it and it seems cool. Esperanto because why the hell not. Sindarin and maybe Quenya for similar reasons to Gaeilge and Gaidhlig (elf adjacent otherkin). Klingon because some of the headmates have recently become Trekkies and it'd be cool. Then I want to get into some of my moots' conlangs.. Oh and even though it's more of a conscript than a conlang, it'd be super fun to write in Circular Gallifreyan.

[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).

[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.

[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)

[sandybrett]

Extremely useful conlanging resource here:

Also, I just learned that languages will occasionally use the same word for "rake" and "comb", which delights me for They Might Be Giants-related reasons.

[outofgloom]

Bionicle: Masks of Power - Matoric Conlang Dialogue Files

As you may have seen, it's now been publicly announced that LEGO has asked for the Bionicle: Masks of Power fan game by Team Kanohi to be shut down.

You can read the announcement letter from Team Kanohi here, and also view a walkthrough of the game demo on YouTube, with and without dev commentary. The demo would have been released on 8/10 of this year.

As I've posted about before, the game was slated to feature fully voice-acted lines in the Matoran Language conlang ("Matoric"), and I've been contributing Matoric line translations for this purpose for a few years now. This work amounted to nearly 800 individual lines of Matoric dialogue translated.

Needless to say, this was a very disappointing thing to experience behind the scenes, after the amount of work that Team Kanohi had put into the game, and (in my opinion) it's an extremely poor repayment from LEGO for the enthusiasm that the team has created in the Bionicle fandom over the years, although not unexpected or shocking on LEGO's part.

With that said, there is some solace to be found in the fact that many resources from the game, including 3D models, music, art, and other development materials, have been preserved by the team (for the time being) via Google Drive. This includes all of the individually recorded voice-actor lines in Matoric!

Here is a link to the full Google Drive.

Here is a link to the folder containing the Matoric line recordings.

Here is a link to a spreadsheet containing all of the written Matoric lines and their English translations (along with a few fun easter eggs).

Finally, here are the credits for the audio directors and individual voice actors whose excellent work was represented in the game:

Voice Acting Directors Tasch Ritter Gort (Garrett B)

Voice Acting Lewa ……………….. Dane Braddy Pohatu ……………….. Gianni Matragrano Gali ……………….. Tasch Ritter Onua ……………….. Ashley Quills Kopaka ……………….. Tom Schalk Tahu ……………….. Wes Wiggins Makuta ……………….. Justice Washington Mata Nui ……………….. Justice Washington Matoran 1 ……………….. Ethan Godwin Matoran 2 ……………….. Viator Matoran 3 ……………….. Lou Haroldson Matoran 4 ……………….. Tasch Ritter Matoran 5 ……………….. Mark (Markle) Stefely Matoran 6 ……………….. Anna Maguire Matoran 7 ……………….. SyntheticCharmVa Matoran 8 ……………….. Tabitha Bardall Matoran 9 ……………….. Mark Beischel Matoran 10 ……………….. Jordan (Jocool1231) Willis Matoran 11 ……………….. Quinn Stokan Matoran 12 ……………….. Abigail Adair Matoran 13 ……………….. Cody (MasterGir) Littlefield Matoran 14 ……………….. Zane Schacht Narrator ……………….. Justice Washington Announcer ……………….. David Michael Williamson

I was honored to be able to contribute to this project in a small way, and I hope that the Bionicle community will continue to support the team as it rebrands and moves on to future projects.