#i did watch artifexians animal conlang video in preparation

[velaraffricate]

on the subject you're werewolf conglang project.

What type of werewolf are making this language for?

Because language is partly shaped by the sound the people speaking the language can make.

An completely wolf looking werewolf is going sounds different from the wolfman or the 9ft tall beasts from van helsing.

yeaaahh, that is something i've tried to keep in mind, and the original version of this conlang had no labials and a full palatal, velar and uvular series for this reason. since canines have way longer muzzles i figured /c k q/ would be easier to distinguish. but idk how i could reasonably evolve that naturalistically, and they spend the vast majority of their time in their human forms anyways, where such a distinction would be much more difficult to make. i do want my version of werewolves to be genuinely monstrous and wolf-like, and idk if wolves are even physically capable of pronouncing human-like consonants because their tongues are so thin. precise information on canine phonology is hard to come by lol.

honestly, i think for now i'm not gonna worry about that too much. their brains regress into a much more primal, animalistic form when they transform, so maybe they wouldn't be capable of human-like communication in that state anyways, and resort to mostly body language. or they can somehow roughly approximate human words with wolf physiology in a way that i'm not too stressed about specifying in much detail.

also, i want lycanthropy to be some sort of autism metaphor. and language and communication are hard when youre autistic, you have to watch your tone and you get in trouble if you say the wrong words and people lie and don’t mean things the way they say and its all very confusing. i personally didnt have a speech delay but i dont like the physical sensation of speaking sometimes. like its uncomfortable and strenuous. you can feel the vibrations in your throat. but wagging your tail or pinning your ears back or baring your teeth is easy and unmistakable. so maybe it's fine if they can't really speak in their wolf forms tbh