The Language Construction Kit (original) (raw)

This set of webpages (what’s a set of webpages? a webchapter?) is intended for anyone who wants to create artificial languages— for a fantasy or an alien world, as a hobby, as an interlanguage. It presents linguistically sound methods for creating naturalistic languages— which can be reversed to create non-naturalistic languages. It suggests further reading for those who want to know more, and shortcuts for those who want to know less. —Mark Rosenfelder

The above is a sample of an artificial language of my own, Verdurian. If you’re curious, it reads Ďitelán mu cum pén veaďen er mësan so Sannam, meaning “Go forth in peace to love and serve the Lord.” The accented Ď sounds like the th in then; the vowels should be pronounced more or less as in Spanish. Here’s a recording of Joseph Fatula reading it.

How about a suite of webpages? Does that sound better? Chico: OK, you’re the Swede of Webpages, an’ I’ll be the Mexican of Usenet.

Before I could write this little inscription I had to:

Decide on the sounds of the language
Create the lexicon
Create the grammar
Design an alphabet
Decide how the alphabet is modified for cursive handwriting
Translate the desired text

You may have two reactions to this:

“Cool! I want to do that!”
“What a geek you must be. Get a life!” The order of the steps above is significant. Working backwards (e.g. creating a text and then devising a grammar to match) will lead to an inconsistent if not incoherent work. A bad example is Hergé’s Syldavian; since he basically made it up in pieces, as he needed it, it’s impossible to create a consistent phonology or morphology for it, based on the scraps of the language provided in the Tintin books. (This didn’t prevent me from coming up with my best attempt at a Syldavian grammar.)

Let’s get going!

The rest of the kit is organized into three files:

| | | | The basics: models, sounds, writing systems, andword building. | | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | | | The grammar: Morphology and syntax, plus a glimpse at style and language families. | | | | | Writing it down: Tips on going from a blank page to a full reference grammar. |

If you’d like to read the whole thing as an e-book, it’s available on Amazon for a paltry 99¢.

Where do I go from here?

There’s a list of web resources here.

And for plenty more information, check out the print version!

Once you’re ready to create entire worlds, check out the Planet Construction Kit.