Conlanging can be overwhelming for even the most experienced conlangers—especially in the beginning stages of a new project when swirling swarms of ideas create a flurry of possibilities. I break the process down into daily prompts for a yearlong experience. One year, one conlang. Join me in making this a Conlang Year!
After taking a little hiatus from my NisseLang project as I worked on other languages, I returned to my document today to refamiliarize myself with the language and to build more features for it. As a bit of cleaning up, I made some edits to the bipersonal-marking chart for the verbs (previously, I had kept…
In its modern form, NisseLang is a highly synthetic OVS language with head-initial tendencies. In its proto-forms, NisseLang was VSO and more isolating. I mapped out the journey from its earliest stages to modern forms in seven major stages, using the sentence “I threw a rock” to demonstrate the grammatical evolution. The modern from of…
I mentioned the similarities between the NisseLang and Wokuthízhű sound inventories (specifically focusing on the modern sounds), which prompted me to make a chart to see just how similar the inventories are. The verb inventories absolutely match with one caveat: for each vowel quality, NisseLang has a short-long distinction where Wokuthízhű does not. The vowel…
Last year I created an image to highlight the sounds I selected for the proto-stages of my NisseLang. I decided to stick with what I had already created as I continued work on that project this year. Here is the image: As shown in the image, Proto-NisseLang has a classic five-vowel system of [i, e,…
Last year I tried to start a conlang while also posting a daily prompt for Conlang Year. Let’s just say… it didn’t go so well for my conlang, but I managed to post a prompt every single day. So that’s a win! This year, I decided I want to try out my own Conlang Year…
Goal: Entry for Lexember 31st Work focus: Solidify/Write/Share You’ve made it! It’s the final day of Conlang Year, and the final day of Lexember! Take a moment to reflect on all your work and appreciate what you’ve done in a short amount of time. As you celebrate your work, remember that a language is never…
Goal: Entry for Lexember 30th Work focus: Solidify/Write/Share When Conlang Year ends, you don’t need to stop working or sharing your work. Keep sharing! A great way to continue sharing your work is by participating in conlang relays. You can find a conlang relay to join or even start your own.
Goal: Entry for Lexember 29th Work focus: Solidify/Write/Share While you wrote a language document during the Conlang Year prompts, another way to document your language features is by describing your language using the same features typologists use for natlangs. For instance, I created a spreadsheet for Grambank features for conlangers to share their language features.…
Goal: Entry for Lexember 28th Work focus: Solidify/Write/Share Another idea for using your language after Conlang Year ends is to create language-learning materials, like a 501 Verbs of Your Conlang or a mock Duolingo course for your conlang. This suggestion isn’t to say that you will find an audience of language learners eager to learn…
Goal: Entry for Lexember 27th Work focus: Solidify/Write/Share Another way to continue using your language after Conlang Year ends is to translate texts you enjoy, whether they are excerpts from books/articles you enjoy, monologues from movies/shows, random sentences you find delightful, or bits of conversation. If you enjoy writing in your language but don’t want…
