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!
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…
Goal: Entry for Lexember 26th Work focus: Solidify/Write/Share As we wrap up this year of work, you might consider other creative pursuits for using your language. You could use your language as the basis for characters in a fictional book/story, write more original pieces to translate, make in-world art to accompany your language, create recipes…
Goal: Entry for Lexember 25th Work focus: Solidify/Write/Share As you consider where to go from here when Conlang Year ends, another option for expanding your conlang is to create a dialect or two of your language. You can apply different sets of sound changes, mark particular words or phrases as dialectal, and create uses of…
Goal: Entry for Lexember 24th Work focus: Solidify/Write/Share If you want to create more languages after Conlang Year ends but don’t want to start from scratch, you could use your current language work and start a family of languages. Start with proto-forms for this language and evolve them in different ways to create sister languages.…
Goal: Entry for Lexember 23rd Work focus: Solidify/Write/Share Some conlangers focus on one language and really build it up over years. If that is appealing to you, then once Conlang Year ends, your journey with this language is just beginning. Now that you have its foundation, you can continue growing it and using it in…
