Goal: Identify lexical gaps you need to fill in your conlang
Note: Not all lexical gaps need to be filled with new words in your language.
Tip: Sometimes rewording a section is your best option.
Work focus: Organize/Plan/Structure
Now that you’ve gone through the text and filled in the words you have in your language, consider the ones that are missing. The represent lexical gaps, or concepts that don’t have a word in your language.
Of those, decide which represent lexical gaps that you want to fill by creating new words in your language. For instance, if you need a word for “river” and your speakers have rivers in their area or have been exposed to rivers in explorations of other areas, then it makes sense to create a word for “river” in your language.
You don’t need to fill every gap with a new word. Sometimes it’s best to leave those gaps and opt for another strategy instead of creating a word. Going back to the “river” example, if your speakers live on an arid desert planet that has no standing or running water and they’ve never traveled to planets with rivers, then they probably wouldn’t have such a word. So that’s a lexical gap that should remain a gap.
To translate something with the word “river,” then you’ll need to rely on other strategies. You can switch out the word for another one in your language that has a similar connotation to the original meaning. For instance, if “river” is in the original excerpt because it’s representing something that is difficult to get across, then you might be able to use something like “gully” or “canyon” to represent that idea. You can also describe the concept rather than providing a word in your language, such as translating a phrase like “long valley filled with water” to describe a river.
The goal is to capture the intent of the original passage without trying to force your language into its same vocabulary and phrasings.