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!
Goal: Expand your example NPs Note: Use the NPs you created and add more modifiers and/or layers of inflection. Tip: If modifiers agree, remember to inflect all modifiers. Work focus: Create/Make/List Using the structures you planned out yesterday, expand the list of NPs you created a couple days ago. Specifically, expand them to include multiple…
Goal: Plan the structure of NPs with multiple modifiers Note: Decide what the order will be when there are multiple modifiers and/or inflections. Tip: A template can help keep phrases ordered and consistent. Work focus: Organize/Plan/Structure Plan out how you are going to handle noun phrase structures that involve multiple modifiers and/or inflections. It’s important…
Goal: List examples of noun & adjective pairs Note: These pairs will demonstrate how attributive modifiers are placed in your language. Tip: These adjectives may inflect to agree with their head noun. Work focus: Create/Make/List Today’s goal is to create a list of example noun phrases demonstrating attributive adjective placement relative to the head noun…
Goal: Create adjective forms in your language Note: These may be basic, derived, or adjective-like verbs/nouns. Tip: Create words to describe common features in the conworld. Work focus: Create/Make/List Today’s goal is to have some fun creating new adjectives (or adjective-like forms) in your language! Whether you create basic roots, derived/compounded forms, nominal modifiers, or…
Goal: Make a plan for your adjectives Note: Decide if non-basic adjectives will come from nouns and/or verbs. Tip: This decision is linked to adjective agreement. Work focus: Organize/Plan/Structure Now that you have brainstormed options, today’s goal is to make a plan for your adjectives—specifically, non-basic adjectives. Regardless of whether your language has adjectives that…
Goal: Brainstorm ideas for adjective development Note: Think about ways you might derive adjectives from noun and/or verb roots. Tip: Another option is to use nominal modifiers or predicative verbs. Work focus: Learn/Brainstorm/Try Today’s goal is to brainstorm ideas for ways you might create new adjectives (beyond any basic adjectives you might have in your…
Goal: Write more sample sentences Note: Use/test out a variety of features in your language as you write the sentences. Tip: Have some fun exploring features and expressing diverse ideas! Work focus: Create/Make/List Spend today composing more sentences in your language, having some fun exploring a variety of features and expressing different ideas. Writing sentences…
Goal: Update your dictionary Note: Document the compounds and derived forms you’ve created. Tip: It helps to make entries for derivational affixes. Work focus: Solidify/Write/Share The goal for today is to update your dictionary with the new compound and derived forms you have created. As you write entries for the new words, you should also…
Goal: Document compound and derivation forms Note: If needed, use charts to show how a variety of phonological forms come together. Tip: Specify whether compounds are head-initial or head-final. Work focus: Solidify/Write/Share Today’s focus is documenting how your language forms compounds and uses derivations to create new words. It may be helpful for you to…
Goal: Create example derivations Note: Derivations don’t necessarily change the lexical category of the root word. Tip: Remember that zero-derivation is an option, too! Work focus: Create/Make/List Create a handful of derivational forms for your language (or create more compounds if your language lacks derivations). Some common derivational affixes change the lexical category of the…
