Category: Conlang Year
-
Day 96: April 5, 2024
Goal: Organize your notes on verb inflections Note: List any strategies and/or lexical items you will need to create for the inflections. Tip: The lexical sources can affect placement of the inflections. Work focus: Organize/Plan/Structure It’s an organizational day! Today is set aside for organizing your notes on your ideas for verb inflections so far…
-
Day 95: April 4, 2024
Goal: Consider options for marking non-finite verb forms Note: Focus on the infinitive (to create) and active participle (creating). Tip: One (or both) of these forms may be the bare verb. Work focus: Learn/Brainstorm/Try Consider whether you want to specifically mark the infinitive form of a verb (e.g. to speak, hablar, sprechen) and, if so,…
-
Day 94: April 3, 2024
Goal: Brainstorm options for tense/aspect Note: Languages often prioritize either tense or aspect in their verb inflections. Tip: T/A may interact with other inflections. Work focus: Learn/Brainstorm/Try Specifically, today’s brainstorming session is about tense and/or aspect. While you can end up having ways to express both in your language, languages often prioritize either tense or…
-
Day 93: April 2, 2024
Goal: Decide if you want index markers co-occurring with verbs Note: This may include subject-verb agreement or bipersonal marking. Tip: Redundancies help ensure efficient and effective communication. Work focus: Learn/Brainstorm/Try Verbs can occur with index markers that reflect some aspect of one (or more) of their arguments. Examples of these markers include subject-agreement inflections (i.e.…
-
Day 92: April 1, 2024
Goal: Explore options for verb classes Note: Classes can be based on transitivity, valency, and/or semantics. Tip: Verbs may inflect differently depending on their type. Work focus: Learn/Brainstorm/Try Before making decisions about what kinds of inflections you want to occur with your verbs (e.g. subject agreement, tense marking, etc.), first consider whether you want all…
-
Week 14: A Preview
This week’s prompts begin a dive into the world of verbs and the many ways they can inflect, beginning with explorations of options for agreement marking (also called indexing) and tense and/or aspect. By the end of the week, you will begin creating your first verb inflections!
-
Day 91: March 31, 2024
Goal: List templates for basic clause structures Note: These will help focus the upcoming work on verbs. Tip: Make sure the forms are diverse! Work focus: Organize/Plan/Structure In preparation for the upcoming focus on verbs, the goal for today is to create some basic clause “template” structures to work with. These will serve as forms…
-
Day 90: March 30, 2024
Goal: Update your dictionary with indefinite forms Note: If you needed new lexical sources, enter those forms, too. Tip: Be sure to use an appropriate lexical category label. Work focus: Solidify/Write/Share As a final wrap-up on this “unit” covering nouns and noun phrases, take the day to enter any new forms in your dictionary and…
-
Day 89: March 29, 2024
Goal: Formalize your indefinite system Note: Write a description with examples in your grammar. Tip: Consider how they interact with inflections like case. Work focus: Solidify/Write/Share Now that you have created several types of indefinite pronouns (and modifiers), today’s focus is on documenting those forms and their uses by writing a description in your language’s…
-
Day 88: March 28, 2024
Goal: Create “absence” indefinite forms Note: These include forms like no, none, no one, nothing, nobody. Tip: Consider whether a singular or plural noun should occur with the modifier form. Work focus: Create/Make/List Finally, turn your focus to the indefinite forms that indicate an absence of an entity. Unlike the other forms discussed so far,…