How to Make a Language: Complex Conlangs

It's time to talk about the heavier side of conlanging. If you want to go a bit more detailed than a naming language, you'll need to consider things like the phonetics, grammar, syntax, and build your lexicon with a bit more care. There's a lot to consider when creating a language, and we've broken it down to few steps to help you wrap your head around it all!

There's plenty more to discuss beyond what we had time for here, so if you're interested to learn more, check out the links below. Or, if you;re already well-versed in conlanging, drop a comment telling us some tips of your own!

Script and VO by Adam Bassett
Animation by Cole Field

Special thanks to Slorany for helping draft the script and providing some of their resources for conlanging (see them below!)

#conlang #writingcommunity #authortube #writingadvice

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[WDGamer-kxuv]

"Just look at English this isn't conjugation this is madness"🤣🤣🤣

[tsikli]

I'd like to elaborate a bit more on sound systems.
- An important aspect of a good phonetic inventory is balance. Try to make sure that you have sounds that fit together, and avoid having sounds that just exist in isolation. For example, don't just add a palatal sound, but a palatal series. If you have aspiration and pharyngealization, then you can try and put the two together.
- Something even more important than sounds is phonotactics, which is how languages decide what can and cannot be a word. For example, take the below words:

tamenikapilu
and
pluskelklidn

They sound very different, despite having similar sounds. This comes down to phonotactics. What kinds of consonant clusters are allowed, if any? Are some sounds not allowed to be at the beginning or end of syllables/words? Could a word not have any vowels and have a syllabic consonant? If phonemes are words, then phonotactics is what gives those words life.
- And lastly, and you mentioned this in your video, but I want to reiterate as it is extremely important. Look at real languages in the real world. Look at what is often together, and what sounds are more common. If you like the sound of a language, then take a look at its phonetic inventory and phonotactics.

[jan_Masewin]

For just about every stage of language creation explained here, there are _much more interesting_ options, but for which you need to step away from English. But for a quick naming language I reconmend a couple things:
1. English has about 20 vowels, not 5. Strip the way down, it’s going to be much easier to spell and read.
2. Chuck every new word you add into Google Translate, translate it into a random language, click the reverse button and see what other meanings that word has in the irl language. You may find interesting connections that you can steal
3. Awkwords. It’s a word generator. Saves a lot of effort :)

[trinidadinternational]

I've been working on Atynese for a while. In fact, I just posted an instructional video in just Atynese (no other language is spoken). So proud! I have a long way to go and picked up some ideas here. Thanks for the tips!

[pierreabbat]

"Comido" isn't the past tense, it's the past participle. There are two past tenses, the preterite and the imperfect, and a perfect tense formed, as in English, with the participle. They are:
Preterite: comí, comiste, comió, comimos, comisteis, comieron.
Imperfect: comía, comías, comía, comíamos, comíais, comían.

[mnArqal]

English is madness just really sums it up. I started learning Japanese a while ago, then realised how horrible our language really is lol

The one thing I struggle with is the phonetic and sound theory of languages, so I decided to just keep to what I know and just use the English phonetics from the IPA. Although, I feel like I'm just cheating and being lazy. It's fascinating stuff, but I just can't figure out all the different phonetics lol

One set of books I've found useful are the ones by Mark Rosenfelder. As they explain a lot but also stuff like how a culture will impact the language. I've found myself building onto my own lore as I work on the language as well.

[MemphiStig]

When I was young and read Tolkien, I always dreamed of being a linguist and making up my own languages. But really there seemed no point to it, no future in it, no market for such things. I was clearly born too soon, without any foresight into what was to come in the relatively near future. I still loved languages, and I studied several, but I never took that great leap into mastery. It's still an enjoyable pastime.

[juandiegovalverde]

Ai hav kreated Winglish, hwich bi based on Inglish ande Romance lingwajes. It hav simplifiked gramatik, pronunciation ande speling. It bi veri izi tu lerne.

[KwaserIGuess]

Im just getting started on making a Conlang named Falsarian which is a Mix of both the Romance and Indo-Aryan

Take a look at some Simple Words i created!

One-Armesh
Two-Disra
Three-Terar
Four-Catera
Five-Panca
Six-Sas
Seven-Pasre
Eight-Astera
Nine-Nuoe
Ten-Dasa

Land-Leda
Territory-Teritorya
Region-Manice
Plain-Patren
Mountain-Mont

Water-Axua
Sea-Mer
River-Feume
Lake-Lace
Delta-Adel

North-Hinlagar
South-Sapena
East-Fatra
West-Wentre
Northwest-Hinwentre
Northeast-Hinfatro
Southwest-Sawentre
Southeast-Safatro

Person-Euma
People-Aemo
Citizen-Satte
Foreigner-Sedadno\Sedadna
Noble-Nibal

[ViktoriaChan_]

I think this will help in creating of my language :))

[BlueLaBlueberry]

The Spanish spanish grammar is really weird from a peruvian-spanish-speaker's perspective
"He comido" = "I've eaten" common SPANISH spanish
"Comí" = "I've eaten" common in peruvian spanish and I think we usually skip the pronoun because it's already in the word, but we usually put "Ya" before "Comí" which is like "Ya comí" = "I've already eaten"
neat

[c.s]

I just thought it might be helpful to make an alphabet song for your language, wondering if it might help to develop sounds that are natural to speak

[Leofwine]

5:26 — This is Early Middle English, with a modern accent.

[Ggdivhjkjl]

English has the 2nd person singular form "thou art" (since Fowler says "art" has replaced "beest", which he considers archaic).
The other 2nd person plural pronoun is "ye".

[diniza]

My language is use syllabary system so it's a little hard to find some or more information about I just look at Japanese or my native language sometime to create word or find something useful for it..

[Lyrya]

When you didn't check the phonectic part and get straight to root and conjugaison/rules, can you say it's because there are multiples races and they mixed all their tones etc ? Asking for a friend <_<

[soweli]

Can I use unexciting consonant sounds? those who are possible but non found in any language

[diegovinicius]

So, unsurprisingly my biggest problem was about the basic, as I never fully comprehend the phonetics and how they work

[falafel_]

I have been creating a language since August 2022, and it has been an incredibly curious, interesting, fun, yet frustrating and boring. Making tons of words (I've made around 1500) might be really boring, since you may run out of creativity or something. The phonetic inventory in my language is HUGE (i don't know if palatalised, aspired, etc. are distinguished as separate or the same, if it's separate, then it is huge, but in the opposite cas, e it is kind of big), around 192 phonemes (including qualities, 48 withouth them), although I decided to consider consonant clusters to not be illegal, so it might sound a bit like Russian, Georgian... It is kind of predictable in terms of grammar.

[HamiltonIsLife]

My advice as a random person, go to the IPA Help page on Wikipedia to get sounds, make symbols based off an existing alphabet, and make a few root words, that’s what I’ve been doing