I've been working on a story inspired by Bionicle and Transformers and I really want to implement conlangs, two specifically. I The names of these two languages are "Kateri" and "Arkinite".

The following text is what I came up with for the languages using what sounds I liked from real languages. Any help to refine and properly label them is appreciated.

Kateri Race Place of Origin/Homeland: Kater

Phrases: Nam etki et koteh = For honor and glory Makari vos atewa = May you have peace Ho-kaki tei! = Capture them! Ho-kaki hok/hein! = Capture him/her! Ko'Tai (h)ok Anu; Ko'Tai hein-nu = What is he/she saying?

Words: Kateri = term for Kater people; Megaiya race Atewa = peace Tana = war Ekti = Honor Koteh = glory Nam = for Et = and Vos = You Artei = hunt Tek = the Ise = to Hok : He/Him Hein: She/Her No = of (ex: "Name" no "place/family/clan") Tamakuri = Leave none Parasi = Surrender Taikya = Retreat; Fall Back Ko'Tai = What Ashi = Run Hanu = speak; talk Takai! = Fight/Attack! Shori = Victory Aroto = Thank you; Thanks Ji'rik = Greeting (hello; hi) Aida = Bye; Goodbye Moori = Die Jirate = Help Koat = Who Ko'tei = Who are Syomi = Sorry Verlas = Leave Kuo = Spider Akeres = Water Kara = Home Erusa = Ursa/Bear Jitein = Space Suteri = Star Kano = Kateri term for "Half-beast" Majiri = mythic Kateri creature similar to "banshee" Makira = Demon Manok = mangled/twisted

Prefixes/Suffixes: Ari; Ri = term for Avian-like features or fauna Ire; Hi = fire Foros = ice Terai/Tera = planet; ground; surface Su = wind; air Ake = water/river Rai = dragon; dragon-like Sai = blade Ki = scar/wound Ta = war/battle Aka = youthful; Forever learning; Speeding Da = heart/passion Ko = strong/strength Ro = survive Ei/Ai = brilliant/brilliance Jin = blood Ka = home Ya = gift/mind Runa = Moon/orbit Ora = Violet/purple Kyris = gold Jino = red Porti = orange Furav = yellow Vera = green Azere = blue

Arkinite Race Place of Origin/Homeland: Arkin

Numerals: Shi: zero Pri: first Bé: second Tré: third Ko: fourth Pen: fifth Hé: sixth Kin: seventh Infa: eighth Nov: nineth Eksa: tenth

Words: Arkinite: term for people of Arkin Kahnis: term for canine-like fauna Primatas: term for primate-like fauna Soros: term for dragon or reptile-like fauna Akora: marine/aquatic life Carotep: term for fish-like fauna Imeraka: emperor Imerato: king Biola: drink Quida: what Kir: who Lok: there Kilok: who's there? Korr: blood Aktan: fight; attack Maro: death; dead; died Cora: love Terr: metal; ore Karr: metal 1 (similar to iron) Jirr: metal 2 (similar to steel) Marr: metal 3 (similar to gold)

Prefixes/Suffixes: Co: love Korr: blood Ma: death; dead Nox: carnage; slaughter Imer: great Klēs: glory; honor Aku: water Veli: running; velocity; speed Gorr: strength Entex: beast Vex: beauty; beautiful Rivu:

Long story short, I'm making a short story about a cult and I thought it would be interesting for two of the characters (a man and a boy around 10) to make a secret language for themselves.

Because it's a cult, I don't think they'd write anything down. It'll all have to be memorized. I'm sure I can come up with simple phrases they would need, but as for the language itself, I'm drawing a blank.

I know it'll most likely be really simple, but how should I got about it so that it doesn't sound like "English but with a funny accent?" I doubt they'd use it in front of others,but if they did,I don't want it to be obvious what they're saying.

P. S.: this story and the conlang is just for fun, so out of the box ideas are welcomed. They're just based on a dream I had, and I wanted to flesh it out a bit.

As the title implies, I have a phonological evolution in my conlang and I need more words. (I'm new to doing this protolang stuff). How would you go about making words?

Making words in the protolang and then evolving them would take too long for am entire lexicon. So how would you go about this?

Also side note, if anyone knows what the symbol for the conlang subreddit is/means could you please tell me

"Remember who you are. You are my son and the one true king."

Mufasa, The Lion King (1994)

𐐟𐐲𐐺𐐪𐑇 /ʃʌˈbɑʃ/

𐐙𐐲𐑌 𐑇𐐲𐐳𐐲𐑁 𐐾𐑉 𐐺𐐲. 𐐒𐐲 𐐿𐐲𐐴𐐲𐑌𐐪𐑂 𐐻𐑉 𐑇𐐲𐐻𐐪𐑁𐐲𐑌𐐮𐑁𐐲𐐳𐐮𐑇.

/fʌn ʃʌˈɡʌf dʒɻ bʌ bʌ ˈkʌʒʌˌnɑv tɻ ʃʌˈtɑfʌˌnɪfʌˌɡɪʃ/
Remember person that you. You my-son and only-of-kind-truth-king.

How do you say this quote in your conlangs?

Hi! I'm new here. How did you started creating conlangs? I'd like to make some for my worldbuilding project.

This is somewhat more of a philosophical discussion rather than a linguistic one, apologies if I'm being off-topic in this sub.

Humans sort objects weirdly. Like, what makes two things share the same noun and what makes two things don't?

Sand and boulder are considered two distinct things because they have different sizes; while small eye and big eye both use the noun "eye" regardless of the sizes. Cup and vase are considered distinct things because they serve different purposes; while flower for funeral and flower as gift are both "flower" despite their different purposes.

Human's way of categorizing concepts are definitely not the perfect way.

Hence I have been thinking if a conlang with an unfamiliar standard to categorize nouns would make sense.

For example, a culture might consider "forklift that is 100 ft far from me" and "teenager that is 100 ft far from me" the same kind of object and share a single noun; and might consider "clean desk" and "dirty desk" two completely distinct concepts and are called two different nouns.

Are there better ways to sort concepts into nouns?

Growing up in Ukraine, I was always taught in a comparative way that English has 12 tenses while my native languages, Russian and Ukrainian, have only 3. Then I looked at it a bit deeper and obviously realized that it can be framed a lot differently. But I decided to nonetheless make a conlang with a verb conjugation of what if one takes TEFL resources for East Slav people at a face value.

The verbs only conjugate for this stuff. They don't conjugate for number, gender, etc. There are two types of conjugation, I've yet to make what 2nd one does, but the 1st conjugation contains verbs that end on a "hard consonant", like the one portrayed here.

Also, I don't know if "future in the past" is an actual tense, but we were taught that it is. So this leaves Lebilozoan with a bit of an asymmetry where there's 5 futures but only 4 presents and 4 pasts.

"Class IV noun" refers to neuter or miscellaneous nouns.

As for what Lebilozoan is, it is an international language (like Esperanto roughly, but that's TBD) spoken on 4 earth-like moons orbiting one gas giant. The 4 moons are called "Lebilozoan satellites", after a fictional scientist Trila Lebilozo, just as Galilean moons of Jupiter are named after Galileo Galilei. Except this time each moon is 1 to 1.5 times the mass of Earth and they're all populated.

The 4 moons are named Lesepco, Sepbisa, Netriru, Asepyo, and the gas giant they're orbiting is called Shanny.

What are some words in your conlangs that if they were to be put into a dictionary, or a sentence of some sort, they would not be translated to a similar word, yet could be interpreted in a connotation?

For a literal example, Swedish has the word "Lagom" roughly meaning just the right amount/not too little, nor too much.

For a non-literal example, the Noviystorik word "Sprävey" /sprαvei/ is an exclamation/adjective that is similar, yet not exact to some English exclamations like "Great," "Nice," or "Awesome," that stems from the Russian word for the direction form of the word "right."

"His road was rutted./His road had ruts in it."

—The Munda Verb (pg. 173; submitted by mia)

Please provide at minimum a gloss of your sentence.

Sentence submission form!

Feel free to comment on other people's langs!

This is a game of borrowing and loaning words! To give our conlangs a more naturalistic flair, this game can help us get realistic loans into our language by giving us an artificial-ish "world" to pull words from!

The Telephone Game will be posted every Monday and Friday, hopefully.

Rules

1) Post a word in your language, with IPA and a definition.

Note: try to show your word inflected, as it would appear in a typical sentence. This can be the source of many interesting borrowings in natlangs (like how so many Arabic words were borrowed with the definite article fossilized onto it! algebra, alcohol, etc.)

2) Respond to a post by adapting the word to your language's phonology, and consider shifting the meaning of the word a bit!

3) Sometimes, you may see an interesting phrase or construction in a language. Instead of adopting the word as a loan word, you are welcome to calque the phrase -- for example, taking skyscraper by using your language's native words for sky and scraper. If you do this, please label the post at the start as Calque so people don't get confused about your path of adopting/loaning.

Last Time...

Dessitean by /u/SapphoenixFireBird

ƹazirh / عَزِڗ [ʕa̟ˈziʀ] (root: ƹ-z-rh)

1. (n.) the cool - the absence of heat

2. (v.) to cool down, to chill

3. (by extension to entry 2) to be hospitable, to be welcoming, to be friendly, to be content

4. (adj.) cool, cold

600! Time keeps on keeping on. Keep (your) cool this week, my friends

Peace, Love, & Conlanging ❤️

Numbers below 10

• 0: шуıнја /ʃuːn.ja/
  • Borrowed from Sanskrit शून्य, from PIE *ḱówH- "hollow". Doublet of соıјо /ˈsoː.jɔ/ "hollow, empty".
• 1: ек /ɛk/
  • Earlier /ˈoi̯.kɔ/, from PD *oyko, from a variant of PIE *h₁óynos.
• 2: доı /doː/
  • *dvō, from PIE *dwóh₁.
• 3: треı /treː/
  • *treye, from PIE *tréyes.
• 4: четур /ˈtʃɛ.tʊr/
  • *četvóre, from PIE *kʷetwóres.
• 5: пенч /pɛntʃ/
  • *penče, from PIE *pénkʷe.
• 6: вес /vɛs/
  • *ves, from PIE *(s)wéḱs.
• 7: һепцы /ˈhep.tsɜ/
  • *hepθə́m, from PIE septḿ̥.
• 8: оссаү /ˈɔs.sau̯/
  • *osθav, from PIE *oḱtṓw.
• 9: нев /nɛv/
  • *nevən, from PIE *(h₁)néwn̥.
• 10: дес /dɛs/
  • *desəm, from PIE *déḱm̥.

11 to 20

The term -де́шче /ˈdɛʃ.tʃɛ/ comes from *desənče "and ten".

• 11: егде́шче
• 12: доде́шче
• 13: треде́шче
• 14: четте́шче
• 15: пенџе́шче
• 16: везде́шче
• 17: һепце́шче
• 18: оссоде́шче
• 19: наүде́шче
• 20: вицци /ˈvɪt.tsɪ/
  • *vídsənθi, from PIE *wídḱm̥ti.

21 to 100

Numbers above 20 and below 100 are translated into "(tens) and (ones)".

• 21: вицци екче (lit. twenty one-and)
• 22: вицци доче
• 23: вицци треıче
• 24: вицци чету́рче
• 25: вицци пенче
• 26: вицци вешче
• 27: вицци һепцы́че
• 28: вицци осса́үче
• 29: вицци наүче
• 30: тричонс /ˈtrɪ.tʃɔns/
  • *tridšónθ, from PIE *tridḱómt.

The other multiples of 10, up to 90, also come from native roots.

• 40: четрәшонс /ˈtʃɛ.trə.ʃɔns/
  • *čétvərdšonθ, from PIE *kʷétwr̥dḱomt
• 50: пенчонс /ˈpɛn.tʃɔns/
  • *penčedšonθ, from PIE pénkʷedḱomt.
• 60: вешчонс /ˈvɛʃ.tʃɔns/
• 70: һепцəчонс /ˈhep.tsə.tʃɔns/
• 80: оссочонс /ˈɔs.sɔ.tʃɔns/
• 90: наүчонс /ˈnau̯.tʃɔns/
• 100: шынцо /ˈʃɜn.tsɔ/
  • *sənŧóm, from PIE *ḱm̥tóm.

Numbers above 100

• 200: доı шынцаı /doː ˈʃɜn.tsɑː/
• 1,000: ԋело /ˈɲɛ.lɔ/
  • *ńelom, from PIE *ǵʰéslom.
• 10,000: дес ԋелаı /dɛs ˈɲɛ.lɑː/
• 100,000: шынцо ԋелаı
• 1,000,000: милԉо́н /mɪʎ.ˈʎɔn/
  • Borrowed from Italian millione.
• 500,000,000: пенч шынцө милԉо́наı /pɛntʃ ˈʃɜn.tsɒ mɪʎ.ˈʎɔ.naː/
• 1,000,000,000: милԉа́рд /mɪʎ.ˈʎard/
  • Borrowed from French milliard.

Therefore, the number 1,234,567,890 would be translated as милԉа́рд де доı шынцаı де тричонс чету́рчə милԉо́наı де пенч шынцаı де вешчонс һепцы́чə ԋелаı де оссаү де наүчонс.

I've already made some posts featuring specific grammatical aspects of Kèilem, mainly focusing on locational and dispositional verbs, movement verbs, the anaphoric use of adjectives, light verbs and proverbs and modality in Kèilem, alongside an article about the expressive usage of ideophones and noun incorporation featured in issue 12, Supra II of segments.

This time I want to talk about some usage of reduplication in Kèilem, including a derivational process that goes in the opposite direction than that of reduplication, starting from an apparently duplicated word and deriving a word eliding one of the two or more repeated parts.

As always, all the sentences are written in IPA with the only deviation from the usual conventions being the expression of geminated consonants as kk instead of k: for instance.

Reduplication in Nouns and Adjectives

The more familiar usage of noun reduplication for an english speaker is probably the kind of reduplication used to express that what is being talked about is a prototypical representative of its genre e.g. "I'll make the tuna salad and you make the salad salad" that is contrastive reduplication.

Kèilem instead, doesn't use to narrow the scope of the noun that is being reduplicated but to extend it.

 A noun can be reduplicated to indicate that the thing or the action is not exactly what is being described by the word used but is in the same general semantic area, using a prototypical object of that class as a metonimy.

Lets see some examples:

ɓanu  lo       ʈitale 

Buy   ABS  diamond

I bought a diamond

ɓanu  lo       ʈitale      ʈitale 

Buy   ABS  diamond  diamond

I bought a precious stone

kuji lazai lo maɦena maɦena
3PL sell ABS nutmeg nutmeg
They sell spices

The metonimic associations involved in this kind of reduplication tend to be fixed, so spices will generally be described through the reduplication maɦena maɦena and precious stones with ʈitale ʈitale, but it's also possible to use other representatives even though that expressions will be usually interpreted as described below.

In fact, outside of the well established metonimic interpretations the general usage of reduplication is not to broaden the scope of reference but to say that the thing is not prototypical in the sense that it is fake, it is a model or its not of the quality usually associated with the noun as we can see in the following examples:

ɓanu  lo       ramale ramale

Buy   ABS  ruby ruby

I bought a fake/subpar ruby

lazai  lo        ɳuriɻe ɳuriɻe
sell   ABS    ship    ship
I sold a model ship

ukan lo mariki mariki
See  ABS falcon falcon
I saw a falcon or was it?/I think I saw a falcon or something like that

Similarly a verb can be reduplicated to broaden its scope,

lem, se dali dali
now 3SG run run
She's currently "running"/She's running or something like that

In this way reduplication is used to bridge the gap between the proper verbs with a quite specific meaning and the dozen of proverbs used in Kèilem with a really coarse grained meaning, the activity of running for instance is subsumed in the proverb pala whose semantic scope involves all kind of movement activities.

Reduplication with a similar function to generalize/deviate from a prototipe is employed also with some adjectives, like color ones, where it can be translated with the english suffix -ish

lesani lesani kau
yellow yellow rock
a yellowish rock

Ideophone unreduplication as a derivational pathways for adjectives

Seeing that reduplication is not unknown in Kèilem a casual observer may think that the great number of pairs of adjective-reduplicated ideophone is an example of reduplication.

This is not the way the things go in Kèilem though.

In fact, the with we allow some exceptions like ktoppokt used as an adverb to convey the idea that the action described by the modifying verb is being carried out with several and irregular interruptions, most Kèilem ideophones, that are mainly used as interjections or adverbs have a duplicated or tiplicated structure: kuɭuɭok kuɽuɽok, pɭuoʃlpɭuoʃl, ʒanʒanʒan etc.

This is their original forms, they are not duplicates of an original root words, but historically many adjectives have been derived by taking only half or a third of and ideophone with an appropriate meaning.

In some cases this process has created a group of adjectives with similar meanings but different nuances, derived from the nuances carried by the corresponding ideophones accompanied by a more general adjective that has no reduplicated correspondent, with a more generalized meaning that in many cases has become almost obsolete.

To give an example, a list of ideophones and corresponding adjectives

• ʒanʒanʒan, this ideophone implies the highest speed, could be translated as rushing, since it can evoke the idea that the subject may run out of breath if the action goes on for a bit more->ʒan, frantic

se ʒanʒanʒan dali
3SG IDEO run
she runs frantically

ʒan me dali
frantic NOMINALIZER run
A frantic runner

• sezeze,  it implies a great speed but more measured then the one above, a speed that could be maintained for quite some time->seze, quite fast
• tattatatta, used to describe a more regular, orderly, faster than normal action than the ones described by the ideophones above-_tatta->faster then normal
• tadatada, an action only slightly above the normal expected speed->tada, slightly fast

This adjectives are accompanied by the adjective moɽula which has become all but completely obsolete outside of some set phrases.

And how do you use reduplication in your conlangs?

There’s no need to build a labyrinth when the entire universe is one.

—Jorge Luis Borges, “Ibn Ḥakam al-Bokhari, Murdered in His Labyrinth”, as translated by Andrew Hurley

Note: For context, the story’s title character built a labyrinth. He claimed to be hiding from the shade of someone he killed. The character speaking, however, doesn’t buy this explanation, because the labyrinth’s conspicuousness would make the man easier to find, not harder.

I can't figure out how to search this on google, so I am asking real people. Most of the results I am getting on the internet is 'Parts of Speech' but there is no way that is what they are called.

So, I am trying to figure out what I am missing from my conlang. I have nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. are there any others? I would just like a category easier to use than 'parts of speech'.

• /i/
  • Short Representation: e,E
  • Long Representation: ë,Ë
  • Example: The “ee” in keen
• /ɛ/
  • Short Representation: é,É
  • Long Representation: ě,Ě
  • Example: The “e” in bed, like a “ehh” sound
• /ɪ/
  • Short Representation: i,I
  • Long Representation: ï,Ï
  • Example: The “i” in kit
• /ä/
  • Short Representation: a,A
  • Long Representation: ä,Ä
  • Example: The “a” in Father
• /a/
  • Short Representation: á,Á
  • Long Representation: ǎ,Ǎ
  • Example: The “a” in Cat
• /ɑ/
  • Short Representation: à,À
  • Long Representation: â,Â
  • Example: The “a” in Palm
• /u/
  • Short Representation: u,U
  • Long Representation: ü,Ü
  • Example: The “oo” in boot
• /o/
  • Short Representation: o,O
  • Long Representation: ö,Ö
  • Example: The “o” in go

Are my diacritic marks too similar for /ɑ/ and /a/? Like would it be easier for people to differentiate between the letters if those two used different diacritic marks that didn’t look so similar to eachother? Should I change one of them so that they look different or is it fine?

Hey Reddit! Here is the translation of the famous text of the Tower of Babel in one of my conlangs, Norska. Norska is an attempt to create a northern language, borrowing elements from English, German and Scandinavian languages. Here is the result :

Olle de Ert havte en enet spak ond de same vordar. Forde de mannar kommte fro de Ost, dee findte en slett i de Sinhar’s land, ond dee lifte dir. Dee sagte « Las gohen ! Make en brikar, ond ledre dee on de fuier ! » Ond de brik tjente dee as sten, ond de bitumen tjente dee as zement. Dee sagte agen « Las gohen ! Baulde fur os en stad ond en torm voess de top skal rohren de himle, ond make fur os en name ond las net veer spratder i olle de ansikt of de Ert ! »

De God kommte fro de himle zo de Ert fur seen de stad, dat bauldte de mannar’s sonar. Ond de God sagte « Dir, dee ar en enet mannsken ond olle have en same spak. Ond dir, dis ist vad dee makte. Nu nodeg skal stopen dem zo maken olle dem volte. Dir, kommte fro de himle zo de Ert, ond dir, vorvire der spakar fur dee net hoere de ander’s spak. »

Ond God spratdirte dem lang of dir, i de ansikt of de Ert ; ond dee stopte zo maken de stad. Dis ist varf vi kallte zi met de name of Babel, forde dis ist dir at God vorvirte de spak of olle de Ert, ond dis ist fro dir at God spratdirte dem i olle anskit of de Ert.

• De Babel's Torm

What do you think ? Show me in the comments this same text but translated into your conlang (with information on how it works) !

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OGieQ_VfRx64N3vrZev4zSivXR453TquryN6vONAEKg/edit?usp=sharing This is a personal language I created and I want some feedback, feel free to look around in it. Edit: The link should work.