Things to consider when starting a constructed language (conlang)
I've been dabbling in this and asking Chat-GPT for help.
1. Minimum amount of conjunctions
2. Figure out whether you want to use prepositions, affixes, cases, or something else, or maybe all of these
3. Decide on the phonology
4. What will make it unique?
5. Should it be an a priori or posteriori language? Or a mix of both?
In other words, should it be based on existing languages, or something completely made up?
6. Why are you making it and how do you hope to use it?
A lot of conlang creators seem to do it for their fictional world (such as sci-fi authors), while others want to create an auxiliary language (a language aimed at facilitating communication between different peoples), and others may do it for other reasons such as experimentation or art.
7. Be careful not to make it a "kitchen sink" conlang
Apparently this is a term used to refer to a conlang that has a bunch of different features that may not necessarily go well together, but it happens because the creator is tempted to add every feature they like.
I don't know if this is necessarily a problem. But I could see myself falling into that trap.
8. Word order: Flexible? SOV? SVO? OVS? OSV? VOS? VSO?
9. Tenses: You probably at least need present, past, future
10. Vocabulary: Stick to a small amount of words that you can glue together? Create a vast list of vocabulary? Somewhere in-between? Maybe also create concepts that don't exist in any other language?
Toki Pona is an example of a conlang that only has something like 137 root words (even less, depending on how you count, from what I've heard). Apparently the concept is quite popular and several other conlang creators have attempted something similar.
No comments.