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Conlanging

Discussion in 'Fun and Games' started by Ryujin, Sep 13, 2014.

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  1. Ryujin

    Ryujin
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    I've been talking a lot about conlanging recently, on this forum. I was interested and so Leo and I have begun work on our own conlang, named LeSan. After being told by CandyKing to get a thread, I've done that and created this thread where hobbyist conlangers can discuss conlanging and trade tips and tricks. One note though, please don't start speaking in your conlang as that would break the monolingual policy of the EC. Thanks and have fun discussing conlanging.
     
    #1 Ryujin, Sep 13, 2014
  2. Dalmatian

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    Sounds fun. I find the incredible power of language awe inspiring. Just the idea that there's a system of sounds that are capable of shattering the prison of my mind and make me feel one with other people.. that's crazy. A set of vibrations that can convey everything that's meaningful to someone right into my own thought. Magical :slight_smile:

    And to be able to construct something like that yourself is so cool. Btw, that's one of the things that's fascinating about programming (I'm a programmer): you spend your days designing interfaces, defining the language in which pieces of code communicate.

    I always wondered if there was a way to construct a meaningful language that would not be based on the noun-verb paradigm, no object-action thing. I wonder if it's possible.
     
    #2 Dalmatian, Sep 13, 2014
  3. Nychthemeron

    Nychthemeron
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    S'up. Conlang is cool.

    All of my conlang has had the typical structure of my Chinese dialect. It's simple and easy to understand, at least in my opinion. Haha.

    For example, instead of adding different words for is, are, of, etc, it's one word, or particle, as I'd like to call it.

    For example, this multi-purpose particle is "gai" in my language.

    She gai (is) a woman.
    She-gai (her) daughter gai (is a) girl.

    And, the pronouns are just one word. He, his, him, her, she, their, them, they - it's all packed into "ee".

    Ee-gai (his, her, their)
    Ee (he, him, her, they, them)

    You attach 'gai' to anything you want to make possessive.

    As for the sentence structure, it's usually noun + verb + direct object.

    Just thought I'd share, if anyone wants to make the grammar simple. :lol:
     
    #3 Nychthemeron, Sep 13, 2014
  4. Ryujin

    Ryujin
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    Our conlang is based a lot around japanese grammar which uses a lot of simple particles. For example, no serves a similar purpose to gai in that anything after no belongs to what goes before no.
     
    #4 Ryujin, Sep 13, 2014
  5. Quem

    Quem
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    I like conlanging too! If you ever need help with phonetics, feel free to ask me goldenarrow! :icon_bigg
     
    #5 Quem, Sep 13, 2014
  6. Ryujin

    Ryujin
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    I was wondering, is "That" necessary if you have a "this", surely they refer to similar if not the same thing.
    The difference is mainly distance but if that weren't important then could you just use one?
     
    #6 Ryujin, Sep 13, 2014
  7. Nychthemeron

    Nychthemeron
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    Sure? But it is important. That's why the difference is there.

    But maybe you can do something like this:

    Do you mean this?
    Do you mean the thing in my hand?

    Do you mean that?
    Do you mean the thing on the shelf?

    What is this?
    What is the thing in my hand?

    What is that?
    What is the thing on the shelf?

    So using 'the thing' with its location.
     
    #7 Nychthemeron, Sep 13, 2014
  8. Ryujin

    Ryujin
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    I do believe that we've mostly finished with grammar, we can touch it up a bit as we go along though but generally we're onto words.
     
    #8 Ryujin, Sep 13, 2014
  9. Nychthemeron

    Nychthemeron
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    What are you making the conlang for? Just a side project or maybe you're writing a book, developing a game, etc?
     
    #9 Nychthemeron, Sep 13, 2014
  10. Quem

    Quem
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    This and that are demonstrative pronouns. English has this/these & that/those. Some languages have more than 2 different 'classes'.
     
    #10 Quem, Sep 13, 2014
  11. Ryujin

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    Thanks.

    Nych: Generally just a project that Leo and I just decided to work on together, it seemed like a cool idea so we did it, it's a hobby I'd like to get into as it certainly kills time :grin:
     
    #11 Ryujin, Sep 13, 2014
  12. Quem

    Quem
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    I'm not sure whether you have introduced articles based on gender (like el & la in Spanish) or anything like that, but quite often, this and that follow the gender classes too.

    The thing you should also really focus on is the usage of prepositions and the like. :slight_smile:
     
    #12 Quem, Sep 13, 2014
  13. Ryujin

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    I'm not using gender in it. Personally I feel like it's an outdated and pointless concept.

    Thanks for the tip.
     
    #13 Ryujin, Sep 13, 2014
  14. Nychthemeron

    Nychthemeron
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    ALSO IT COMPLICATES THE HELL OUT OF EVERYTHING

    it does make your language more difficult to "decode" though haha

    And, ah, gotcha. Yeah, it's a really cool hobby, something I feel as if I can invest my time in and actually be satisfied with the end product.

    Now I just have to find the general 'look' of the language - will it be consonant heavy? Vowel heavy? maybe both?

    I was looking at a mix between German, Latin, and Spanish, because damn, those languages are great-looking, and I know some Latin and Spanish. German... uh... not really
     
    #14 Nychthemeron, Sep 13, 2014
  15. Quem

    Quem
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    Some language don't have a distinction, and some don't have articles at all.. Lots of possibilities there. :slight_smile:

    You're welcome!
     
    #15 Quem, Sep 13, 2014
  16. Ryujin

    Ryujin
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    I think the way I have it now is that if I were to say have a mat and a cat it would be "the mat below the cat sit past" which obviously sounds strange in English.
     
    #16 Ryujin, Sep 13, 2014
  17. Nychthemeron

    Nychthemeron
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    Wait, can you explain that
     
    #17 Nychthemeron, Sep 13, 2014
  18. Ryujin

    Ryujin
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    It follows Object-Subject-Verb structure and modifiers to verbs and adjectives are put after the verb/adjective instead of actually changing the word so that "sit past" is the same as "sat". "Below" would be a preposition which goes after the object to indicate that it is below the subject. So "the mat below the cat sit past" would be "The cat that was above the mat sat on the mat.
     
    #18 Ryujin, Sep 13, 2014
  19. Quem

    Quem
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    "have a mat and a cat" ?= "the mat below the cat sit past"

    I'm not sure what you did with the tenses here. :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

    *edit:* Never mind, see the post above me now!
     
    #19 Quem, Sep 13, 2014
  20. Ryujin

    Ryujin
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    It's my conlang, it doesn't have to follow everyone else's rules!
     
    #20 Ryujin, Sep 13, 2014
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