#beginning conlang

[theopenveil]

First Conlang: Phonotactics (And A Few Words!)

Ok, I've been busy these past 24 hours. If you saw one of my last two posts, I said that I misheard and misunderstood the IPA chart and used the wrong phones (sounds), and which resulted in phones that did not fit the idea of my language. So I did somewhat of an overhaul and removed and added some phones that I am really happy with.

After I chose the phones that I wanted, I went ahead and selected some phonemes (basically letters) that represent the phones. As you can see /z/ has two phones with it, because when they are used either sound is acceptable.

*Brackets indicate only the phone (sound), not the phoneme (letter)

*Phonemes are indicated by / surrounding them.

Consonants: /m/, /b/, /f/, /n/, /t/, /d/, /z/ [ð θ], /s/,  /ŝ/ [ʃ], /l/, /r/ [ɺ], /g/

Vowels:  /a/, /e/, /i/, /u/ [ɤ]

After, I came up with the phonemes, I developed a sound structure:

C=consonant and V=vowel

All CC or VV phones can only be doubled, not tripled or more. 

All CV combos allowed, except:

/l/ and /e i/

/r/ and /a/

All VC combos allowed except:

/l/ and /e i/

/r/ and /i u/

All CC combos allowed, except:

/b/ and /f/

/t/ and /d/

/z/ and /n d s ŝ r/

No same phone pairings example: no /mm/

All VV combos allowed, except:

Same phone pairings example: no /aa/

I chose this structure because compared to some languages (English for example) I do not have that many consonants and vowels and having a lot of sound combinations should make up for that. Also, I believe that this will hopefully give the most options for word and syllable construction. Speaking of syllables.....

After creating a sound structure next was creating syllable structure. This was the hardest and easiest, because I have such variety in sound combos, I also have variety in syllable combos. However, this was hard as well because I had to test out the many syllable combos:

1 syllable: None

2 syllable: CC, VV, VC, CV

3 syllable: CCV, CVV, VVC, VCC, CVC, VCV, etc.....

4 syllable: CCVV, VVCC, CVCV, VCVC, CCVC, VVCV, etc.....

5 syllable: CCVC, etc.....

6 syllable: CCVVCC, etc...

7 syllable and beyond: ??

I didn't test much once I got to 5 syllables and beyond. There are just way too many combinations and from the small test that I did it seemed that any combination of C and/or V would make a valid word (as long as it stuck to the  sound rules). Also, I am unsure if I may have words beyond 6 syllables. However, I won't know for sure until I start creating words and grammar.

And as promised here are some of the words that I made up to test the syllable structure, so they do not have any meanings yet. See if you can pronounce any of them!

Mfai

Bmfla

Uaez

Nigato

Lŝoa

Aoma

Ogima

Rdaiŝ

Zta

Ŝo

Ai

The next post will very likely deal with word construction and grammar. Also please let me know what you think of this, any input will be grateful! :D

[theopenveil]

First Conlang: Awkward

That awkward moment when you realized that you misunderstood the IPA chart and used the wrong phones (sounds).

I guess it's time to start over.

[theopenveil]

First Conlang: Phonetics

First I would like to say that from inception (the beginning of the idea) to now took about a day and half. The idea was easy but the execution was a tad harder.

As I said in the previous post my language will have influences from Romance, Finnish, and Elvish languages. After doing some research and using these sites: Language Construction Kit and Wikibooks Conlang. It appears that most conlangers (people who make conlangs) start by building the phonetic sounds of their language.

To build the phonetic sounds of the language you use the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet). First you start with the consonants and then the vowels. Consonants and Vowels are each separated further by location in the mouth that each sound is produced. I won't go any further in explanation than that but the links above explain better than I ever could.

Below are the consonants and vowels that I chose for my language. Some sounds may be added or removed as I continue, but for now these work for me.

Consonants: m p b f t θ ð s z ʃ ɹ l ɺ ɲ j ʎ

Vowels: a e i o̞ u

Audio for IPA Constants and Vowels Pronunciation (Click on each symbol to hear the audio)

Now these phones (the sounds) are not the phonemes (the "letters") of the language. That will come later (in another post).

Now I am learning as I go. I'm probably making mistakes, if I am let me know, so I can correct it in my posts and in my technique. Also feel free to leave something in my ask, questions, advice, chit-chat, or your own conlangs!

[theopenveil]

First Conlang: Inspiration & Motivations

I stumbled upon conlanging by accident, I found it by simply googling "hobbies" and finding a list that mentioned and then a quick Wikipedia search. Honestly, that is it. I like being creative and I like learning, so conlanging provided the best of both worlds.

The inspiration for my conlang which is categorized as an artlang, came from my displeasure with English. I dislike the stressed sounds such as "clearly" or "accuse" (Btw I'm a native English speaker). 

Anyway, my language will have inspiration from Spanish (or Romance Languages in general), Finnish, and Elvish. I want my language to flow like water, quick on the tongue, and melodic when spoken.

Example of Finnish (Youtube)

Example of Elvish (Youtube)

Example of Spanish (Youtube)

You can hear how quick these languages are spoken but with some fluidity. I will use these as the bases for building my phonetic language.

The next post will be me actually delving into creating it!

If you have any questions or want to give me advice, my ask is open!! :D

[theopenveil]

First Conlang: Introduction

Hello all! This is going to be the first of series of posts about my journey into creating my first conlang. The tag for these posts will be under: first conlang

Also there will be a page on my blog called My Conlang, that will take you there as well!