I'm just starting out conlanging with limited knowledge of construction of languages and linguistics. I'm hoping to make one of the primary languages in a province on my planet. The hardest thing about constructing a language for an imaginary place seems to be generating a completely unique language seeing as it's hard to disassociate from the languages I already know, at least for me.. do you have any tips for this?
Read about languages. Read more. Then read more.
Also, don’t worry about making a unique language. I very much disagree with the idea that has become prevalent in the conlang community that your language is only worth something if it’s some kind of unique snowflake of a language. Some of the best conlangs I have encountered have been based upon existing languages. What you need to be wary of is creating a copy of a language (unless that’s your intention, kind of what I’m doing with Nevarran). Otherwise, creating a language that sounds like a real-world language is nothing to be ashamed of.
What’s important is to understand how languages work. You don’t need to have knowledge of linguistics (although it helps) and you don’t need to be really knowledgeable about grammar (although it helps). What you need to know if how language works, which is rather simple when you break it down to its bare basics. You really just need to know about the basics of case and declension. Get those down and you can create anything, really.
Think about what your people would sound like. Instead of thinking about language at this point, think about what their mouths look like. How do they create sound? Do they incorporate body language into their communcation? Do they use pheromones to communicate? What about tonal shifts? Can one word change meaning completely depending on the tones in which it is spoken? Think about how these people would sound. Speak to yourself in some sort of gibberish that sound like what you imagine they would sound like. Then take some of those words from that gibberish and assign meanings to them. Congratulations, you just started a conlang.
As for making the language unique, think about the sounds that would be included in this language. Using this handy-dandy online IPA chart will help. What sounds do you regard as ‘unique’? Search through the chart, try and figure out a phonology for your language based upon the gibberish you were practicing.
If you’re interested in really delving into the meat and potatoes of it all, I would suggest you check out these resources:
The Language Construction Kit, by Mark Rosenfelder
