#conlang year

[ouroboros-clong]

I'm debating doing the Conlang Year stuff this year, but am unsure if I should, since I'm not sure we can keep it up every day. I should probably at least try though, no?

[dedalvs]

Kopikon II Presenters: Jessie Peterson

Kopikon II is about three months away, so I'm presenting each speaker in the order they’ll be presenting on October 10th at the University of Edinburgh. This year our headliner is none other than Jessie Peterson.

Jessie's been conlanging her whole life, and now makes a living as a professional conlanger. Working with me she's created languages for Freeform's Motherland: Fort Salem, Peacock's Vampire Academy, Pixar's Elemental, Legendary's Dune, and, premiering today, the Kryptonian language Suh Ankripton in Warner Bros.' Suerpman!

Additionally, Jessie has always been invested in putting together resources for conlangers. She created the Conlang Year project, to help conlangers build a language by doing a small piece of work each day; the massive Conlang-Venture .pdf, which is a choose-your-own-adventure that guides you through naturalistic conlanging; and the conlang GramBank spreadsheet, to help conlangers share their work more effectively. This year, though, she's come out with her biggest and best resource to date.

Coming out this October, Cambridge University is publishing Jessie's brand new conlang textbook How to Create a Language: The Conlang Guide:

If you ever wanted to read a book that went into more depth than The Art of Language Invention and with greater clarity, this is that book. Weighing in at nearly 500 pages, you can pre-order the book now, or wait until Kopikon when we'll have copies on hand for sale!

Jessie will be closing things up at Kopikon II at 4:10 p.m. at the University of Edinburgh (George Square), October 10th, 2025. To register, go here. The full schedule is listed below:

1:00 p.m. Opening remarks by David & Jessie

1:10 p.m. Keras Saryan

1:50 p.m. Jake Penny

2:30 p.m. Biblaridion

3:10 p.m. Intermission (20 minutes)

3:30 p.m. David Peterson

4:10 p.m. Jessie Peterson

4:50 p.m. Closing remarks by David & Jessie

We hope to see you at Kopikon II! It will be a day to remember. <3

[sombra-conlangs]

I've been working on my merfolk conlang Cwihlur and I decided to share a bit about it since it's still MerMay! Following the prompts for quothalinguist's ConlangYear (I am way behind) I'm figuring out how possession works in the language, so here it is below the cut

(Note: This is actually how it works in Proto-Abyssal, the ancestor language to Cwihlur, I'll figure out how it evolves later)

The language has two different types of possession: alienable and inalienable, so things get treated differently depending on how inherent your connection to them is.

Inalienable possession is (roughly) for body parts, kinship, things originating from the possessor, attributes, and mental stuff.

*k͡ʘəwix lu luxɑ merfolk {poss} voice

(merfolk's voice)

*lu is a postposition originally denoting location, think of "the fin at the fish" eventually becoming "the fish's fin".

Alienable possession is for pretty much everything else, things that you can own but can be lost or removed without much difficulty.

*k͡ʘəwix seʀk͡ǁus seʀeq merfolk harpoon {poss}

(merfolk's harpoon)

*seʀeq is a postposition coming from the word for "thing" so it's marking the harpoon as the object, the property.

The word for thing came from the word for "matter, situation" like in Germanic languages, which in turn came from the nominalized form of the verb "to request" because a request or a question can be a "matter" or a "situation" to be discussed.

I had the option of not marking inalienable possession at all and only using one postposition for alienable possession, but I thought it could be fun to mark both. Once I decided on that I learned that apparently some languages use a difference in word order to make the alienable-inalienable distinction, so I thought of how to incorporate that into my language.

So that's why inalienable possession is marked on the possessor while alienable possession is marked on the possessee. And of course I tried to make sure the word order and etymologies matched with the meanings so it's not arbitrary (plus I consulted the World Lexicon of Grammaticalization, love that book).

One more thing is I decided not to treat the following as possession (grammatically):

location, just because a thing is somewhere doesn't mean it's "of" that place, it's "in" it or "from" it

borrowing, the thing is not theirs, it's "with" them

stuff that hasn't been given, it's not theirs yet it's "for" them

A fun exception to the last one is prophecy, as this is seen as something predetermined, something we know is going to happen, so if someone is prophecized to acquire an item you can say the item is just theirs even if they haven't gotten it yet and no one would bat an eye.

As usual I'm not sure how naturalistic any of this is but it makes sense to me, doesn't seem too out there imo and I'm having fun so that's good enough for me lol

[thenullimorpheme]

Day 129 - New adjectives

So I may have gone a bit overboard and developed a whole philosophical framework a la Wuxing/4 classical elements (for those of you who like me don't have the patience for long rambling posts would you be interested if I did a sort of elemental spotlight series of post?)

anyway ignore that this was made in powerpoint (i will make proper art at some point but Im a bad artist and it takes me time, too much for 1 day)

The idea is there are 3 elements each with its 3 stages in a cycle. The stages are forced on the element by the 2 other elements. 1st stage is the element at its most primal, untamed form. 2nd is what becomes of it through contact with the other elements, the element at its weakest. And 3rd is the element "taught" by the others how to return to its form. The 3rd form is the element at its most impure but also at its most "useful" where it can actually interact with others. To quickly sum up:

Thunder is the element of pure destruction, when given life it becomes fire, which must be taught stability by wood to become heat/light - transformative destruction.

Stone is the element of stability and stagnation, which gets weathered into earth which must be taught the ability to grow and change to regain its stability becoming wood - the element of structure.

Wind is pure untamed movement, it gets condensed and stabilised into clouds, which must be taught to sacrifice themselves to become the element of purposeful movement and inner change - water.

--- Okay so moving to words: maorū > tiki > rei

maorū - thunder from mao "sky" and rughu "to scream"

I loosely translate this word as thunder but I imagine it covers other loud destructive natural phenomena like earhquakes and volcanic eruptions. Here I only had the idea for one derivation but theres a bonus adjective: rū - loud from rughu so thats neat.

namaorū - to be destructive, literally bringing thunder

Fire was already a word I had made, and I already had an adjective from it so I'm mostly leaving it be. I am however adding a new phrase "ota tiki" - from fire, which means achieved through sacrifice.

rei - light/heat, it also can be a verb meaning "to be hot". Which also carries the metaphorical meaning of being disruptive, however with far less negative connotations, more being about bringing about positive change. From it we also have reile'e - to be ineffective and rīse - to be heat resistant, to be slow to accept change

Second trinity: tei > tao > teiloa

tei - stone, to be made of stone, can also mean solid, unbreakable. From which comes: teitea - stubborn and lahīatei - to hide ones emotions (from lahīa "face" - lit. stone faced)

tao - earth, here I have only one adjective hē'ao - to have potential

teiloa - wood, bones from tei "rock" and lao "to grow". It is also a verb meaning "to be wooden" or "to be steadfast and principled"

And third triad: osā > maopo > lao

osā - wind, air. Also "to be incapable of sitting still, inpatient" or "to be directionless"

maopo - cloud from mao "sky" and po "hill". With the lovely adjective maopotea - to be cloudy (as in opaque) and to be lazy, unmotivated, directionless. Oh and also ota maopo "from clouds" – achieved by focus and direction

and last but not least lao - water, with the adjective laotea - watery and to be flexible, capable of change

Also I set up some other basic adjectives

ira - to be angry

rosi - to be friendly, evolving from meaning "to be safe", also giving me a nice new word for home (rosē'i). This one is derived from my lovely dogs name <3

shai - black

pai - white

nea - to be silly

nanē - to be funny (from same source as nea + na "to bring")

hē'ikei - to be happy (from kegh- "to have x" + bigey "fruit")

'aso - sad

lūito - to be optimistic

I also want there to be lots of adjectives (and phrases) coming from nature but im leaving that for later

[kohlrabi]

Conlang Year 2025 — Days 10-12

This is another series of days that I am combining, which henceforth shall be called “Consonant Day.” According to the prompts, these days task you to “choose series of consonants to incorporate, decide whether consonants will have a voicing distinction, and research other places of articulations.” Conlang Year is set up to give the participant plenty of time to do research and gauge what sorts of elements that they wish to include in their language, which is an excellent feature for beginner conlangers. On the flip side, I really enjoy creating phonologies for languages that may never occur, just as some practice to see how the values lie, whether it could be a potential language to explore.

The phonology for this language is one I made in one of these experimentation sessions with not really an expectation, but it’s one that I latched onto and one I wanted to save for specifically this. I’ll present my thought process over these three days and present the vowels on Day 15.

I start all my shit-shooting (that is literally what the folder is called where these are birthed) with this template system starts:

I started by editing out some of the less common phonemes, because for this one, a minimal phonology was desired. The affricates were gutted and the dental, lateral alveolar, palatal, and uvular consonants were nearly completely removed, sparing the glide /j/. The velar nasal /ŋ/ was, unfortunately, among the consonant crew that was cut. It’s less common than the others present, especially in word initial forms.

Generally, I did not want a voicing distinction: too many consonants. The voiceless ones were chosen since it is uncommon for there to be only voiced consonants in natural languages. For the bilabial fricative, however, the voiced fricatve /v/ was elected over the voiceless one /f/.

When it comes to other articulations, the alveolar approximant, or the rhotic in this case, is shown here as a trill /r/, yet I wanted to weaken that a little more to the tap /ɾ/. As @quothalinguist had mentioned, the sound /w/ is a coarticulated labial-velar sound. The velar column was expanded to include the labialized velar stop /kʷ/. With that expansion, the consonant chart is complete!

[volapuke]

Conlang Year Biweekly Update - I

Here it is (only 11 days late :3)

Days 1 and 2 - Goals for the language and for Sharing

My goals for this language are fairly simple. I wanted a simple yet unique sound system (i have ideas about it but i don't know how to express them, but I'll touch on it eventually, once I get the details hammered out), a complex grammar with features I don't understand, and for the language to fit a conculture that I'm working on (and will likely post about in the future *wink * *wink*). As for my intentions to share, obviously I will be posting about it here, but I also plan on posting about it through various conlang games (such as relays) and through reference grammars, stories, poems, learning materials, the exact details are undetermined as of now.

Days 3-9 - Conworld, Conculture, Conspeakers

This language's world should be quite familiar as it is spoken on Earth. Specifically, on an alternate version of earth where Atlantis is real (yes really). I personally dislike a lot of preconceptions of Atlantis that stem from hyperdiffusion conspiracy theories (ie Atlantis is the best ur-civilization that taught previously 'uncivilized' [read non-white] people how to do things) so my Atlantis is very Mediterranean-focused. The flora and fauna are similar to the Mediterranean and to the Azores and Macaronesia.

My fictional Atlantis, at its peak, is a broad and flat island with two mountain ranges, one along the western and coasts, and one along the eastern coast. The tallest peak is 2714 meters in the far northwest. The two ranges encircle a large, flat, well irrigated plain that served as the empire's breadbasket until it's disgraceful plunge into the ocean.

Speaking of the great wetting of feet, it took place over the course of about a quarter millenium, over which the entire continent sank an entire kilometer, which did not completely sink it, but very nearly did. The empire quickly collapsed and the almost 5-million strong population quickly fell to under 10% of that. This event, which was indeed divinely caused (I'll talk about the religion of Atlantis in a separate post), left a major impact on the culture of the Atlanteans. However none of that is immediately relevant to this language, as I am simply constructing the Proto-Atlantean language as spoken around 5000 BCE.

I have more ideas but they'll be answered soon (if there's anything you're curious about feel free to send me an ask).

Days 10-16 - Phonology

I settled on a pretty small phonology of 14 consonants and three vowels, which are:

Nasals: m, n

Plosives: ɓ, b, p, ɗ, d, t, ɡ, k

Fricatives: s, z

Liquids: r, l

Vowels: a, i, u

Diphthongs: any combination of two vowels (long vowels are valid)

I have a fairly regularized syllable structure but that will be shown in day 18, stay tuned!

[mesosylvania-tlspaulding]

The World of the Antarcticon

Welcome to my far future, ice-free Antarctica, known for now as the “Continent”! This is the setting I'm working on for a future epic fantasy series, code named "The Antarcticon".

The climate, flora and fauna are all unique, and may have been intentionally engineered by a precursor civilization, through science and/or magic. That precursor civilization, human or otherwise, did leave behind artifacts, including a massive basalt tower at the location of the South Pole.

The world is suffused with many types of magics, deriving from the auroras, the stars, and a variety of spirits from other dimensions. 

Monotreme mammals dominate the land (except for humans and a few other placental mammals) all laying eggs and having beaks or bills, but filling the ecosystem niches of placental or marsupial mammals in our world. A monotreme sentient race also exists in several of the large lake and wetland regions. 

Similarly, penguins have speciated into several types of (still-)flightless birds, from large and dangerous terrorbirds, to a domesticated chicken analogue. 

The climate is temperate overall, with equivalents of our temperate deciduous forests and temperate rainforests the most common, except due to elevation. The flora is unique as well, with a wide variety of mosses, lichens, and fungi filling most niches of plants, except for varieties and descendants of our world’s araucaria tree, which is highly dominant.

The Continent and associated islands are separated from the rest of the world by an endless tempest, uncrossable by humans.

Despite being very different from our current day Antarctica, due to climate change and likely a good bit of magic, and possible even alien technologies, one factor remains the same: the extreme polar day/night cycle. In almost all areas, “day” and “summer” are equivalent, while “night” and “winter” are as well, giving a cycle of roughly 5+ months of day, 5+ months of night, and a period of a few weeks of transition during the equinoxes. This has, as you might expect, affected human society quite a bit! In the recent past, before an imperial upset, societies all over tended to respond in major ways to the shift, with some of the possibilities being:

physically relocating en masse to new areas

switching from an egalitarian society to a strictly hierarchical one, or vice versa

otherwise completely adjusting societal structures, such as from matriarchal to patriarchal

speaking in a completely different register of their language, with differing grammar and vocabulary

Technology-wise it is still very much a work in progress, but I will be leaning on and enhancing a blended Paleolithic-meets-the Copper Age-meets-Medieval/Renaissance vibe in the technology levels.

The Languages of Antarctica

Three human language families make up almost all of the currently-known human languages on the Continent, and they all make up a large linguistic area, sharing a few general features:

Ergativity is common, though split systems of various kinds are common as well

Noun class systems that are at least partially inspired by the daysummer/nightwinter cycle, as well as the various kinds of flora and fauna, with some languages having 10+ of these

Shared conceptual metaphors (both used in idioms, as well as to philosophically extend the meanings of the above noun classes)

Common compound word calques, often extended from the conceptual metaphor system

Most common word order: head-first, VSO, prepositions/locative nouns

Prefixing in the verb system most common, this varies a lot by region

Morphological evidentiality is ubiquitous

Daysummer vs Nightwinter evident in grammar and in lexicon

fancified more intense grammar for one phase, colloquial lax vulgar grammar for other phase (which phase is which varies based on language and regional culture)

That's all for now! In the next few posts, I'll start sharing things about specific Antarctic languages!

(And I'll also be making some Conlang Year Updates as well, where I share about the feature that aligns with the current Conlang Year day!)

[bubba-langs]

Here is my proto-phonology for the chipmunk language I will be working on, this is what I am starting out with and will be evolving the language to add some quirks.

A syllable can, at maximum, be a CVC but ejectives aren't allowed in the end of a syllable. Also at proto, there is vowel harmony where a word can have either all high vowels, are all "low" vowels (labeled here as non-high)