Fiat Lingua Top 10 for 2025
It's time for the annual Fiat Lingua rewind!
Background: I created Fiat Lingua over ten years ago with the idea that it could be something like the Rutgers Optimality Archive: A place where conlangers could post work that they wanted to showcase, or work that was in progress. We've had tons of contributions over the years, and some standout work I'm really proud of.
Using our fancy statistics program (you know, the free version) we're able to determine the top 10 visited posts for this year (and see my note on number 7 about December's Fiat Lingua this year. Ugh...). This year the stats program wasn't compatible with the major WordPress upgrade that happened in November, so all the stats for that period are GONE. :( So take this year's top 10 with a grain of salt...
NUMBER 10
"Tone for Conlangers: A Basic Introduction" (April, 2018) by Aidan Aannestad: It's been on the top ten every year since I started doing these posts, and this year it barely clung to its place! Will it make it next year? Well, will conlangers still be interested in learning how to do tone? My guess is yes.
NUMBER 9
"Izhglen: An homage to my childhood self" (July, 2025) by Jessie Peterson: A brand new article for this year, Jessie revisits her very first conlang attempt from when she was a young child. Back then, she took English words and mixed up the letters, pronouncing them as if they were new words. This time she decided to take that same premise and see if she could make an actual, functional conlang out of it. Very cool read!
NUMBER 8
"A Grammar of Izikazi" (June, 2025) by Matthijs Krul: A new one to Fiat Lingua this year and it cracked the top ten! This is a grammar of the conlang Izikazi by Matthijs, a long time conlanger and noted owl enthusiast. Definitely one to check out!
NUMBER 7
"Superbasic Full Conlang Starterpack" (October, 2022) by Alex Dedov: Sooo... Remember when I said above I'd have a note about December's Fiat Lingua article? This was it. Unfortunately I realized today as I was pulling the stats for the top ten that it was also the Fiat Lingua article for October, 2022. I liked it so much I accidentally posted it twice without recognizing that I'd already posted it three years earlier. >.< As a result, I, for the first time in history, changed the Fiat Lingua article for December to another one (one I'd been waiting for a dry month to post—a grammar of one of Jessie's early conlangs Gineso). I also added the hits for both articles together, and so Alex Dedov's one page (literally!) guide on how to create a language clocks in at #7 this year!
NUMBER 6
"How to Not Verb" (April, 2020) by Logan Kearsley: This is the first appearance for this article on the top ten. It's an examination of what it could mean to not have verbs in a conlang (featuring case studies of several different conlangs).
NUMBER 5
"Grambank & Language Documentation: Zhwadi and Its Features" (June, 2023) by Jessie Peterson: Down three spots at #5 is Jessie's Grambank example with Zhwadi. This is a short description of how to use Grambank in conlanging with a link to a fillable Google spreadsheet any conlanger can copy and use to introduce their conlang to others. This is just an example of how to use the main online resource.
NUMBER 4
"A Conlang-Venture: A Select-A-Feature Adventure" (January, 2024) by Jessie Peterson: Down one spot from last year is Jessie's 700+ page .pdf choose-your-own-adventure conlang (with document-internal links, so you don't have to scroll!). If you haven't gone through it before, you should definitely go through it at least twice (to see how things differ if you make different choices the second time!).
NUMBER 3
"Names Aren’t Neutral: David J. Peterson on Creating a Fantasy Language" (March, 2019) by David J. Peterson: Hey, it's me! This is my essay about names in sff and why most of them are pretty bad. This is its highest place ever on the top 10 at #3!
NUMBER 2
"Patterns of Allophony" (April, 2015) by William S. Annis: William Annis hasn't written a lot of Fiat Lingua articles, but he does consistently have the most popular ones. This year, "Patterns of Allophony" jumped up from #5 all the way to #2!
And now for the top viewed article for 2025 on Fiat Lingua...
NUMBER 1
"A Conlanger's Thesaurus" (September, 2014) by William S. Annis: Back-to-back! William Annis's resource on how to create unique words with unique interrelationships and associations has proved useful to conlangers has claimed the top spot on Fiat Lingua yet again. It's a testament to its enduring utility.
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And that's it for 2025! I'm looking forward to posting more conlang articles next year. If you are a conlanger, a conlang-researcher, or conlang fan who has something to say in .pdf format about a specific conlang or conlanging in general, please consider submitting something to Fiat Lingua! We take any and all articles related to conlanging in whatever form you have them. I'm also happy to help you think up ideas, or refine those ideas you have. There is no strong review like in a fancy journal: I just want to get what you have up. I'm especially in interested in hosting personal conlang stories—stories about how or why you started to create a language, or your experience creating your own language—personal stories that are often lost, but are so vital, as there is an absolute dearth of literature about conlangers! If you think you have even the seed of an idea, please get a hold of me! I want to share as many stories and ideas as I can.