I wana make a language <.<. . . . >.>

[Froogleyboy]

Okay, I wana make a SPOKEN (I have a written language) language but I have no idea where to start. Can a linguist/person who knows other languages help me

[Moff Chumley]

Google Conlang. Conlang, fyi, is the art of constructed language.

[Yarram]

I'm interested, why you want a language. Not that I disagree with the practice.

[cycoris]

Take a look at this site. It's got a whole language building kit that is wonderful.

[Froogleyboy]

I'm interested, why you want a language. Not that I disagree with the practice.

idk, boredom

[Moff Chumley]

I hear ya. The wiki article provides some cool excuses.

[Icewalker]

My friend has made a language, and bits and pieces of others for her giant overly detailed world. It includes a new script as well. Pretty extensive. I'm not sure how she went about making it initially, but she's beginning to put together lessons in it to teach others by going through introductory books on other languages and putting together lessons in the same style.

[Froogleyboy]

Okay, I've got my noises and such, but how do I make words?

[cycoris]

Okay, I've got my noises and such, but how do I make words?

*cough* There's a whole section titled 'Word Building' in the language construction kit I linked earlier. *cough*

Linky to the kit.
Linky to the word construction section.

[Lissou]

Okay, I've got my noises and such, but how do I make words?

You just... Make them up ?
Start with simple one. Then find "roots". It's common for similar words to sound the same.
Decide how verbs will be contructed, and where they go in a sentence. Beginning, middle, end?

You have a lot of work to do but it's possible if you give it your all.

I'd suggest starting with grammar then working on the vocabulary.

[Froogleyboy]

okay, if anyone cares, here is my phonology:
Nasal-Labial: M
Nasal-Dental: N
Nasal-Palatal: ɲ
Nasal-Velar: ŋ

Plosive-Labial: P B
Plosive-Dental: T D
Plosive-Palatal: ɟ C
Plosive-Velar: K

Fricative-Labial: F V
Fricative-Dental: S Z
Fricative-Palatal: ʃ ʒ
Fricative-Velar: X

Approx.-Labial:
Approx.-Dental: ð
Approx.-Palatal: j
Approx.-Velar: W

Lateral-Labial:
Lateral-Dental: l
Lateral-Palatal: (ʎ)
Lateral-Velar:

[Ichneumon]

This is amazing. My inner geek laughs maniacally.
I will be the father/mother of an entire new language.

[Lissou]

What about vowels? They vary from one language to the next, too.

[golentan]

If I may, I'd like to make a plug for a feature from my native tongue. Universal suffix/prefix system. It can make things archaic quickly, but can add emphasis. For example:

-a (placeholder, unmodified word, most often while searching in conversation like an "ah" or "um")
-se (Affirmative sound, is true)
-ta (negative sound, is not true)
-uan (antithesis, usually a sarcastic connotation)

And a couple others, such as -uru- which made the word plural. So a quick example with the verb Jeen (to be):

Jeena: "To be"
Jeense: "Subject (it) is."
Jeenta: "It isn't"
Jeenuan: "Suuuuuure it isn't."

The full list of suffixes is extensive, and bears some conjugatory suffixes which can get a little tricky, but lets you get an amazing depth of meaning without a crazy mucking about sentence structure.

[Morty]

Just so you know, be prepared for a huge amount of work. It took Tolkien what, several years to make the elven language for his book? And he was a philologist.

[Froogleyboy]

So . . . i pretty much just decide the words. there is no system to it?

[Ichneumon]

So . . . i pretty much just decide the words. there is no system to it?

Well, depending what you want your language to actually look/sound like, you could do something like this:

You want the word for chair. You search for the word in another language.
For example French, you twist it and take it.

[Froogleyboy]

idea! I'm designing a smooth beautiful language, maybe I could twist some rough guttural languages into my lang. would it work?

[Ichneumon]

Words, their sound and grammar must sound natural, for the language to be easily spoken and realistic.

[Froogleyboy]

okay, the kit that Cycoris listed said I should make the alphabet after my sounds but I don't really get it.

[Ichneumon]

I think you should first and foremost have a concept to go on. What kind of a language do you want to make? The language of the fantasy dwarves is something entirely different than the language of Vulcan/Romulan or Klingon language and that's something entirely different than 18th century French. It will be hard creating a language if you don't know what direction you want to go. You'd have a hard time creating a unified "theme".

[Morty]

I haven't read it in depth, but I think the point is, you need to have a letter in the alphabet for every sound its speakers can use when talking. Also note that humans first started speaking and then invented written language.

[Froogleyboy]

I'm using it for my fantasy world, It's gonna be the language that Treants and gods use (The Treants were the first beings in my world)

[Ichneumon]

It would also be handy to have it type-able in your native alphabet, if only for your own convenience of writing down the words and recognising them. That's if you want to learn the language yourself.

[Froogleyboy]

Allright, well I've got all my sounds represented by Roman letters if thats what you mean

[Ichneumon]

Allright, well I've got all my sounds represented by Roman letters if thats what you mean

Yeah, that's what I meant.

If you are going for an ancient god-like language. It makes me think of either Greec or Latin. You could make words with lots of sounds like good or Mordor or Eldoran or Darth Vader etc.

[Froogleyboy]

Well, the base language is french with some sounds removed, and I added a few Icelandic and German sounds

[Ichneumon]

Well, the base language is french with some sounds removed, and I added a few Icelandic and German sounds

Yeah that's what I meant.

If you are using it in your campaign setting, you should focus on creating the words you actually are going to need. For example, no use in making words for television or cutlery, and more use for words like Arcane, magic, soul, gods, angels etc.

[Froogleyboy]

Well, funny thing, I've never actually used this world for a campaign. Its just a notebook full of Myths, Legends, Maps, and Race/Kingdom info

[Froogleyboy]

Every sound my language makes:
M as in Mom
N as in Nothing
ɲ as in oNIon
ŋ as in siNG
P as in Papa
B as in Back
T as in Tada!
D as in taDa!
ɟ as in Jir (Dinkan word and pronunciation)
K as in Kiss
F as in Fill
V as in Velcro
S as in Sandy
Z as in siZe
ʃ as in SHeep
ʒ as in viSIon
X as in loCH
ð as in THat
J as in You
W as in Weep
L as in Let
ʎ as in miLLion
A as in cAke
I as in kEEp
U as in tOO

(the capitalized letters in the words are the sound)