Conlanging

**Editor's Note: This is the first article in a series of articles on conlanging. Our guest-writer works extensively with linguistics, in addition to years of conlanging as a hobby. Please enjoy and as always, comments are always welcome and encouraged!**

How to Make a Language

Part 1
When I was growing up, my main hobby was world building. There are many different things involved in world building, but my favorite part was always creating languages. My first attempts at creating languages were languages for aliens from science-fiction stories I would make up. Learning about creating languages helped inspire an interest in language for that would eventually become of my profession. You don’t need to have a lot of linguistics knowledge to make your languages though.

In this series of articles, I will introduce you to making your own languages. I will introduce some linguistics concepts as we go, but I will try not to go too far into the weeds… No promises though! After this, you should know how to construct your language, but there are many more things to explore on this topic. So I will include resources for further learning.

Now, where to begin?

The Beginning

Let’s define some terms that we will be using.

Worldbuilding: Creating fictional worlds - How much is created depends on the setting, fantasy worlds are often simpler than sci-fi worlds, since you don’t need to invent whole planets, and new technologies. Sometimes this is done to create tools for an author who is setting their story in the world. This can also be done for fun.

Language: a communication system used by intelligent creatures - Human languages are spoken or gestural (e.g. American Sign Language). We will be focusing on spoken languages, though we will discuss gestural later on.
Conlang: constructed language - There are many kinds of conlangs. Most of the famous ones are part of a world building exercise, Quenya (Lord of the Rings), Klingon, Na’vi, Dothraki. However, Esperanto was made to be a universal language. There are different types of conlangs, and we will go over them next.

Phonology: the sounds of a (spoken) language - Linguistics is generally organized into studies of different elements of language. The smallest such elements are the sounds or gestures of a language. Often when making a conlang, you will start with defining the phonology. Otherwise, it is very difficult to describe the other traits of the language.

Morphology & Syntax: the way languages build words and sentences, AKA grammar - A morpheme is the smallest piece of a language that has a meaning. These pieces are combined in various ways to build words and sentences.

Semantics: meanings of morphemes, words, sentences - We won’t get into all the complexities and abstractions of semantics, but we will discuss some topics as we get into more sophisticated kinds of conlangs.

Pragmatics: meaning and purpose of language in context - Again, we will not go too in depth here, but this can help us connect our conlangs back to world building. A good way to understand pragmatics is to think of it as answering “why did they say what they said?”

Orthography: a writing system - You will need some way to write down your language. Even if it is for a fictional pre-literate people, you as the creator will want to record your language. Initially, you can simply create an easy way to portray the phonology of your language. You may also want to create a wholly novel writing system too.

Let’s define the different kinds of conlangs.

	Pseudo-Conlangs	Artlangs	Auxlangs	Engelangs
a priori		Klingon, Dothraki	Esperanto	Lojban
a posteriori	Pig Latin, Al Bhed	Trigedasleng	Basic English	Newspeak

Conlangs are generally split into 3 categories depending on the purpose they were created. I’m adding an additional category, pseudo-conlangs which are not actual languages but modifications on an existing language. These languages are also split again into a priori and a posteriori. A priori languages are completely made up. They may borrow some vocabulary or grammar from existing languages, but they are not derived from an existing language. A posteriori languages are based off an existing language, and the change is made to some feature of the language making it separate from its base. This differs from pseudo-conlangs in that a pseudo-conlang has a small number of simple rules that let you transform a word or sentence.

We will also need a piece of text to translate as we make our languages, let’s use this creepy H.P. Lovecraft quote:

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.

Now that we have a lay of the land, let’s get into making the simplest kind of conlangs - pseudo-conlangs.

Pseudo-Conlangs
The idea behind a pseudo-conlang is to apply some simple rules to an existing language. We will separate these into a few categories.

Scrambles - parts of the word are re-arranged to make words in the new “language”

Double Talk - parts of the word are repeated, perhaps with modification, to make words

Gibberish - insertions are made into a word to make words

Backtalk - words or syllables are reversed

Scrambles
Scrambles are used to obscure what you are talking about. They are not very effective ciphers, but can be fun - especially for children.

The most famous example of a scramble is Pig Latin.

Pig Latin
Rules
If a word begins with consonants, move all consonants to the end of the word and add “ay” to the end
“cat” -> “atcay”, “stop” -> “opstay”, “to” -> “otay”
If a word begins with a vowel and ends in a consonant, add “ay” to the end
“orange” -> “orangeay”, “ask” -> “askay”, “at” -> “atay”
If a word begins and ends with a vowel, add “way” or “yay” to the end
“era” -> “erayay”, “actively” -> “activelyway”, “I” -> “Iyay”

Let’s take a look at our reference quote.

Ethay ostmay ercifulmay ingthay inay ethay orldway, Iyay inkthay, isay ethay inabilityway ofay ethay umanhay indmay otay orrelatecay allay itsay ontentscay.

The pronunciation is generally done as if they were real English words, with a preference for keeping it similar to the pronunciation of the original word. For example, “ancechay” should be pronounced “ants-chay”.

The choice of adding “ay” to the end of the words is because “ae” and “e” are common Latin endings.

Let’s make our own.

Tchiswi
Rules
If a word begins and ends with consonants, switch them. If it produces a hard to pronounce cluster at the beginning or end and an “u” or “i” respectively.
“cat” -> “tac”, “switch” -> “tchisway”, “talk” -> “ulkat”, “slang” -> “ungasli”
If a word begins with a vowel and ends with consonants (or silent vowel), move the ending consonants to the beginning (with “u” as necessary”), and add “ng” to the end.
“orange” -> “ungeorang”, “ask” -> “skang”, “at” -> “tang”
If a word begins with consonants and ends with a vowel, move the beginning consonants to the end (with “i” as necessary”), and add “h” to the beginning.
“pie” -> “hiep”, “quickly” -> “hicklyqui”, “stay” -> “hayst”, “now” -> “hown”
If a word begins and ends with a vowel (or ends with vowel + y/w), add “m” to the beginning, and “k” to the end.
“era” -> “merak”, “actively” -> “mactivelyk”, “I” -> “Mik”

Let’s take a look at our reference quote.

Heth stom lercifum ungith ning heth urldow, Mik unkith, sing heth minabilityk fong heth numah undin hot teorrelac ullang utsing untsontec.

This is a somewhat more aggressive scrambling. It preserves a lot of English sounds, but the words are pretty much unrecognizable.

Now that we have made our first pseudo-conlang, let’s go through the other kinds.
Double Talk
Double talk systems repeat and elements, usually with an insertion as well. There is such a system that is used across multiple languages - P-language.
P-Language
Rules
After every (non-silent) vowel, insert “p” and repeat the vowel.
“cat” -> “capat”, “orange” -> “oporapange”

Let’s take a look at our reference quote.

Thepe mopost mepercipifupul thiping ipin thepe woporld, Ipi thipink, ipis thepe ipinapabipilipitypy opof thepe hupumapan mipind topo coporrepelapate apall ipits copontepents.

Reading the words, you can make out most of them. Systems like this have two drawbacks. First, they sound very unnatural due to the repetitiveness. Second, they can create hard to pronounce words (“ipinapabipilipitypy”).

There are many variations on this, the most common being “F-Language” and “B-Language” which insert “f” and “b” respectively.

Let’s make our own double talk now.

Sandwichsand
Rules
If a word is multisyllabic, the first syllable is copied to the end of the word (conjoined vowels are separated by a “-”)
“orange” -> “orangeo”, “actively” -> “activelyac”, “era” -> “era-e”
If a word is monosyllabic and begins with a vowel, it is repeated with a “d”
“at” -> “atdat”, “I” -> “Idi”, “all” -> “alldall”
If a word is monosyllabic and begins and ends with a consonant, it is repeated with a “u”
“cat” -> “catucat”, “talk” -> “talkutalk”
If a word is monosyllabic and begins with a consonant and ends in a vowel, it is repeated
“sea” -> “seasea”, “to” -> “toto”, “sky” -> “skysky”

Let’s take a look at our reference quote.

Thethe mostumost mercifulmer thinguthing inuin thethe worlduworld, Idi thinkuthink, isdis thethe inability-i ofdof thethe humanhu mindumind toto correlateco alldall itsdits contentscon.

This is much easier to understand than P-Language which is probably a negative, but at least the words are relatively easy to pronounce.

Let’s move on to gibberish.

Gibberish
Gibberish systems are similar to P-Language, in that there is something inserted. The most famous of these is Ubbi Dubbi.
Ubbi Dubbi
Rules
Insert “ub” before every (non-silent) vowel sequence
“cat” -> “cubat”, “sea” -> “subea”, “orange” -> “uborubange”

Let’s take a look at our reference quote.

Thube mubost mubercubifubul thubing ubin thube wuborld, Ubi thubink, ubis thube ubinubabubilubituby ubof thube hubumuban mubind tubo cuborrubelubate uball ubits cubontubents.

Gibberish is as much for fun as it is for obfuscation. There are also many variants that use different infixes, for example “op” and “iz”. In the TV show Blacklist, the “iz”-based gibberish is used. This is actually part of an argot, Carny, used by carnival workers that use this gibberish along with many neologisms and obscure words.

In The Blacklist, Joe Putnam (Michael Aronov) often speaks in Carny. Lizike thizis.

This is similar enough to double talk that we will forego an example. Let’s move on to Backtalk.

Backtalk
Backtalk is perhaps the oldest of these. It has often been a part of argots and cants which are secret languages made by criminals and persecuted peoples to communicate without unwanted listeners being the wiser.

There are a few options when defining a backtalk. If the language you are basing it on has an inconsistent spelling of sounds, you can choose to reverse the letters and pronounce as it looks, or reverse the sounds and spell it as it sounds. A third option is to reverse the order of the syllables.

Let’s look at our reference with these three kinds of backtalk
Spelling reversal
This is straightforward to do.

Eht tsom luficrem gniht ni eht dlrow, I kniht, si eht ytilibani fo eht namuh dnim ot etalerroc lla sti stnetnoc.

This would be pretty hard to pronounce, but easy to decipher in writing - the worst of both worlds.

Sounds reversal
This is much harder, since English has big differences between what sounds are allowed at the beginning of a word and at the end.

Eth tsom ulfiserm ngith ni eth dlerow, I knith, zi eth ittilibunny vuh eth namueh dnime oot teleroc lah tsi ntsetnoc.

This is still hard to pronounce, but it is harder to decipher in writing.

Syllable reversal
We will need to adopt a convention for monosyllables. Let’s say that we add “ya” to the beginning of a monosyllables beginning with a consonant, and “k” to monosyllables beginning with a vowel. We will be spelling the words as they sound.

Yathe yamost fullcimer yathing kin yathe yaworld, Ki yathink, kis yathe teelibbinna-ih kof yathe manhue yamind yato laytreco lah kits tentsco.

This is pretty easy to pronounce and hard to understand spoken and written.

Conclusion
There are other kinds of language games and secret languages, many of which involve modifying semantics and making up vocabulary. If you are looking into creating a secret language for your story, I highly recommend that you look into Carny, mentioned above, Leet, and definitely Cockney Rhyming Slang.

Next Time…
We will start to make a real conlang. We’ll start with how to choose and describe your language’s phonology.