I never thought I'd write a post like this, but here we are.
Conlang is a shortening of the words "constructed language," such as Klingon, Elvish, and Esperanto. A few years ago, I tried making one for myself. I began writing a list of nouns, got up to about 15, and then got bored and stopped. Conlang resources tell you to first establish the sounds, writing system, and grammar. The truth is, I just don't care about that stuff.
I started a new conlang a month ago, but this time I used a completely different approach. I started by making up my own idioms.
A jar isn't a jar until it's out of the kiln. (Don't assume results until you've finished the process.)
To give a horse its head (To release inhibitions)
After that, I made a list of other linguistic or extralinguistic concepts that don't focus on stuff like spelling or pronunciation. Currently, my main source of entertainment is number systems and units of measure. I'm a nerd, I know.
While I really enjoy and appreciate Spanish, I don't think it taught me many new concepts. There are a few, of course, but they're usually intuitive enough that it only takes a quick explanation for a native English speaker to understand them and then you're good to go.
But what if you had to rethink the cardinal directions in order to locate things in your target language? What if you saw the rainbow as having three colors instead of six? This is the kind of thing I absolutely relish learning about! It's the reason I like languages! For the first time in my life, making a conlang is bringing me a ton of enjoyment.
Current Progress
My conlang uses a base-12 number system. (I will definitely be writing more about number systems in a future post, yay!) I'll use base-12 or base-60 for standard units of measure, but informal units of measure such as "arm's length" and "truckload" will be preferred in daily speech.
Multiple levels of formality exist, but they don't change based on the person you're addressing. They change based on the gravity of the situation. There are three levels: informal, formal, and intermediate. You can use the intermediate level when you're not sure if a situation is considered formal or not. Non-native speakers (who don't actually exist, lol) resort to this level a lot.
There are two modes of perceiving time: exact and relaxed. Affixes mark which mode the person is referring to. However, nonexistent native speakers (lol) often apply exact timing for certain situations and relaxed timing for others based on cultural norms. Thus, they might omit the affixes in daily speech.
If you've ever wanted to make a conlang but found it sleep-inducingly dull, this alternative method might work for you!
Note
"To give a horse its head" is a real-life expression about horseback riding. It means that the rider slackens, and thus lengthens, the reins. This allows the horse to extend its neck all the way forward, the ideal posture for running at maximum speed. The way I utilized the saying, I took it a step further and applied the concept to giving anyone, not just horses, the permission or means by which to release their inhibitions. (That's right, "means" can be a singular noun, too.)
True story — when my siblings and I were kids, we made up a conlang (which that wasn't a thing in the 70s) and we still speak it to this day! It grew out of a need to be able to talk in front of our parents in something that wasn't English or Spanish that they wouldn't understand, so we started encoding this language with verbs and nouns here and there and before we knew it, we could talk about anything. Mind you, none of us knew anything about linguistics, so it developed quite organically and clumsily, but as I became more and more linguistic, it became more and more elegant. In case you're wondering, it's not some weird Star Trek-type thing — it's actually Indo-European. We needed it to be accessible and memorable, so we kept it "close to home" and just exotic enough that it couldn't be easily guessed.
Another true story... my sister and I were sitting in a restaurant the other day and I asked her a question about the people at the next table in our language (it's called cunnáz), and she answered me in it. We exchanged a few more comments and the people on the other side looked over and said, "May I ask, what language is that you're speaking?" We were both too embarrassed to say it was a language we made up, so I said "It's Armenian!" hahahaha. Thank God they weren't Armenian. The lady goes, "I can't say as I've ever heard Armenian spoken, but it sure sounds lovely!" We almost died laughing 😂
That's hilarious! And also amazing! The fact that you knew nothing about linguistics but cobbled together a language that actually worked?!?! I don't care what people say; some people have a natural bent toward languages. I'd love to read a post about how cunnáz works.
For starters, I'll tell you how the name came about. So, in our language, prepositions have on form on their own, and another form that you add personal suffixes to. So cut means like, and it has the form cu- that you add suffixes to. And since we were the only ones who spoke our language, when we needed to switch over to it, we'd say bars cunnáz which means speak like us or diggu cunnáz say it like us. So cunnáz actually means like us, but it also became the name of our language.
Here's another funny story. When were were in elementary school, we had a teacher, Mr. Cox, who took a real interest in our language. He had heard us speaking it fluently and was fascinated. He'd ask us how to say this and that and confirmed that we weren't just making it up as we went along. Well, he recorded us separately saying the same things and sent it off to some outfit like National Geographic, and they wanted to see us and possibly do a segment on us for their show (I can't remember the name, but it was something like Kids Are People Too.) So Mr. Cox went to see our parents and told them about it.
Now my parents knew enough English to get by, but as immigrants to this country, they didn't want to make any waves, so they were very confused and trepidatious about the whole thing. My father said he'd think about it. That same week, they put out a movie about some twins who were neglected by their parents, who basically kept them locked up in a cellar, and they too came up with their own language because they didn't get any language acquisition from their parents. My father said "No way! People are going to think that you all made that shit up because we kept you locked up in a cage!" hahahahahahah And that was the end of that! 😂 For a while, he wouldn't even let us speak it until my mother stepped in and said that we could.
Wow, you were almost famous! Any tips for making a conlang that actually works? I'm flying blind.
I have no idea what to tell you. I think the only reason ours worked is that we actually used it. So I guess as you make it up, speak it out loud.
Interesting. If you ever write a sci-fi novel, perhaps the conlang you are working on might be useful. In many sci-fi novels, many colangs appear.