Conlang

Conlanging is the craft of creating languages. People create languages —conlangs— for all sorts of reasons, practical, theoretical and artistic. This book will show you how. The book has three parts, each aimed at a different level of experience; they are meant to be read in order, but more proficient readers may skip earlier sections.

• The Beginner level takes you through the steps of creating a conlang, without a lot of technical details and terms. With the help of this level, you can make an interesting conlang that doesn't accidentally copy the sound and feel of your native language.
• The Intermediate level takes you through the parts of a language, avoiding really esoteric technical details and terms, but providing a systematic working knowledge of the building blocks from which conlangs are made. With the help of this level, you can make conlangs with added depth.
• The Advanced level explores language features and techniques that can give a conlang extra flair. With the help of this level, you can make conlangs that are sophisticated, exotic, or even outright alien.
   

The Conlang Flag is a symbol of conlanging, designed by the community at the CONLANG mailing list. It shows the Tower of Babel against a rising sun. Like the Tower, conlangs are built piece by piece, and their construction is an open-ended process.

Table of Contents Introduction to conlanging What are the different kinds of conlangs? FAQ Beginner Introduction to the Beginner level Sounds Words Grammar Context Writing systems Learning your conlang Intermediate Introduction to the Intermediate level Sound notation Phonetics and phonology Phones Syllables Phonotactics Sandhi rules Grammar Forms Nouns Verbs Adjectives and adverbs Derivation Clauses History Common sound changes Grammar changes Etymology and word origins Writing systems Tips for adding irregularities to your conlangs Exploring new realms Advanced Introduction to the Advanced level Phonology Common sounds Unusual sounds Non-human phonologies Grammar Alignment Voice Relative clauses Forming words Constraints on natural languages Government and binding theory Destroying the noun/verb distinction The link between a language and its culture Metaphor and its applications for conlanging Appendices Conlang X-SAMPA Word list Translation texts Glossary Other resources Linguistics IPA The Conlanger's Library Word generators Awkwords, a simple word-generating website Drift, a script in the Python programming language that generates words WALS, World Atlas of Language Structures CALS, Conlang Atlas of Language Structures

State of the Book For each module, the table of contents shows an icon indicating subjectively how complete that module is:   The module doesn't exist yet, or near enough.   Content and organization has yet to be fully decided.   The information is scattered, incomplete, or may be unreliable.   Much of the information is there, but it needs to be touched up or organised. This is still usable.   The information is essentially complete. However, additions and improvements can still be made. How to contribute The phonetic notation in this book is CXS (Conlang X-SAMPA). (The choice of CXS was discussed in this talk thread.) From anywhere in the book, you can link to an entry in the glossary with {{{{BOOKNAME}}/ref|<keyword>}} or {{{{BOOKNAME}}/ref|<keyword>|<label>}}. You may contribute any linguistic knowledge you have, but keep in mind this book is a tutorial for anyone wishing to create a language — which is a bit different from a tutorial on linguistics. think about which level your knowledge belongs on. For example, the Beginner level tries to keep technical terms to a bare minimum, so if it can't be said without those, maybe it's at least Intermediate. Also keep in mind that because this is a conlanging book, technical linguistic knowledge is liable to go at a higher level here than it would in a linguistics book. A high-quality module will be easy to understand while going in-depth, and will explain early and often how it could be used in a conlang. Examples are important, and detailed explanations are great things to have, without being redundant or droning on. So get out there and write some great modules!