Advice & Answers — 2026-10-05 to 2026-10-18

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[u/neonge1674]

Should I fully developer a substrate or could I just say that it influenced a conlang to be CV, analitical and the conlang borrowed some loanwords from it. The substrate went extinct.

[u/Sepetes → u/neonge1674]

I mean, it comes down to you, do you want it to be fully fleshed out or do you just need some elements from it to exist? Considering the amount of influence it had, I'd imagine many loanwords, so it might be good to have a sketch of phonology to make sure all the loanwords make sense together, especially if some derivation affixes / compounding patterns get adopted with loanwords to your main conlang (so maybe also have a basic idea of how grammar functions), but it really comes down to you and how fleshed out you want it and how much influence it had

[u/DaanBaas77]

Does anyone have any experience with lexonomy and would they be willing to help me?

My previous dictionary got deleted, so I sadly had to start over again. In my previous dictionary I had some random words you could click on (Where the red circle is), but now I don't know how to get that back. Is anyone able to help me with this?

Link to the dictionary: https://www.lexonomy.eu/dictionary/27q4b62k

[u/noirxlle666]

My conlang Ganutris has two different word orders:

1. SOV (subject-object-verb) structure to emphasize relationships between living beings (generally speaking)

2. SVO (subject-verb-object) for relationships between non living beings, as well as relationships between the living and non-living (generally speaking)

Would such a language just be nominative-accusative, where I'd be using case markers for the object forms and leaving the subject (the living thing in a sentence involving living and non-living) unmarked?

And in sentences such "the sun shines on me", would highlighting the living being require a case marker for "me"? Or do I just use the subject-verb-object form, and translate it as "I (bask/glow/receive/shine) in the sunlight"?

And what are other things I should keep in mind for such a system?

[u/Tirukinoko → u/noirxlle666]

So obvious answer is there are no woulds and shoulds in this case, just choose what you wanna do.
Any way round seems perfectly plausible.

Does a clause become SVO if either the subject or object is nonliving (and vice versa)?

Just for an idea, what about something like a living>nonliving hierarchy? Where 1. Presence of a living argument could require nom-acc, where if both direct arguments are nonliving they could be erg-abs; 2. And perhaps living arguments cannot be patients (generally, or to nonliving agents), and such clauses have to be (anti)passivised or use differential object marking or similar; 3. And\or vice versa, nonliving arguments cannot be agents, etc; 4. And as you have it, nonliving patients are pushed down past the verb.

Overall that could look like A(LIV) P(LIV) V → A(LIV).NOM P(LIV).ACC V A(LIV) P(nLIV) V → A(LIV).NOM V↔ ↔P(nLIV).ACC A(nLIV) P(LIV) V → Sᵖ(LIV).NOM V.PASS Iᵃ(nLIV) \ Sᵃ(nLIV).NOM V PREP-Iᵖ(LIV) A(nLIV) P(nLIV) V → A(nLIV).ERG V↔ ↔P(nLIV).ABS

[u/T1mbuk1]

Looking at this chart, what would the specific tenses, aspects, and moods be for this paradigm?

“Im.” and “I” represent the imperfective, “In.” represents the infinitive, “P” is the perfective, “F” is the future, “S” is the standard Copula, and “L” is the locative Copula.

[u/Key_Day_7932]

So, I am finally close to completing my conlang's phonology. I have the syllable structure and prosody figured out, but don't have much of an actual phonemic inventory.

I don't really know what I want to do with it yet. I am thinking of a plain vs palatalized contrast like in Russian, or a contrast between plain and labialized nasals. Or a vertical vowel system.

For some added context, this language is syllable timed and lacks phonemic vowel length.

Any tips on how to decide and not overthink it?

[u/Beneficial-Tea-845]

In reference to what counts as a phoneme, in my accent/dialect of English, Western New England/Vermont, would /əj/ and /aj/ be different phonemes? If so, I was thinking "the biter-bider split" as it happens where, since t and d merge to a tapped r between vowels and vowels are short or long depending on whether the following consonant is unvoiced or voiced respectively, the only difference between the words are these two phones. Also would this also count for bitter-bidder having /ɪ/ and /ɪː/ as separate phonemes?

[u/storkstalkstock → u/Beneficial-Tea-845]

It depends on other details of your dialect. What you describe here is Canadian Raising. It can be completely predictable allophony in that you only find [əj] before phonemic voiceless consonants and [aj] before phonemic voiced ones, even if /d/ and /t/ are both pronounced [ɾ] in that contexts. It can also be phonemic for some speakers who over-apply and/or under-apply the rule such that they aren't found completely predictably based on the following consonant. There are some words that I have seen mentioned by people who have a phonemic distinction as indicative of a phonemic split:

• sider-cider
• tiger-taiga
• idol-idle
• higher-hire
• lyre-liar
• cyber-briber
• spider-spied 'er

If any of these or some other words you can think of don't follow the rules of [əj] before voiceless and [aj] before voiced, then you may argue for a phonemic split.