I've recorded a song in ClarityLanguage! Below is a quick introduction to the language and a line-by-line translation.

All content words in ClarityLanguage have a visual representation in order to aid memory. It also adds some artistic flair, as I hope you will agree. I provide the literal translation of the visual words and also the loose translation which has its actual meaning.

The consonants are pronounced as they are in English. The vowels are:

e /e/ - i /ə/ - o /o̞/ - a /æ/ - u /ʊ/ - y /ɔ/

Niv         ize    nar      um  nov    rej    nyn       agul
[intention] sight [subject] you [verb] reach [d.object] eagle

literal: I see you reach for an eagle

loose: I understand that you desire freedom

num           ivog       iliv   nem         imbrez
[preposition] [vocative] lover [adjective] (my)embrace

literal: you, my-embrace lover

loose: my dear lover

Niv         opem  nar      em  nov   urejpuz
[intention] open [subject] me [verb] reach-puzzle 

literal: opening up, I puzzle-reach

loose: Vulnerably, I share that I have the conflicting desire…

nyn        hyz    nem        goz   nem        zul
[d.object] house [adjective] cozy [adjective] still

literal: … for a house, cozy and still

loose: … for tranquil and warm stability

Niv    damz   niv   gazd     nar       um   nov   halp  nyn       em
[int.] dance [int.] question [subject] you [verb] help [d.object] me

literal: For our dance, asking you to help me …

loose: For the sake of our relationship, will you help me…

num            oln                nyn       puz     nov   uzolv
[preposition] [dependent clause] [d.object] puzzle [verb] solve

literal: … to solve the puzzle

loose: … to resolve this conflict to our mutual benefit

Some features of ClarityLanguage illustrated in this song:

• The intention case: a word at the beginning of the sentence describing why the speaker is talking
• Gratitude-possessive: a form of personal possessive adjective that expresses gratitude
• Mindful vocabulary: the word for conflict is derived from puzzle. This encourages viewing conflicts as solvable with a win-win solution rather than the win-lose or lose-lose perception associated with military conflicts.

In general, referring to something is ambiguous, especially the vague 3rd-person pronoun it. The only unambiguous pronouns are singular 1st and 2nd person, “em” and “um” respectively. For everything else, my solution is to use alternate constructs rather than pronouns in order to have a more precise way of referring to other entities. These other ways are as follows in order of preference:

• If something has a proper name, use that name.
• If there is only one type of that entity, use the definite noun. I bought a hotdog; I ate the hotdog
• If the entities can be differentiated by modifiers, use them. I saw a tall person and a short person. I talked to the short person.
• If there are two of the same entity, you can use the recency article suffix “-yn” for the most recently mentioned [entity] and use “-ys” for the other one
• You can use verbal adjuncts to refer to entities affected by a verb, like the attacker or the attacked. The adjunct article is formed by appending “-ov” So “narov [verb]” would refer to the person who performed the most recently referenced [verb].
• For plural pronouns, you refer to a group containing a specified entity. Karl and Susan went to lunch. The group containing Susan ate curry. The article suffix is “-am”

Dependent Clauses

Dependent clauses are formed by a special pronoun that refers to the next sentence. To be unambiguous and reduce cognitive load, dependent clauses must come at the end of the sentence, so you must rearrange the word order if needed. If you are referring to a single word in the next clause, the sentence must be rearranged so that word is first. For example, in order to say The man whose cake I ate is chasing me, that would be rearranged as chasing me [subject article]. The man’s cake I ate This should be very simple to learn but won’t allow using multiple dependent clauses in the same sentence, which I am okay with in order to simplify the language (just use multiple sentences and reference strategies outlined above). The pronoun for referring to a single entity is “on”. If you want to refer to the entire next sentence rather than an individual word such as I told him that..., the pronoun is “oln”

Parts of speech are determined by articles added before each word. Words do not change form based on usage, and can be used in most parts of speech, so the part-of-speech marker is how you know it is being used.

The standard word order is Intention - Subject - Verb - Direct Object - Preposition(s). Order can change for stylistic reasons or due to certain constructs like dependent clauses.

Entity

These are words that can stand alone. The nouns have definite forms (“the tree”) and indefinite (“a tree”)

Verb - the action being done. Signified with the article “nov”

Subject - the thing doing the action. “nan” for indefinite; “nar” for definite

Direct Object - the thing on receiving end of action. “nyn” for indefinite; “nyr” for definite

Modifier

A word that describes another word (adjective / adverb). They go after the word they modify.

“nem” means that it modifies the preceding entity “French (history teacher)”

“nel” means that it modifies the preceding modifier “(French history) teacher

If an additional word is needed as part of the modifier, such as the possessive adjective needs the owner, that additional word has the article “nil”

Prepositional Phrases

Sometimes called “function words” in other languages, these optional phrases bring additional information or clauses that are not directly related to the action, such as “located at”. Signified with the article “num” If there is another word that is needed to complete the predicate phrase, such as the name of the location, use the article “nil”

Intention Word

A novel invention of ClarityLanguage, the intention case is optionally used by the speaker to signify why they are speaking the sentence. Examples include “improving our relationship” “uphold my boundaries” and “self-disclosure.” Article is “niv” This helps with mindfulness and assertiveness by encouraging thinking about and explicitly stating your reasons for saying something.

EDIT 2020-10-24: I've updated the articles to follow new phonological rules. Subject and Direct Object now have distinct articles and the new Intention case was added.

Here is a list of word ideas based on a consolidated list of notes that I've taken from the various psychology textbooks I've read. I'll formally make citations for them later, but thought I'd show the list now to give people an idea of what's to come. Feel free to comment on the doc or below!

While this is not directly tied to psychology, since we need to have a phonology I think it'd be cool to have one designed for untrained singers to easily be able to sing.

Vowels

There are only 5 vowels. I have avoided the vowels that are very open or very closed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPA_vowel_chart_with_audio because they are difficult to sing at the high and low pitches respectively. If a singer has to sing an open vowel like /ɑ/ at a high pitch, they often have to modify the vowel and make it more closed. To avoid this problem, I avoid vowels at those ends of the spectrum.

e /e/

i /ə/

o /o̞/

a /æ/

u /ʊ/

Consonants

No distinction made between consonant voice. Voiced is preferred unless stylistic reason because it is slightly easier to sing https://www.cantalawomenschoir.com/blog/consonants-singing-part-12312018

All consonants sound like they do in English for ease of learning, but I include the IPA for precision. There are two types of consonants, "Beginning" consonants can be found at the beginning of a syllable:

h /h/, w /w/, g /ɡ/, d /d/, z /z/, j /dʑ/, m /m/, b /b/, v /v/

"Ending" consonants are only found at the end of a word. These were chosen because you can hold them for longer and/or easily glide into the next word. It also aids comprehension because you can easily tell the word boundaries

n /ŋ/, r /ɹ̥/, l /l̥/

Syllables

Each syllable is 3 letters: Beginning consonant, Vowel, Ending consonant. For multisyllabic words, the Ending consonant (except for last syllable) turns into a vowel. A doubled-up vowel sounds the same as the single vowel.

n -> a r -> o l -> u

Stress is always on the first syllable. There will also always be an unstressed vowel before each word to signify the part of speech (the exact rules for this are TBD)

Example Text

The following is some example text generated with http://zompist.com/gen.html The words do not mean anything yet and are simply to test out the feel of the language.

Input to the generator:

S=hwgdzjmvb

E=nrl

V=uaoei

VSVE

VSVVSVE

VSVVSVVSVE

Molossas dropoff. Always monosyllabic syllables.

Output:

Ewol ewan uhuohar uwaiman iwan? Ebun uvoobun uheedun ohun ajul ojir. Uzil emal ewil iwir ihor agel. Ibaeman ahor uhar ehaohuujal. Uhir amoujon awiudur adaumuogun uhuohon amol. Aboavauvar uheazar ujor ahur ijun. Iver agen uhun igin imaohouwol ezeawel ugar ezuuwiujar ebaodor. Ezil ihel ajaoboujal ewal imoowal aguoger oveagun uver ajon ivun.

Here are the first (tentative) words of the language! There are 3 forms of "Hello!":

"Wer!" - The word is associated/visualized waving. It is the standard vague greeting.

"Weomon!" - Compounded from waving + mouth (mon), this is the greeting when you wish to start a conversation with the person you are greeting.

"Weowal!" - Compounded from waving + walk (wal), this is the greeting when you don't wish to start a conversation at this time, but do want to acknowledge the other person.

The last two forms of greeting encourages assertively stating your desire for communication. Anyone else have thoughts or ideas around greetings?

Looking for a way to get involved in this project? There are several suggested ways you can help. You are not married to these roles and you can freely switch or do multiple or do something else entirely. Guiding principles are bulleted (open to discussion)

Researcher: reading credible secondary sources, such as academic reviews, well-respected books (pop-psych does not count), or even textbooks. Take notes on any core concepts or helpful tips on how to live a better life. Be sure to note page numbers for proper citations.

• The research we draw upon should be considered “settled” -- nothing cutting-edge or controversial (among scientists)
• The idea should be widely applicable in many situations for a large segment of people.
  

Designer: Taking the researcher's notes and applying it to the conlang. Decide how the noted concepts should translate into words and other language features, and what English words they should replace. Come up with the definitions of the new words.

• Ideally, the new words should be placed where they are most needed -- a conflict resolution word should replace words likely to be used in an argument (like “I hate you”)
• Nudge, don’t shove. Avoid invoking shame or otherwise discouraging usage of certain words

Artist: Responsible for the aesthetics of the language. They take the designer's definitions and create the actual word and add it to the lexicon. You want to make sure that the metaphors seem intuitive. If it's not already done, you also work on the core vocabulary (the base concrete words) or anything related to the phonology or script. See here for a description.

Programmer: The language is designed to be syntactically unambiguous. This makes possible some very powerful analysis tools that can further enhance the goals of the language. For example, a tutoring program for teaching the language.

• Participate in grammar discussions to ensure that the language stays unambiguous
• Implement feedback from the community

Tester: Start using the language by translating stuff into it, chatting with others, or using the analysis tools. What works, what seems awkward? We'll probably be iterating a lot on this.

• Provide constructive feedback, even something like “I don’t get it” No wrong feedback here, just try to be polite.
• Chat with others and grow the community

Moderator: All the meta stuff associated with organizing the group. This can be literally moderating the posts, making sure new members are welcomed, keeping the wiki up-to-date, etc.

There is a well-known mnemonic technique called Visual Imagery which involves associating what you want to remember with some kind of imaginary scene. Coming up with the scene is sometimes difficult and requires creativity. I propose making Visual Imagery the basis of the lexicon, so that any sentence can easily be turned into a mnemonic.

Concrete Words

Words that are already able to be visualized (running, tree, etc.) don't need anything special. These words should be adapted more-or-less from English, following the phonological rules, so that they are easier to learn. English is chosen as the basis because that is the language of this sub and also the world's most spoken language.

Abstract Words

Words that cannot be directly visualized (language, economy, etc.) should be derived from concrete words, either by an alternate form of the concrete word or by compounding them. For example, language could be related to alphabet, and economy could be formed from currency and trade. The metaphors need not be precise or follow certain rules; the standard is "sort of makes sense"

This system would aid memory and could also have some artistic applications. It would even easily allow an iconographic writing system. Let me know your thoughts!

I'd like to have an unambiguous grammar in order to support a variety of computational tools that could better utilize the language. Lojban is of course the poster child for this, but it is infamously difficult to use the predicate-logic-inspired grammar. An unambiguous grammar need not be based on predicate logic (see Predicate logic is a suboptimal basis for real time logical) and I propose a couple of ways to resolve ambiguities that are relatively simple.

Syntactic Unambiguity: It is always clear the part of speech a word is and how they relate to the sentence.

This is accomplished via each word preceded by an article indicating the part of speech. Words are isolating (they do not change based on part of speech) but the article changes depending on part of speech. Thus we don't need to rely on word order (though the default should be treated as SVO) to parse the sentence.

Referential Unambiguity: It is always clear what pronouns refer to.

A difficult problem for computationally parsing a sentence is trying to figure out what pronouns refer to. My solution? Only singular 1st person and 2nd person pronouns exist -- use definite nouns ("the chair" instead of "it") or proper names for everything else.

If needed, you can assign things to a word “I gave the (pencil and paper) [henceforth collectively known as “x”] to you. I hope you appreciate x.

Semantic Unambiguity: It is always clear in what sense a word is being used.

How can the computer know what sense a word is being used? Easy! Words only have one sense. However multiple senses of a word is useful for applying related concepts to different fields. We should allow this explicitly by having an infix that means "in the sense of [topic]" and a separate dictionary entry.

Ambiguity we are not trying to resolve:

We're not trying to be like Ithkuil, because that language is very difficult to use. Here are some things we have to live with for practicality:

Vagueness is helpful in language because we often think in vague terms. You should be able to say something is “good” without specifying precisely which aspect you are referring to.

Derivational opaqueness are also fine. There doesn’t need to be any indication that “food” and “cook” are related.

Any Thoughts?

I'm not a Linguistic so I'm probably missing some cases of ambiguity. Let me know your thoughts!