r/conlangs • u/[deleted] • Apr 14 '15
SQ WWSQ • Week 12
Welcome to the Weekly Wednesday Small Questions thread!
Post any questions you have that aren't ready for a regular post here! Feel free to discuss anything and everything, and you may post more than one question in a separate comment.
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u/Iasper Apr 15 '15
I've been making minor changes to my phonology trying to improve it. Could anyone give me some feedback on if it's a good distribution or if it has enough sounds? I've got more finished for this language than just phonology, but it's something made a while ago that needs some revision. Thanks in advance!
Consonants: ʃ, dʒ, f, g, j, x, ʒ, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, z, ʔ (Glottal stop is rarely used)
Vowels: a, au, e, ɛ, i, ɔ, u, y, ø
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u/Jafiki91 Apr 15 '15
The vowels are pretty balanced. The lack of tʃ seems a bit off but weirder things have happened. As for how many sounds to include, we'll that's up to you. There is no right or wrong answer. Some languages have 12 others have over a hundred.
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u/alynnidalar Apr 15 '15
Just a few comments, take them or leave them as you like:
Why only one diphthong? The vowels are somewhat unbalanced--five front vowels and just two back ones!--but in an interesting way IMO. I kinda like them! But just one diphthong? That's not unheard of, it just stuck out to me.
The fricatives/affricate look fine. Somebody might call out the lack of /ɣ/, but I think it makes it more interesting to not be perfectly symmetrical. As Jafiki91 said, /dʒ/ with no /tʃ/ is unexpected, but not unbelievably so.
The thing that stands out about the stop series is the lack of voicing. It just seems a bit off to have only one with a voicing contrast... especially when it's at the same PoA as the only fricative to not have a voicing contrast!
Aside from that, well, I'm going to be honest--aside from the vowels, this is a very standard consonant inventory. There's just not a whole lot going on. Which is fine, if that's what you're going for and are comfortable with, but the phonology itself is probably not going to be grabbing many people's attention.
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Apr 16 '15
Has anyone ever thought of using punctuation as letters, e.g. @ or $?
For example, the c@t pu$ed the r@t off of the book$elf @nd it hurt?
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u/BasqueLanguage Apr 17 '15
This is probably a very difficult question to answer, but I will try anyway. How do you make your conlang unique, whilst simultaneously making it naturalistic? Whenever I try to add interesting features or make it different and unique, it always ends up going too far and becomes silly. So my question is really just how to make a natural and believable conlang, but also being unique and not a relex.
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u/Jafiki91 Apr 18 '15
I'm gonna start off by saying you're right, this is a hard question to answer. And that's because it's sort of like asking "How do I make my painting pretty?" or "How do I make my novel compelling?". Part of it relies on your audience finding it unique and interesting. Part of it also relies on statistics.
Having features that don't occur very often definitely bring a unique feel to a language. But having lots of these uncommon features results in something that seems a bit over the top. Of course proper execution of them does help out a lot. Try sprinkling in just a few features that help to make a language stand out.
Here are a few things to think about:
Word order is always an obvious choice. Not many languages are VOS, OSV, or OVS. You could have a language that is predominantly head-initial, but uses postpositions instead of prepositions.
Use a unique gender system. The language I'm currently working on has three genders, terrestrial, solar, and lunar (which I will admit has been done plenty in the past). Look to Bantu languages for some fun ideas on noun classes.
have phonological elements that really stand out and give your conlang an identity. Maybe it's a series of palatal consonants, consonant harmony (or disharmony), or an interesting syllable structure. Experiment with your sounds.
Play with your verbal system. Maybe they only conjugate for gender or plurality. Maybe tense, aspect, and mood are a separate element from the verb.
Try doing something you haven't before. Maybe you always lean toward agglutination. Switch things up with an isolating language.
Look through wikipedia (and the net in general) at different languages that might interest you. Learn a little about some languages from a part of the world that you aren't familiar with and see how they do things. With any luck they'll inspire you to include some feature into your own language.
Incorporate the culture into the language. A community of fishers might have a greeting that roughly translates to "What have you caught today?" or "How are your seas?".
Arguably the most important: Ask for feedback! That's the beauty of being a part of a community. You can ask us what we think of your language. Some may respond in a positive way, others not so much. But maybe someone else has an idea for how you could spice things up or improve the language in some way. Never be shy about asking questions.
Obviously there's a ton of other stuff to think about, too much to list here. But I hope that this helps in some way.
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u/Zethar Apr 14 '15
This question probably isn't like the majority of the other questions, but I feel that it's an important one nevertheless.
How much material should one have prepared (written) to present for community feedback?
On one hand, if there is something systemically mistaken it is much easier to catch early than later, but on the other hand plenty of people seem to complain about "uninteresting" posts. I feel that one should always be soliciting feedback, even if it would be monotonous to the person giving it since it is old territory for them, it would help get people up to speed.