1. This isn't a rental car - it's privately owned.

küskinei mäntätöt kömmi, kosti inteimät a

küski-nei mäntä-töt kömmi, kosti intei-mät a

transport-CONJ nearby-time REF.NEG, ASEX DEM-nearby EMO.CNTR

"(This) transport and temporal nearbyness do not relate, someone nearbying this (transport) in fact"

2. Life is meaningless if it begins well but ends badly.

öötista tilämännisin, tottoó män'iütte, ii pökikömmi näiöhta

ööti-sta tilä-männi-sin, totto-ó män-iütte, ii pöki-kömmi näi-öhta

moving-ABST beginning-AMA-TOP, time-CONJ.PSTR liking-OPP, DM heading-PRV sadness-PL

"Speaking of movingness starting good, (if) time passes and (it's) anti-good, so (it‘s) without goal, very sad"

I use gloss abreviations from conworkshop conworkshop.com/grammar_forms.php

I‘m currently working on a clong which puts very little emphasis on the verbs so ultimately the speaker could communicate it‘s ideas just with a help of nouns. I‘ve already developed some interesting constructions/features but would like to look for the new ideas!

rule

*it's a priori, so these aren't derived from any language family.

The six basic color terms of Kenlin, my current project that will probably just be for later conlangs to be based on as a family. The Terraria sprites are examples of each term, and the color blocks next to the English words are from blending the examples together.

The words come from Proto-Kartvelian, -Celtic, -Japonic, -Turkic, -Mongolic, and -Hellenic respectively. This is a romanization since i don't have a font for the script i made.___

I'd love to hear how you do it. I haven't really found a good flow.

Just to be clear, it's a question of how you construct your dictionaries.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/41471370

I'm trying to make a single comprehensive IPA chart for all the phones, since trying to find everything in the official charts means looking across several charts that aren't all easy to find (really, i have no idea how to get to the ExtIPA chart from the IPA's website). As of now, my chart has parity with the chart here, and it'll continue to grow.

Wikipedia's charts are still better if you need audio samples with the chart, i haven't done that yet.

My chart can be found here (i'm changing how i link to my site so you have to find the page yourself).

(Everything is subject to change!)

Rough Ideas / Goals

• A few emphatic consonants.
• Syllable structure:
  • CVC or C(G)VC; where G is glide
• Voicedness or voiceless distinction for certain consonants
• Voiceless plosives may be aspirated
• Symmetrical voice, i.e. Austronesian alignment
• Two or three grammatical numbers: Singular, (Dual), Plural
• No grammatical gender
• Affixes galore. Maybe also infixes too

Phonology

Consonants

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Lateral	Velar	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Nasal	m	n	ɲ		ŋ
Plosive	b, p, (pʼ)	d, t, tʼ			ɡ, k, kʼ		ʔ
Fricative		z, s, sʼ		(ɮ), ɬ, ɬʼ	ɣ, x	ʕ, ħ	h
Approximants			j	l	w

This conlang takes inspiration from Middle Chinese and Proto-Semitic for its three-way distinction of certain consonants into tenuis, voiced, emphatic (i.e., ejective) consonants.

There is a lot of ejective consonants here, since I have plans for at least one daughter language to have pharyngealized consonants like in Arabic.

Vowels

		Short			Long
	Front	Central	Back	Front	Central	Back
Close				iː		uː
Mid	e	(ə)	o
Open	a			aː	(ɐː)
Stressed vowels are long vowels.

Schwas often show up as a result of epenthesis, especially between two consonants within a word boundary. Outside of epenthesis, the schwa seldom occurs.

Front and back vowels in this conlang will also have higher vowel height. This is somewhat inspired by modern English spelling, e.g. a single ⟨e⟩ is usually a plain /e/ but a pair of ⟨ee⟩ often represents /iː/.

However, a lengthened central vowel instead falls in vowel height from /ə/ to /ɐː/.

Potential tonogenesis in daughter languages:

• Rising tones from lengthened mid-close and close vowels
• Falling tones from lengthened central vowels.

(There might be traces of vowel anti-harmony in conjugation and declension. Unconfirmed.)

Potential loss or gain of vowels in daughter languages.

Syllable Structure

The syllable structure for the conlang is C(W)VC; where C is consonant, W is medial glide (approximant), and V is vowel

Guide to Derivation

In planning this conlang, I took great liberty in appropriating sound changes across different language families.

• Proto-Austronesian ⟨S⟩ > Conlang /ɬ/
  • Remarks: /ʂ/ Shibata (2025); /s/ Blust (2013)
  • Huh: Arabic ⟨ش⟩ /ʃ/ comes from Proto-Semitic ⟨ś⟩ /ɬ/.
  • Huh: Proto-Semitic ⟨š⟩ /ʃ/ and ⟨s⟩ /s/ are merged in Arabic.
• Proto-Austronesian ⟨h⟩ > Conlang /ħ/
  • Huh: Because Arabic is lovely and heavenly, and the sound /ħ/ is a well-known exotic sound from Arabic.
  • Huh: Shibata, Kye. (2025). A reconstruction of Proto-Austronesian coronal consonants: Phonetic evidence from Formosan languages. Dissertation submitted to the Institute of Linguistics, National Tsing Hua University, January 2025.
• Old Chinese /hʷ/ and Proto-Indo-European ⟨h₃⟩ > Conlang /ʕ/
  • Huh: When I tried to play around with similar sounds to /hʷ/, I feel my pharynx sinking downwards and my tongue going backwards.
  • Huh: Proto-Indo-European ⟨h₃⟩ was quite likely rounded and voiced. Also see above.
• Proto-Austronesian ⟨R⟩ or ⟨ɣ⟩ > Conlang /ɣ/
  • Remarks: /r/ Shibata (2025); /r/ or /ʀ/ Blust (2013); /ʁ/ Wolff (2010)
  • Huh: /r/ becomes /ʁ/ in Perak Malay, which is close enough. In the Roman script, the spelling for /ɣ/ is also used for /ʁ/.
• Old Chinese /r/ > Conlang /l/, /ɣ/, /ə/, /a/ or /ː/
  • Huh: There is no /r/ in Cantonese.
  • Huh: Also in this conlang there's /ɣ/ anyway that sounds close enough. (Refer to Malay varieties in northern Malaya)
  • Huh: I love the Johor-Riau and Received Pronounciation accents, and I especially enjoy how they treat final /r/.
• Proto-Semitic /r/ > Conlang /ɲ/
  • Huh: Mandarin /r/ is related to Middle Chinese 日 initial which would sound more like /ɲ/
• Proto-Austronesian ⟨N⟩ corresponding to Malay /l/ > Conlang /ɬʼ/
  • Huh: Crap, I ran out of alien space bats… Hey, don't you think the Bopomofo symbols ㄌ and ㄉ look very similar?
  • Huh: Also folks are saying Arabic ⟨ﺽ⟩ /dˤ/ came out of the sound /ɮˤ/, ultimately from Proto-Semitic /ɬʼ/.
  • Huh: In some Hokkien varieties, /d/ and /l/ are somewhat allophones.
  • Huh: Oh, and in modern Cantonese, people are replacing initial /n/ with /l/ — the lazy sound phenomenon.
• Proto-Austronesian ⟨C⟩ > Conlang /tʼ/ or maybe /sʼ/
  • Remarks: /ʈ/ Shibata (2025), /t͡s/ Blust (2013)
  • Huh: ⟨C⟩ is usually a letter for /t͡ʃ/ in Malay.
  • Huh: It is speculated that Arabic ⟨ﺽ⟩ /sˤ/ was once pronounced /t͡sʼ/.
  • Huh: Also Hebrew ⟨צ⟩ with the sound /t͡s/, and the earlier letter used to stand for some emphatic consonant. The Hebrew letter is cognate to Arabic ⟨ﺽ⟩ /sˤ/ by the way.
  • Huh: /tʼ/ and /sʼ/ both are alveolar sounds.
• Proto-Indo-European ⟨h₂⟩ > Conlang /x/ or maybe /ħ/
  • Huh: It is speculated that ⟨h₂⟩ is somewhere between /x/ and /ħ/, most likely being /ħ/.
  • Huh: But /ħ/ is already assigned to Proto-Austronesian ⟨h⟩ for conlang derivation.

Grammar

Nouns

• Two to three grammatical numbers
  • Singular
  • (Dual)
  • Plural
• No grammatical gender
• Nouns come before adjectives
• Three cases
  • Direct
  • Indirect
  • Oblique

Pronouns

	Base	Enclitic(1)	Indirect(n-)	Oblique(k-)
1SG	akū	-kū	nakū
2SG	naɬū	-ɬū
3SG	sia	-ia	nia	kania
1PL.EX	aŋi	-ŋi
1PL.IN	qiħtā	-tā
2PL	naɬin	-ɬin
3PL	siɲa	-ɲa	niɲa	kaniɲa

akū // -kū

• First-person singular
• Velar consonant prominently featured
• Ends with a rounded vowel
• Inspirations:
  • Standard Malay aku اکو, -ku ـکو
  • Proto-Semitic *ʼanākū̆, *-kū̆
  • Cantonese ngo5 我

naɬū // -ɬū

• Second-person singular
• One prominent consonant likely lateral and fricative
• Ends with a high vowel
• Inspirations:
  • Hokkien lí 汝, lú 汝
  • Indonesian Slang lu
  • Proto-Austronesian *[i-]Su, *[i-]ka-Su, *=Su (Ross, 2002; cited in Blust, 2013, pp. 454)
  • Cantonese nei5 你‎
  • Standard Malay -mu ـمو
  • Proto-Semitic *-tī̆

sia // -ia

• High front vowel followed by a low vowel
• Inspirations:
  • Proto-Semitic *šiʼa
  • Proto-Austronesian *s(i)-ia, *=ia (Ross, 2002; cited in Blust, 2013, pp. 454)
  • Standard Malay ia اي‎‎

aŋi // -ŋi

• First-person exclusive plural ("me and them but not you")
• Nasal consonant prominently featured
• Ends in a high front vowel.
• Inspirations:
  • Old Chinese *ŋajʔ 我
  • Hakka ngai2 𠊎
  • Standard Malay kami کامي‎
  • Proto-Semitic *niḥnū̆, *-nū̆, *-nī̆, *-nā̆
  • Standard Arabic naḥnu نَحْنُ‎, -nā ـنَا‎‎
  • Proto-Austronesian *i-ami, *[i-]k-ami, *-mi (Ross, 2002; cited in Blust, 2013, pp. 454)

qiħtā // -tā

• First-person inclusive plural
• Inspirations:
  • Proto-Austronesian *([i])ita, *[i-]k-ita, *=ta (Ross, 2002; cited in Blust, 2013, pp. 454)
  • Standard Malay kita کيت‎‎
  • Proto-Semitic *-niḥnū̆, *-nū̆, *-nī̆, *-nā̆
  • Standard Arabic naḥnu نَحْنُ‎‎, -nā ـنَا‎‎
  • Informal Malay kiter

naɬin // -ɬin

• Second-person plural
• One prominent consonant likely lateral and fricative
• Inspirations:
  • Hokkien lín 恁
  • Proto-Semitic *-tin

siɲa // -ɲa

• Third-person plural
• Inspirations:
  • Proto-Austronesian *si-da, *n(i)-ia (Ross, 2002; cited in Blust, 2013, pp. 454)
  • Proto-Semitic *-šinnā
  • Malay -nya ـڽ‎‎
  • Cebuano silá

Enclitic pronouns may depend on the attached verb or noun for its case.

In the oblique case, enclitic pronouns may appear:

• after verbs in the dative voice, instrumental voice, or after prepositions, where they will mean the destination, beneficiary, goal, or instrument of the prepositions. (e.g., "to me", "with you", "to him");
• after nouns in the construct state, where they will become possessive determiners. (e.g., "my", "your", "her").

In the indirect case, they may appear:

• as suffixes to verbs in the active voice, where they assume the role of direct objects. (e.g., "me, you, her").

Cases

	Personal(Singular)	Personal(Plural)	Common	Construct
Direct	sī	sāng	su	sa, s'
Indirect	nī	nāng	nu	na, n'
Oblique	kī	kāng	ku	ka, k'

Nouns assume grammatical cases according to their role in a clause or a sentence. A preceding article (or the lack thereof) marks the case of the noun.

There are four cases in this conlang, namely: direct, indirect, oblique, and construct.

Here, the noun's semantic nuances is tightly dependent on the verb. The same noun under the same case may reflect different semantic roles when the voice (or trigger) of the verb differs.

• Direct:
  • The direct case marks the main focus of the clause.
  • For the actor voice, the noun in the direct case assumes the role of an actor, agent, or performer of the verb's action.
  • For the patient voice, the direct noun is the patient or target of the action.
  • For the instrumental voice, the direct noun is the instrument involved in the action.
  • For the dative voice, the direct noun is the location. the recipient, or the goal.
• Indirect:
  • Outside of the actor voice, the indirect noun is usually the actor, agent, or performer of the verb's action.
• Oblique:
  • The oblique case covers nouns which are neither the focus of the clause, nor assuming the role of the actor, agent, or performer.
  • For example, a noun in the oblique case may be an instrument of an action, an origin of departure, a target destination, and an object.

Shoutouts:

• Blust, Robert. (2015). The Case-Markers of Proto-Austronesian. Oceanic Linguistics 54(2): 436-491, December 2015.****

So, I've been toying with this idea of applying the anarchist concept of means ends unity to art (to be honest, mainly as a theoretical justification for doing what I wanted to do anyway). So, if you want to do art, and especially anarchist art, shouldn't your tools also be artistic and preferably anarchist?

I'll give an example. Poetry is art. Tools of poetry include things like language and font. Constructed languages can be seen as art projects, and they can implement and emphasize the values of anarchism. Fonts are also art projects and they can for example be inspired by anarchism and be freely distributed etc.

Other examples could include making specific image manipulation programs and algorithms and creating new image formats for visual arts, making esoteric programming languages for programs etc.

So, my idea is starting an avantgarde group/movement where we make art with artistic DIY tools and document the process in the art itself so that it doesn't hide its structure but shows how it was made.

Attached is the first poem I made specifically with this project in mind. But of course, not everything we produce as a group needs to resemble these little examples I came up with. The main thing is to try to break the expectations of art (if such a thing is possible anymore) and also to be an anarchist.

If any of this inspires you, hit me up. Perhaps we can start the group together.

Þere's a bit of Sapir-Whorf assumption here, but: is anyone aware of papers which explore suffix vs prefix use in natural or constructed languages, and what effects þese have? Effects on culture for natural languages would be þe S-W part.

I was þinking about esperanto, and how it strongly favors suffixes, and how it's might be a consequence of þe western bias þat runs þrough þe language; and wheþer þere are languages which use prefixes more heavily. For example, "loĝ-" (dwell), "loĝi" (to lodge), "loĝas" (lodges), "loĝadas" (to keep lodging), "loĝe" (lodging-ly?), "loĝado" (habitation). There are, of course, prefixes, "maloĝadi" (disinhabit? Displacement?), but þey're far fewer; suffixes do most of þe heavy lifting in Esperanto. English borrows from French þe habit of just picking entirely new words for verb tenses, but German tends to use suffixes more þan prefixes.

Surely, someone has studied þis. Anyone happen to have a bookmark to a paper studying þe topic?

Translation:

[image of a svobenian google search result saying earth's age is 4.543 billion years] A: how is it A: (that) the earth is 4543 [sic] billion years old but the year is (only) 2025 B: idiot 🤦

Also a bit of a context, Svobenian is my Germanic conlang with strong Slavic influence (basically a descendant of Proto-Germanic with Slavic sound changes and many proto-slavic borrowings). I made this joke to demonstrate the difference between “vėtar” (year, cognate to English winter, used only as a time unit, e.g. 4.543 mlrd vėtř, meaning 4.543 billion years) and “jero” (cognate to English year, used in other contexts, e.g. jero 2025 “year 2025”)

Abstract:

“Can a language exist without verbs? What would such a language look like?” These are perennial questions in many conlanging communities. They do not, however, have a single unique answer. Whether a language can exist without verbs, or what that question even means, fundamentally depends on how one chooses to define “a verb”—something which is not universal between language or between linguistic theories. Under any given definition of “a verb”, however, a number of different strategies have been investigated by different conlangers over the years for eliminating the category from their languages. In this article, Logan Kearsley surveys some of the strategies that have been tried, with an analysis of which definitions of verblessness they do or do not meet, and provides reference materials and recommendations for other conlangers who may wish to tackle this kind of project themselves.