The IPA is not a collection of all sounds a human can possibly make. For instance, whistling cannot be represented in IPA, so a language such as silbo gomero would have no representation in the IPA. IPA is still useful for conlangers, but thinking outside of the IPA is still possible, even for languages that are meant to be used by humans or creatures with humanlike mouths and vocal tracts.
True, I believe I established almost all of the sounds last year creating a language, that the last 3 sounds was made just early 2018, the last one being last April, *without the help of IPA, I tested the sounds from my own mouth.* And I didn't even know what IPA was until just the beginning of 2018 (This language has been in production for a few years, to note.), when I did some research on Phoenician. And even now I don't have an official IPA chart for this language as I still can't understand IPA myself. Yes, I did attempt to create one just months ago but the sounds were so confusing I ditched the effort lol
@MrRyanholder I mean, if you wanted to, I guess you could call whistling a "Tonal" Bilabial Fricative? Seeing as musical notes are just a specific wavelength that can obviously be created by the mouth in the form of whistling. I'm not sure. But either way, the IPA is a chart of both static, non-adjustable sounds and generalized sounds. Check out Artifexian's video on vowels and you'll see what I mean. The IPA is just a tool, and tools can be used for purposes other than their intended use. Like using a screwdriver handle as a mallet for carving. Not trying to start an argument, just putting in my two cents.
There are add-ons to the base IPA. For instance extended IPA includes non-communicative (or sounds which are presumed to be non-communicative) mouth sounds, such as lip smacking, whistling, breath sounds and a few more assorted things. the IPA for obvious reasons also can't be used to create sign languages, but that's kind of self-evident. (a sign has no 'phonetic' meaning.)
@@nenben8759 Thing with Jan Misali, his criticisms are always well-founded. It's stuff like "You want a Universal Language that lacks the most common sounds?" or "Your Fictional Language is just re-skinned English".
@@MarcTelang Xidnaf's problem is being a Student of Linguistics with little experience. He says stuff he's only just started learning, and later has to back-track once he's learnt some more.
I’m a bit wild but I usually go: 1 - Writing system 2 - Phonology & phonotactics 3 - Basic Lexicon 4 - Grammar & Semantics 5 - Full Lexicon & Sample Texts
You mentioned that step four or five was making an "alphabet". While I understood what you meant, you may want to phrase that as "make a writing system", because alphabets are just one of several possible writing system models, and honestly, one of the least interesting. And, considering how writing systems evolve, alphabets come rather late in the game. You may also want to research historical linguistics, as this adds to the realism of any conlang created in innumerable ways.
Heinrich Thurston I suggest the youtube channel "Xidnaf" if you are interested in linguistics. It's somewhat small, but it covers some cool topics including writing systems. Plus it has a similar style to Artifexian :)
Lock Ray I found that literally seconds after I posted previously. I also had a major brain fart, because I already know about the lingual ways of the Japanese. Xidnaf has some awesome informative videos.
This video is a good introduction to conlanging, but I must point out something: Your ordering, while not wrong per se, is gonna cause you problems later down the line. Making a lexicon before making a grammar is gonna make it harder for you to add things to said grammar because you'll need to go back and alter most of your lexicon if you want, say, gender infixes or lenition to indicate possession, etc. Additionally, I'm noticing a lack of a semantics category. While semantics are harder to make, they're a big part of language. Typically I'd add them after the lexicon. The ideal order for conlanging should look something like: 1) Core Phonology. 2) Basic Grammar (i.e. grammar in relation to individual word morphology). 3) Basic Script and transliteration scheme. 4) Basic Lexicon. 5) The rest of the grammar. 6) Phonological Nuance (i.e. variant pronunciation, other non-phonemic sound features, etc.). 7) Basic Semantics. 8) Fill out the lexicon 9) Expand on the script. 10) Correct or incorporate any inconsistencies. 11) Finishing Touches and expanding Semantics. 12) Usage.
Exactly. I've been doing a little grammar on my conlang and I'm currently on the derivational morphology, which is necessary for making words that English doesn't have, or maybe having a word in English which your language doesn't have
This is probably gonna be intensely difficult, but I'm going to use these videos to try and construct an "autism-friendly" language: basically most of it will be a regular old conlang but it'll have features that reflect differences associated with autism, such as punctuation/indicative words to convey sarcasm and poking fun, and a wide variety of words to describe concepts like stimming, special interests, and overload/meltdowns. I figured it'd be fun since I'm on the spectrum myself and have always been fascinated with both autism and languages. What do y'all think?
Zoe Kirk I love this idea! If you haven't made it or started already, evidentiality is a great system you could use to mark sarcasm and the likes, though I wouldn't mark them all with suffixes and prefixes, as you might want to mark a lot more than just sarcasm
This channel is amazing; your videos are not only helpful in the information they give, but also the way you give it. I found this channel a couple months ago when looking for world building videos, and i can't wait to see these new linguistics vids. I love both astronomy and conlanging, so it's super convenient to find them both at the same channel.
I'd started on writing a language/alphabet for a book series I intend to write, I first wrote out all the sounds I could make and tried writing some symbols for them. Went to search youtube for some extra guidance on making it like a real language. Thank you for these helpful and informative videos!
So glad I stumbled upon your channel! I've been working on building a scientifically plausible fantasy world for the past 20 years and had no idea anyone else built worlds just for fun! I'll be watching through your whole library for sure as well as checking out your podcast.
I remember years ago coming to your channel for the astronomy/worldbuilding. But i stayed for the conlanging And from your channel, likely this video i spread across many other linguistic/conlang channels. So i am retroactively liking this video as because i believe it started my conlang journey
This is just plain awesome. it's also nice to have a video that I can actually understand in its entirety for once. I hope in your next podcast you can elaborate on your motivations for this change of direction, and perhaps on your personal feelings regarding conlang. I'm ecstatic and I look forward to your future videos on this topic.
This was awesome. Glad I decided to see what kind of conlanging videos there are on youtube. It's nice to know I'm on the right track with my conlangs so far; the highest number of sounds I have in one language is 32, far fewer than English. Liked the nod to xkcd there ;D
Does this sound authentic? Rinti rethko raks uryat o nuyat, fe satoi-fe nar bllayoi kri! Kri-fe she arno nak kri-she she oras, fe ryyu she kri rayat! Amazing grace how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost but now I'm found was blind but now I see!
The double headed alien you can only talk to with two humans working together? that sounds pretty hard confusing and cool. Lets base their grammar on counterintuitive physics phenomena?
+R4ndomNMBRS haha. I totally want to make it now. also I single human can make the sounds with a recorder player back thing. so they could say one track, then say the other track while its playing.
Omg, yes! I've already been wondering how much longer I'll be subscribed to this channel, because, while the videos are entertaining and well made, I'm not really into astronomy or world building. But this, goddamn I needed this door into linguistics forever! I'm looking forward to this a lot.
Urinstein Great! Just be warned though that the astronomy video will continue there much I want to cover. I'll run this series alongside the astronomy stuff so there hopefully is a bit in there for everyone.
I think a great example of phonology when it comes to cartoon biology is Tweety Bird. I don't know if Mel Blanc was completely responsible, but who ever came up with the idea for the lack of certain sounds because a baby bird's mouth is so small is genius. =_)
As someone who has been developing his own conlang for a while now, this is definitely a series I'll be keeping my eye on (although I'm just stuck at the "word-making" stage - I keep resorting to just mashing letters together and seeing the results)
Wow... This is just what I need :DI subbed immediately.Accidently came across this video. I'm trying to make a language as simple as possible for humans to speak. Not based on familiarity, but based on the easiest sounds to pronounce. Kind of a science language. Not something to play with, but something clear and easy. I really hope these videos will help me create it. I already figured out myself that I had to start with sounds and grammar.
how about swaping some letters? i mean stuff like "in "south orc-ish" (made up example) you talk IDENTICAL to "north orc-ish" but the "T" and "r" swap places so when a N.O. says "tommorrow" . a S.O. says "rommottow" is it a "valid" way to make a fictional language or at LEAST a dialect?
Ramiro Galletti Variations like that usually happen inside constant clusters in natural languages, like mgła (pl), hmla (sk) (g in Slovak transformed into h).
Yeah, but mumpsimuses and spoonerisms could be a legitimate source of linguistic innovation beyond "slower" consonantal morph. "d" -> "th" ( or vice versa or ð to both depending on the language ) may make more sense for most changes, but at least for a handful of words, having a spoonerism could be an interesting source of innovation. Also, the most common morphing would be vowel shift ( *cough* English *cough* ) so even if you've got a spoonerism swap of the consonants, you should throw in some vowel change. To use your example of "tomorrow" -> "romottow", maybe "tumarrou" ( as it's actually pronounced, right? ) to "romatrau". It also is less mutually intelligible, which adds for greater variation among dialects which will eventually develop into distinct languages. More how it actually happens, right?
I love this idea. I've wanted to make conlangs for a long time but I've always had issues understanding the IPA and other tutorials I've found. Hopefully this will help.
Eos Hopefully. If you every do find things confusing or I'm not doing a particularly good job explaining things, always leave a comment. I'll do my best to sort you out :)
When I made a language for a subspecies of human in a book, I skipped the making words stage. There were the consonants P,T,K,H,M,S,F, and L, glottal stops replaced spaces, and A,O, and I were the only vowels (written as diacritics above the consonants). The only rules were that you take an english word, strip it of vowels, change consonants, and add vowels in so that every word goes CVCVCVCV... , this made it so that I could distinguish accent by making it a dialect, as there weren't any rules on which vowels go there. (I couldn't be bothered to make the book, so that's why I posted it here)
I go for Proto -Reason -phonology -grammar , pragmatics, semantics, romanization of phonological characters (so that I don't necessarily need to make a writing sys) -lexicon Modern -Phonological shift -extra grammar (modern grammar i.e. word marker tenses to morphological tenses) -writting system
A language I’ve made has only 15/18 phonemes which started out as randomly putting letters on a page a year or two ago (but not that random it kind of had a structure) and I started developing it earlier this year
I usually end up with smaller inventories myself; the problem I ran into with adding things is that it tended to result in words *I* couldn't pronounce. I tend to skip designing alphabets, though, beyond some very broad strokes (sch as defining what kind of alphabet it is), but I imagine this is rather dependant on what one's making a language for. Loved how you presented the inventories, but the way.
Gren Drake Another good way of making an inventory is to only consider the sounds you can actually make and use that as your starting point. I can speak english (obviously), german and have basic training in Irish so my "easy inventory" is very un-english.
1. Did this after making words, but done. 2. Still building, but I have over 300 roots, a rather comprehensive conjugation system, a 4-way comparative system, and a lot of compound words 3. Basic word order (SOV) and some rules for building sentences. I'm not done. I have to work on translating some preexisting writing in order to work out the things I don't have yet in grammar. 4. I have 2 alphabets. One has letters that mostly look like modified latin letters (It's the one that is currently my avatar, and you can find in my pronunciation videos for names from my book) and one that is much more logical and, better yet, doesn't look anything like Latin... Also it's not made in syllable blocks so it was easy to make a font for. Vinhua will likely never be typable unless I have a REALLY dedicated fan someday, but Skulemte can not only be typed right now, but can easily transcribe English and be phonologically consistent. 5. Skip! I mean, I don't even do cursive in English. What's to say that a language couldn't just be written print style all the time. 6. I've done a bit of this. (Saja ta fiz vipanoka) I translated some lines in Diamond Spearhead into Vinkan so I could properly establish the language, especially whenever they listened to a dialect they didn't speak. Saja da sonbir gabkikite bozko. Ŕischa. Babv'rket da sajabir hua rebzul sazhbu humket. (I like your videos. Thank you. Please listen to my language someday)
O man. This would have helped before I made my own language. I think I managed fairly well based on your advice anyway though. Looking forward to more about this.
Cool, I love languages! I'm learning 中文 and feel my entire mouth and neck change for producing the sounds I need. I even have a different voice when I switch between german and english accents/dialects. Please tell us more. I want to learn more.
Me: I'll create a conlang to entertain myself and maybe show it to some close friends. This guy: Take into account that your language could reach alien speakers.
I have read a few linguistic theories and one that really interests me the most is the idea that the letters should mean something. For example the letter "S" is a little snake. What sound does a snake make? Snake goes "sssss" In designing a fictional language one could make it entirely around animal sounds. Symbol ♉ could equal a cow and the sound it makes is "Mooo"
I really liked your video! Interesting and instructional. And the way you speak, though a little too fast for non native English speakers, is still understandable. Thanks!
This video makes me want to learn Inuit languages so that I can create a similarly-sounding language but where "R" and "Ah" sounds usually roll (except for the latter when before an "Oo" sound), "Oo" and "Ow" sounds are longer-sounding, and where feline and canine sounds are thrown in. I'd love a video like this on Dovahzul; it's the only fictional language (and language in general) that I am capable of mimicking. I could learn something from it.
hand waving languages can be funny. my favorite was from ring world where the puppeteers language was always relayed as litterally "string of orchestral music"
Very cool video. Love languages more than I'm interested in planetary design. Language creation has always been quiet fascination, but I haven't had a clue where to begin. (also nice xkcd cameo there)
I literally, and yes I mean literally, just found out about the IPA yesterday, and was kind of obsessing over it today. I get home from school and see this in my sub box and have a mini heart attack because of how insanely coincidental that is, because I also just subscribed yesterday!!!
Wouldn't it make more sense to make the grammar BEFORE the lexicon, especially if some of the grammar rules involve creating new words from other existing words and/or affixes?
NeonAutumn New video will be out monday, Apologies for the delay...life stuff sometimes gets in the way :( But, I have a 2 hour podcast on languages coming out tonight hopefully. 7-8 GMT. www.artifexian.com/
Note that the ordering is only relevant if the creatures that speak it are somewhat human-like. It is not hard to imagine a creature that might develop a written language before a verbal one due to anatomical priorities, or uses senses like magnetoreception to communicate. Heck, even Chinese has a written language that has nothing to do with how it's spoken (and thus Chinese is a shared written language but there are multiple spoken languages within it), which some might consider pretty odd and outside the scope of this video. As for accessibility of these sorts of things, I highly recommend "Surfacing" by Walter Jon Williams, which features a scientist who talks to whales, for insight into how extremely foreign languages can be expressed in writing.
before i search anything about creating a lenguage i satrted creating my own based on my mother lenguage (portuguese). I designed a whoe new alphabet from A to Z so it started as a code and then i satrted to create new words based in other lenguages and i also started to modify the sounds of the letters so in the lenguage i created "e" has the sound of "ã" and "b" has the sound of "v" and etc... I'm really happy with the progress
0:25 Hello Edgar. Not all writing systems are alphabets. There are 5 types of writing systems: Abjads - where consonants get glyphs while vowels are inferred by the reader (Edgar). Modern abjads like the Arabic (عربي) script are "impure" abjads, where vowels are sometimes written. Alphabets - Every phoneme gets a glyph (or glyphs). Example the script this text is written in, the Latin alphabet. Abugidas - Every consonant gets a glyph modified by a vowel, like how you learn the عربي script. Syllabaries - Where every syllable gets a glyph. Example the Kana used in Japanese. Logo-syllabaries - Where every syllable/morpheme gets a glyph. Example Hanzi.
You should create (the most important part of) the grammar before the lexicon because you want you words some grammatical absolutive/infinitive affixes (like -us, -are etc. in latin) or create a root system or something.
I'm creating a language right now, I've created the alphabet, sounds, the grammar and now I'm stuck with a vocabulary because I haven't enough fantasy to do that. So my language is poor. For example, water is 'litere' and the lake is 'literāre' (literally 'the place for water). Example of my language: I spend about two-three hours at the computer everyday: Es daŭedoŭ spendas iŭv su komputer matrisentadoŭ eŭv tre por for nu hori.
Grammar has always been a tough subject for me. The problem I have now is that I can't always distinguish the past, present, and future when I'm translating a text.
Craftist I'm creating a language as well. I'd love to write some sentences here but I've made up my own alphabet so I don't know how to reproduce the sounds using these letters
0:40 I did this as a kid to talk with my friends in the backseat without our parents knowing what we were saying. There was zero correlation in similar words. "It" could be "zow" and "It's" would be like "garum" or something completely different. It sure was fun though.
So 1. Carrier systems (sounds systems / Writing system) 2.Meaning systems (lexicon, phrase types, sentences) 3. Teaching material (videos, podcasts, books) 4. Everyday use
As other people have said, your ordering is going to cause some problems. You also specify "alphabet" when there is huge diversity in writing systems and orthographies (abjads, abugidas, syllabaries, logographies and more). I would recommend setting a phonology after defining your phonetic inventory so you have a manageable number of possible phonemes. If you are planning on making a naturalistic language, or really any language that borrows words, you'll want to create repair strategies which outline how a word that does not fit your phonology should change in order to comply. Experienced conlangers also make decisions about how and when to use, and for what, original roots are for, and when other root formation techniques are more appropriate. (Compounding, Zero-derivation, metaphorical extension) This is still a great intro, but misses some of the nuance of language creation.
You know, I wasn't too crazy about all the astronomy-related videos (mostly because I suck at all the math that's featured there and it's not really relevant to the genre of worldbuilding I'm dealing with), but I'd be more than interested in watching more conlang videos - I kind of wanted to get into for a while but had no idea where to start.
***** Glad to be of help. Just be aware the space building will run alongside the conlanging just so there is content that a a wider range of people will enjoy.
I wish I saw this twelve years ago hahaha when I was trying to make my own language/conlang. anyway, very helpful and informative. plus, I love the accent hehe cheers!
Disappointed you didn't mention Lojban, it's a really interesting conlang that borrows from all over the place, including chinese. Also check out the RUclipsr Xidnaf, he does videos exclusively about language
Artifexian I actually learned about Lojban through Xidnaf. Here's the gist of the language (take everything with a grain of salt, I don't remember all the details): Lojban means Logical Language, and is designed to be completely free of ambiguity, there are no words that sound alike, no words that sound one way and is spelled another, the language has no nouns, only verbs, and nouns are created from a verb using a modifier word, so instead of having a runner, you can have run, which when used with the modifier becomes runner. If I remember correctly there are no tenses in the language either, meaning unlike in English you're able to speak in a completely time neutral way; that's not to say there isn't a concept of time, that's also applied using modifier words. All sentences have a completely uniform grammatical structure, which goes by the form object subject object object object... etc. So say you want to say "I run to the store with you" the run verb may have the following structure (take this with a grain of salt): run . So the sentence would become: I run store you. You can check out the Lojban website for more exact info, but the language is so strange, yet beautiful that it's a shame more people don't know about it
It seems fairly counterintuitive to include a conlang of that nature in a video aimed to help viewers construct their own language and incorporate it in a fictional setting. The point of the language you described is focused on efficiency, whereas in a fictional world, a conlang is normally meant to add flare to a culture or group of people and enhance the overall atmosphere. I know very little about the conlang you have described, but there's my two cents.
Really liked this. Got quite a laugh in a spot or two. There are also *glides*, also called semi-consonants or rarely, semi-vowels. (y-, w-, sometimes h, and r and l sometimes get lumped in there too.) These are "between" vowels and consonants.
I really like this. Now we get to some of the more human parts of world building, I'm hoping that you'll do some more new stuff in the future like country building and creating logical and somewhat complex political systems.
yellfior I feel very nervous posting there because the r/conlang-ers are very intelligent people and know about about their subject. I, on the other hand, am some schmuck with to much time on his hands. A linguist, I am not :(
Artifexian A lot of people on the Reddit feel that way. Most of them don't even study linguistics, and most of them become more confident about conlanging after 2 weeks on the sub.
I made a conlang derived from Arabic before watching this video, so to see it’s one of the ESSENTIAL steps made me proud because I was only doing it to be lazy and save time.
I know it's a bit late (8 years or so but whatever) anyway I'm making a language and I'm trying to make it simple, no character makes two sounds and no two characters make one sound and yeah
This is great. Does this mean you are done with Planet / Solar System building? And moving on to other parts of world building? or are there still more physical "world" building videos coming?
Archimagus Yes there is a ton more geo fiction to do. I'm going to run the geofiction and conlanging alongside one another so there is a greater variety on Artifexian.
The IPA is not a collection of all sounds a human can possibly make. For instance, whistling cannot be represented in IPA, so a language such as silbo gomero would have no representation in the IPA. IPA is still useful for conlangers, but thinking outside of the IPA is still possible, even for languages that are meant to be used by humans or creatures with humanlike mouths and vocal tracts.
Could something silbo gomero be represented by musical notes?
True, I believe I established almost all of the sounds last year creating a language, that the last 3 sounds was made just early 2018, the last one being last April, *without the help of IPA, I tested the sounds from my own mouth.* And I didn't even know what IPA was until just the beginning of 2018 (This language has been in production for a few years, to note.), when I did some research on Phoenician. And even now I don't have an official IPA chart for this language as I still can't understand IPA myself.
Yes, I did attempt to create one just months ago but the sounds were so confusing I ditched the effort lol
Also it doesn't have the sound for clapping, which is also a sound that a human can make.
@MrRyanholder I mean, if you wanted to, I guess you could call whistling a "Tonal" Bilabial Fricative? Seeing as musical notes are just a specific wavelength that can obviously be created by the mouth in the form of whistling. I'm not sure. But either way, the IPA is a chart of both static, non-adjustable sounds and generalized sounds. Check out Artifexian's video on vowels and you'll see what I mean. The IPA is just a tool, and tools can be used for purposes other than their intended use. Like using a screwdriver handle as a mallet for carving. Not trying to start an argument, just putting in my two cents.
There are add-ons to the base IPA.
For instance extended IPA includes non-communicative (or sounds which are presumed to be non-communicative) mouth sounds, such as lip smacking, whistling, breath sounds and a few more assorted things.
the IPA for obvious reasons also can't be used to create sign languages, but that's kind of self-evident. (a sign has no 'phonetic' meaning.)
You've actually studied linguistics, so already that's a huge improvement over the last video I saw on conlangs!
( *jan Misali* )
Xidnaf?
@@nenben8759 Thing with Jan Misali, his criticisms are always well-founded. It's stuff like "You want a Universal Language that lacks the most common sounds?" or "Your Fictional Language is just re-skinned English".
@@MarcTelang Xidnaf's problem is being a Student of Linguistics with little experience. He says stuff he's only just started learning, and later has to back-track once he's learnt some more.
@@handsoapinc i agree. while he Can be sometimes mean spirited towarda a conlang, his criticisms are ultimately well-founded
I usually go:
1 - Phonology
2 - Grammar, Semantics, Pragmatics
3 - Writing system
4 - Lexicon
Can you help me, make my own language ?
I’m a bit wild but I usually go:
1 - Writing system
2 - Phonology & phonotactics
3 - Basic Lexicon
4 - Grammar & Semantics
5 - Full Lexicon & Sample Texts
1 - phonology
2 - writing
3 - phonotactics
4 - lexicon
5 - vocab
6 -grammar
I go,
1: Phonology
2: Writing
3: Grammar
4: Lexicon
1. phonology/phonotactics
2. writing system (if any)
3. mix of grammar and lexicon
You mentioned that step four or five was making an "alphabet". While I understood what you meant, you may want to phrase that as "make a writing system", because alphabets are just one of several possible writing system models, and honestly, one of the least interesting. And, considering how writing systems evolve, alphabets come rather late in the game. You may also want to research historical linguistics, as this adds to the realism of any conlang created in innumerable ways.
Could you elaborate on some more interesting writing models? I feel that it will be some time before this is touched on.
Heinrich Thurston I suggest the youtube channel "Xidnaf" if you are interested in linguistics. It's somewhat small, but it covers some cool topics including writing systems. Plus it has a similar style to Artifexian :)
Lock Ray I found that literally seconds after I posted previously. I also had a major brain fart, because I already know about the lingual ways of the Japanese. Xidnaf has some awesome informative videos.
Theo Rodriguês Very valid point, Theo. Thanks for the feedback :)
Lock Ray Xidnaf is great. If been subbed to his channel for the very beginning. Everyone should head on over and check him out.
great video, linguistics is awesome.
also, you should replace the "worldbuilding" in the intro with "wordbuilding" :D
Markus Mines Oooooh now, theres an idea. :)
Two years later...
Lo and behold, years later...
Years later
@@zaynelumpkin Siod ona's sioped...
"consonants (x, k, c, d)"
I see what you did there.
somewony Hehe...It was either that of N,S,F,W.
+Artifexian S, M, B, C would've also been a possibility :P.
Artifexian It's or, not of.
69th like 0.o
@Digicraftmon the Crystal Gem xkcd is the name of a popular webcomic
This video is a good introduction to conlanging, but I must point out something: Your ordering, while not wrong per se, is gonna cause you problems later down the line. Making a lexicon before making a grammar is gonna make it harder for you to add things to said grammar because you'll need to go back and alter most of your lexicon if you want, say, gender infixes or lenition to indicate possession, etc. Additionally, I'm noticing a lack of a semantics category. While semantics are harder to make, they're a big part of language. Typically I'd add them after the lexicon.
The ideal order for conlanging should look something like:
1) Core Phonology.
2) Basic Grammar (i.e. grammar in relation to individual word morphology).
3) Basic Script and transliteration scheme.
4) Basic Lexicon.
5) The rest of the grammar.
6) Phonological Nuance (i.e. variant pronunciation, other non-phonemic sound features, etc.).
7) Basic Semantics.
8) Fill out the lexicon
9) Expand on the script.
10) Correct or incorporate any inconsistencies.
11) Finishing Touches and expanding Semantics.
12) Usage.
Nice, but you need a writing system. And it's spelt "useage".
LOLFlyingPotatoes You can spell it either way, but “usage” is more widely accepted.
Exactly. I've been doing a little grammar on my conlang and I'm currently on the derivational morphology, which is necessary for making words that English doesn't have, or maybe having a word in English which your language doesn't have
I feel like studying derivational morphologies is good for a beginner to make a realistic language
@@grabern it's usage!!
"Consonants: x, k, c, d" Oh, Edgar...
Just checked out what it meant... coool!
Yes.
?
Creeper Pro xkcd is a webcomic
nerd
Using xkcd as your consonants, I see what you did there :)
@Multorum Unum xkcd is a comic
This is probably gonna be intensely difficult, but I'm going to use these videos to try and construct an "autism-friendly" language: basically most of it will be a regular old conlang but it'll have features that reflect differences associated with autism, such as punctuation/indicative words to convey sarcasm and poking fun, and a wide variety of words to describe concepts like stimming, special interests, and overload/meltdowns. I figured it'd be fun since I'm on the spectrum myself and have always been fascinated with both autism and languages. What do y'all think?
Zoe Kirk I love this idea! If you haven't made it or started already, evidentiality is a great system you could use to mark sarcasm and the likes, though I wouldn't mark them all with suffixes and prefixes, as you might want to mark a lot more than just sarcasm
0:56 "Consonants: x,k,c,d"
I see what you did there.
What do you mean
Danny Schwertkämpfer xkcd is a web comic
Lol, finally, a Randall Monroe fan
now is XQC
Comment stealer
This channel is amazing; your videos are not only helpful in the information they give, but also the way you give it. I found this channel a couple months ago when looking for world building videos, and i can't wait to see these new linguistics vids. I love both astronomy and conlanging, so it's super convenient to find them both at the same channel.
megaexplosions Thats the idea. "Everything you ever wanted to know about worldbuilding....and then some"
I'd started on writing a language/alphabet for a book series I intend to write, I first wrote out all the sounds I could make and tried writing some symbols for them. Went to search youtube for some extra guidance on making it like a real language. Thank you for these helpful and informative videos!
So glad I stumbled upon your channel! I've been working on building a scientifically plausible fantasy world for the past 20 years and had no idea anyone else built worlds just for fun! I'll be watching through your whole library for sure as well as checking out your podcast.
I'm really looking forward to this. Xenolinguistics is cool. Have fun making this series, Edgar!
Ted Logan Oh I will, dont you worry about that :)
This is utterly fascinating and I did not understand a god damned thing. *rewinds the video AGAIN
This is the first conlang video I had ever watched, and I’d like to say thank you so much for getting me to where I am today.
Nice one Edgar, really enjoyed this. Looking forward to learning more!! :)
Seán Burke Cheers, Sean :)
I remember years ago coming to your channel for the astronomy/worldbuilding.
But i stayed for the conlanging
And from your channel, likely this video i spread across many other linguistic/conlang channels. So i am retroactively liking this video as because i believe it started my conlang journey
This is just plain awesome. it's also nice to have a video that I can actually understand in its entirety for once. I hope in your next podcast you can elaborate on your motivations for this change of direction, and perhaps on your personal feelings regarding conlang. I'm ecstatic and I look forward to your future videos on this topic.
Heinrich Thurston Yes, conlanging will feature in the next podcast :)
This was awesome. Glad I decided to see what kind of conlanging videos there are on youtube. It's nice to know I'm on the right track with my conlangs so far; the highest number of sounds I have in one language is 32, far fewer than English.
Liked the nod to xkcd there ;D
Possibly my favorite aspect of worldbuilding! Thanks for exploring this.
Does this sound authentic?
Rinti rethko raks uryat o nuyat, fe satoi-fe nar bllayoi kri!
Kri-fe she arno nak kri-she she oras, fe ryyu she kri rayat!
Amazing grace how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost but now I'm found was blind but now I see!
The double headed alien you can only talk to with two humans working together? that sounds pretty hard confusing and cool. Lets base their grammar on counterintuitive physics phenomena?
+R4ndomNMBRS haha. I totally want to make it now. also I single human can make the sounds with a recorder player back thing. so they could say one track, then say the other track while its playing.
good idea, totally forgot about recording sound,haha.
I like how the conlang Ceqli (pronounced Chehng-lee) uses the letters c, q and x for the sounds ch (tsh), ng and sh, respectively.
Omg, yes!
I've already been wondering how much longer I'll be subscribed to this channel, because, while the videos are entertaining and well made, I'm not really into astronomy or world building. But this, goddamn I needed this door into linguistics forever!
I'm looking forward to this a lot.
Urinstein Great! Just be warned though that the astronomy video will continue there much I want to cover. I'll run this series alongside the astronomy stuff so there hopefully is a bit in there for everyone.
These are the most interesting videos I've found on RUclips in a long while.
I think a great example of phonology when it comes to cartoon biology is Tweety Bird. I don't know if Mel Blanc was completely responsible, but who ever came up with the idea for the lack of certain sounds because a baby bird's mouth is so small is genius. =_)
Watching it with my seven-year-old and he really loved it. Great work.
I feel like this is going to be an awesome series! Thank you Artifexian
As someone who has been developing his own conlang for a while now, this is definitely a series I'll be keeping my eye on (although I'm just stuck at the "word-making" stage - I keep resorting to just mashing letters together and seeing the results)
Neo 2.4 Hylan-May I'll adress that dont worry. In the mean time pick up a copy of the "Language Construction Kit". It's great!
Wow... This is just what I need :DI subbed immediately.Accidently came across this video. I'm trying to make a language as simple as possible for humans to speak.
Not based on familiarity, but based on the easiest sounds to pronounce. Kind of a science language. Not something to play with, but something clear and easy.
I really hope these videos will help me create it. I already figured out myself that I had to start with sounds and grammar.
Don't know what's happening to my enters xD
i actually made the symbols first before the sounds, and still very few lexicons hope this does not affect it too much.
Bastien Remetir ehhh maybe making sounds would help before making alphabet
how about swaping some letters? i mean stuff like "in "south orc-ish" (made up example) you talk IDENTICAL to "north orc-ish" but the "T" and "r" swap places so when a N.O. says "tommorrow" . a S.O. says "rommottow" is it a "valid" way to make a fictional language or at LEAST a dialect?
+Ramiro Galletti Basically large scale spoonerism. Cat bould we thool!
+Tsharli Foster (AdrenalineVan)
Is it wreid taht I can stlil udenrstnad you?
T changing to R is weird, but yeah, you can do that.
Ramiro Galletti Variations like that usually happen inside constant clusters in natural languages, like mgła (pl), hmla (sk) (g in Slovak transformed into h).
Yeah, but mumpsimuses and spoonerisms could be a legitimate source of linguistic innovation beyond "slower" consonantal morph. "d" -> "th" ( or vice versa or ð to both depending on the language ) may make more sense for most changes, but at least for a handful of words, having a spoonerism could be an interesting source of innovation. Also, the most common morphing would be vowel shift ( *cough* English *cough* ) so even if you've got a spoonerism swap of the consonants, you should throw in some vowel change. To use your example of "tomorrow" -> "romottow", maybe "tumarrou" ( as it's actually pronounced, right? ) to "romatrau". It also is less mutually intelligible, which adds for greater variation among dialects which will eventually develop into distinct languages. More how it actually happens, right?
I love this idea. I've wanted to make conlangs for a long time but I've always had issues understanding the IPA and other tutorials I've found. Hopefully this will help.
Eos Hopefully. If you every do find things confusing or I'm not doing a particularly good job explaining things, always leave a comment. I'll do my best to sort you out :)
this is the best conlang video i have seen
Wow, great "new series", Edgar. Really looking forward to it. Kudos to your dedication!
KamatsuKyoto Cheers, glad you enjoyed :)
When I made a language for a subspecies of human in a book, I skipped the making words stage. There were the consonants P,T,K,H,M,S,F, and L, glottal stops replaced spaces, and A,O, and I were the only vowels (written as diacritics above the consonants). The only rules were that you take an english word, strip it of vowels, change consonants, and add vowels in so that every word goes CVCVCVCV... , this made it so that I could distinguish accent by making it a dialect, as there weren't any rules on which vowels go there. (I couldn't be bothered to make the book, so that's why I posted it here)
I go for
Proto
-Reason
-phonology
-grammar , pragmatics, semantics, romanization of phonological characters (so that I don't necessarily need to make a writing sys)
-lexicon
Modern
-Phonological shift
-extra grammar (modern grammar i.e. word marker tenses to morphological tenses)
-writting system
A language I’ve made has only 15/18 phonemes which started out as randomly putting letters on a page a year or two ago (but not that random it kind of had a structure) and I started developing it earlier this year
I usually end up with smaller inventories myself; the problem I ran into with adding things is that it tended to result in words *I* couldn't pronounce. I tend to skip designing alphabets, though, beyond some very broad strokes (sch as defining what kind of alphabet it is), but I imagine this is rather dependant on what one's making a language for.
Loved how you presented the inventories, but the way.
Gren Drake *butt the way
Gren Drake Another good way of making an inventory is to only consider the sounds you can actually make and use that as your starting point. I can speak english (obviously), german and have basic training in Irish so my "easy inventory" is very un-english.
1. Did this after making words, but done.
2. Still building, but I have over 300 roots, a rather comprehensive conjugation system, a 4-way comparative system, and a lot of compound words
3. Basic word order (SOV) and some rules for building sentences. I'm not done. I have to work on translating some preexisting writing in order to work out the things I don't have yet in grammar.
4. I have 2 alphabets. One has letters that mostly look like modified latin letters (It's the one that is currently my avatar, and you can find in my pronunciation videos for names from my book) and one that is much more logical and, better yet, doesn't look anything like Latin... Also it's not made in syllable blocks so it was easy to make a font for. Vinhua will likely never be typable unless I have a REALLY dedicated fan someday, but Skulemte can not only be typed right now, but can easily transcribe English and be phonologically consistent.
5. Skip! I mean, I don't even do cursive in English. What's to say that a language couldn't just be written print style all the time.
6. I've done a bit of this. (Saja ta fiz vipanoka) I translated some lines in Diamond Spearhead into Vinkan so I could properly establish the language, especially whenever they listened to a dialect they didn't speak.
Saja da sonbir gabkikite bozko. Ŕischa. Babv'rket da sajabir hua rebzul sazhbu humket. (I like your videos. Thank you. Please listen to my language someday)
O man. This would have helped before I made my own language. I think I managed fairly well based on your advice anyway though. Looking forward to more about this.
Cool, I love languages! I'm learning 中文 and feel my entire mouth and neck change for producing the sounds I need. I even have a different voice when I switch between german and english accents/dialects. Please tell us more. I want to learn more.
JayFolipurba There will be more.
Me: I'll create a conlang to entertain myself and maybe show it to some close friends.
This guy: Take into account that your language could reach alien speakers.
If I showed it to my friends theydmake fun of me 🧍♀️
I literally smiled when Xhosa was mentioned and pronounced correctly
I have read a few linguistic theories and one that really interests me the most is the idea that the letters should mean something. For example the letter "S" is a little snake.
What sound does a snake make? Snake goes "sssss"
In designing a fictional language one could make it entirely around animal sounds.
Symbol ♉ could equal a cow and the sound it makes is "Mooo"
Novusod Great idea.
More language videos please. I plan on beginning my conlang when you finish all videos, so please continue there creation and manufacturing.
this helped me alot it only did not make me get an alphabet for a langauge but i also made grammar leader name in (language) this video helped me
I really liked your video! Interesting and instructional. And the way you speak, though a little too fast for non native English speakers, is still understandable. Thanks!
This video makes me want to learn Inuit languages so that I can create a similarly-sounding language but where "R" and "Ah" sounds usually roll (except for the latter when before an "Oo" sound), "Oo" and "Ow" sounds are longer-sounding, and where feline and canine sounds are thrown in. I'd love a video like this on Dovahzul; it's the only fictional language (and language in general) that I am capable of mimicking. I could learn something from it.
I usually start with lexicon then select which sounds I want to use based on the lexicon I've got. This tends to suggest grammatical markers and such.
hand waving languages can be funny. my favorite was from ring world where the puppeteers language was always relayed as litterally "string of orchestral music"
Hi! My name is vh'lũtz̥!
(it actually seems like a cool word tho.)
fantastic start! Looking forward to the next episode!
3027085 Great! Should be out soonish
Keep up the good work, Edgar. Love the vids, keep 'em coming.
This is great. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.
tarquinnff3 Cheers buddy :)
Very cool video. Love languages more than I'm interested in planetary design. Language creation has always been quiet fascination, but I haven't had a clue where to begin. (also nice xkcd cameo there)
I literally, and yes I mean literally, just found out about the IPA yesterday, and was kind of obsessing over it today. I get home from school and see this in my sub box and have a mini heart attack because of how insanely coincidental that is, because I also just subscribed yesterday!!!
danlmd1 Gotta love those good heart attacks
Great video! One of my favorite parts of making my worlds
Wouldn't it make more sense to make the grammar BEFORE the lexicon, especially if some of the grammar rules involve creating new words from other existing words and/or affixes?
Hi!
I am really excited for this new, awesome series.
When will the next video be out? (I have been waiting for 2 weeks or more now.)
NeonAutumn New video will be out monday, Apologies for the delay...life stuff sometimes gets in the way :(
But, I have a 2 hour podcast on languages coming out tonight hopefully. 7-8 GMT.
www.artifexian.com/
Note that the ordering is only relevant if the creatures that speak it are somewhat human-like. It is not hard to imagine a creature that might develop a written language before a verbal one due to anatomical priorities, or uses senses like magnetoreception to communicate. Heck, even Chinese has a written language that has nothing to do with how it's spoken (and thus Chinese is a shared written language but there are multiple spoken languages within it), which some might consider pretty odd and outside the scope of this video.
As for accessibility of these sorts of things, I highly recommend "Surfacing" by Walter Jon Williams, which features a scientist who talks to whales, for insight into how extremely foreign languages can be expressed in writing.
before i search anything about creating a lenguage i satrted creating my own based on my mother lenguage (portuguese). I designed a whoe new alphabet from A to Z so it started as a code and then i satrted to create new words based in other lenguages and i also started to modify the sounds of the letters so in the lenguage i created "e" has the sound of "ã" and "b" has the sound of "v" and etc... I'm really happy with the progress
0:25 Hello Edgar. Not all writing systems are alphabets. There are 5 types of writing systems:
Abjads - where consonants get glyphs while vowels are inferred by the reader (Edgar). Modern abjads like the Arabic (عربي) script are "impure" abjads, where vowels are sometimes written.
Alphabets - Every phoneme gets a glyph (or glyphs). Example the script this text is written in, the Latin alphabet.
Abugidas - Every consonant gets a glyph modified by a vowel, like how you learn the عربي script.
Syllabaries - Where every syllable gets a glyph. Example the Kana used in Japanese.
Logo-syllabaries - Where every syllable/morpheme gets a glyph. Example Hanzi.
Great video, @Artifexian! Can you organize your language videos into their own playlist? That would be helpful.
You should create (the most important part of) the grammar before the lexicon because you want you words some grammatical absolutive/infinitive affixes (like -us, -are etc. in latin) or create a root system or something.
05:15 That sounds awful lot like "blow me" :) Especially when accompanied with that gesture :)
I'm creating a language right now, I've created the alphabet, sounds, the grammar and now I'm stuck with a vocabulary because I haven't enough fantasy to do that. So my language is poor. For example, water is 'litere' and the lake is 'literāre' (literally 'the place for water). Example of my language: I spend about two-three hours at the computer everyday: Es daŭedoŭ spendas iŭv su komputer matrisentadoŭ eŭv tre por for nu hori.
Craftist + How did you get the grammar down? Grammar is driving me crazy right now...
What's wrong? This is agglutinative planned language, the grammar is similar to Esperanto.
Grammar has always been a tough subject for me. The problem I have now is that I can't always distinguish the past, present, and future when I'm translating a text.
Have you finished it? If you have, can I learn it?
Craftist I'm creating a language as well. I'd love to write some sentences here but I've made up my own alphabet so I don't know how to reproduce the sounds using these letters
Nice video, dude.
Earned my instant like and my respect
I am so happy you are dealing with cultural worldbuilding again.
NeilSonOfNorbert Ye, its been awhile
PLease, make a vídeo about creating writing systems. That would be fun!
+
Edgar, eagerly awaiting the next language vid.
Claudia Carranza Stay tuned. Will get it out as soon as humanly possible.
0:40 I did this as a kid to talk with my friends in the backseat without our parents knowing what we were saying. There was zero correlation in similar words. "It" could be "zow" and "It's" would be like "garum" or something completely different. It sure was fun though.
So
1. Carrier systems (sounds systems / Writing system)
2.Meaning systems (lexicon, phrase types, sentences)
3. Teaching material (videos, podcasts, books)
4. Everyday use
Sound is easy to make in a language same with writing you can just borrow from pre-existing languages so all you would need to do is create words
Ooh, I'm so excited for this!
riverzebra Me too
That sound that you make in the back of your mouth (sound like rumbling) is a good exotic sound. It's used in clingon
Is it a coincidence that the four examples for consonants were x, k, c, d ? ;)
I don't understand
Creeper Pro
XKCD is the name of a very popular webcomic
3:10 Why did you get rid of the U you're irish?
As far as I remember he has both Irish and German backgrounds
Luca Tim Behrends Still it should be colour because the english he speaks spells it with a U
yes
Oh, I read the comment as, Why did you get rid of the U, are you irish? Rather than: Why did you get rid of the U, I thought you were Irish
You got me intrested at the minecraft inventory
As other people have said, your ordering is going to cause some problems. You also specify "alphabet" when there is huge diversity in writing systems and orthographies (abjads, abugidas, syllabaries, logographies and more). I would recommend setting a phonology after defining your phonetic inventory so you have a manageable number of possible phonemes. If you are planning on making a naturalistic language, or really any language that borrows words, you'll want to create repair strategies which outline how a word that does not fit your phonology should change in order to comply. Experienced conlangers also make decisions about how and when to use, and for what, original roots are for, and when other root formation techniques are more appropriate. (Compounding, Zero-derivation, metaphorical extension) This is still a great intro, but misses some of the nuance of language creation.
You know, I wasn't too crazy about all the astronomy-related videos (mostly because I suck at all the math that's featured there and it's not really relevant to the genre of worldbuilding I'm dealing with), but I'd be more than interested in watching more conlang videos - I kind of wanted to get into for a while but had no idea where to start.
***** Glad to be of help. Just be aware the space building will run alongside the conlanging just so there is content that a a wider range of people will enjoy.
Awesome beard mate. Hope you keep it forever.
Can't wait for this :D Great job!
The Capacitor Cheers, Capacitor. Will try and keep em coming
Your accent is perfect for this series.
lol loved the way you read pirahã, it sounded like piranha, it proununced like "pira-an" we actusually use ~ to nasalize
Very nice. I will make use of this in the future :) Thanks for this video
ArtezzGaming No problemo, buddy.
I wish I saw this twelve years ago hahaha when I was trying to make my own language/conlang. anyway, very helpful and informative. plus, I love the accent hehe cheers!
Disappointed you didn't mention Lojban, it's a really interesting conlang that borrows from all over the place, including chinese.
Also check out the RUclipsr Xidnaf, he does videos exclusively about language
Nikolaj Lepka I don't know what Lojban is? Care to give me a tl;dr on Lojban. Love Xidnafs stuff been subbed to him from the beginning.
Artifexian I actually learned about Lojban through Xidnaf. Here's the gist of the language (take everything with a grain of salt, I don't remember all the details): Lojban means Logical Language, and is designed to be completely free of ambiguity, there are no words that sound alike, no words that sound one way and is spelled another, the language has no nouns, only verbs, and nouns are created from a verb using a modifier word, so instead of having a runner, you can have run, which when used with the modifier becomes runner. If I remember correctly there are no tenses in the language either, meaning unlike in English you're able to speak in a completely time neutral way; that's not to say there isn't a concept of time, that's also applied using modifier words. All sentences have a completely uniform grammatical structure, which goes by the form object subject object object object... etc. So say you want to say "I run to the store with you" the run verb may have the following structure (take this with a grain of salt): run . So the sentence would become: I run store you. You can check out the Lojban website for more exact info, but the language is so strange, yet beautiful that it's a shame more people don't know about it
Nikolaj Lepka Wow, sounds very interesting
Artifexian I know, right?
It seems fairly counterintuitive to include a conlang of that nature in a video aimed to help viewers construct their own language and incorporate it in a fictional setting. The point of the language you described is focused on efficiency, whereas in a fictional world, a conlang is normally meant to add flare to a culture or group of people and enhance the overall atmosphere. I know very little about the conlang you have described, but there's my two cents.
Really liked this. Got quite a laugh in a spot or two.
There are also *glides*, also called semi-consonants or rarely, semi-vowels. (y-, w-, sometimes h, and r and l sometimes get lumped in there too.) These are "between" vowels and consonants.
so Mr. Ben W is also a Semi - consonant? remember, you took a big I instead of a small i, so you were talking about yourself, not the letter i.
@Professorbairos I think that was an L not a capital i.
Great video, awesome as always.
I really like this. Now we get to some of the more human parts of world building, I'm hoping that you'll do some more new stuff in the future like country building and creating logical and somewhat complex political systems.
AroyalMcWiener Eventually I hope to cover everything. My list of topics in MASSIVE. We'll get there.
Looking forward to it :)
I would love to see you active on /r/conlangs its a great conlanging community! maybe post this video there!
yellfior I feel very nervous posting there because the r/conlang-ers are very intelligent people and know about about their subject. I, on the other hand, am some schmuck with to much time on his hands. A linguist, I am not :(
Artifexian A lot of people on the Reddit feel that way. Most of them don't even study linguistics, and most of them become more confident about conlanging after 2 weeks on the sub.
Ye, someone posted this video to /r/conlangs. The community there seemed to not hate it so perhaps in the future I'll try and get more involved.
Also, a majority of the people on /r/conlangs are also on /r/worldbuilding, so the not-hating might come from that, too.
I am trying now to create my language, Navilese. Not named after Na'vi though. Named after my favorite color: Navy blue. Any tips on it?
Absolutely amazing, keep going!
TheBillyPie Will do
I made a conlang derived from Arabic before watching this video, so to see it’s one of the ESSENTIAL steps made me proud because I was only doing it to be lazy and save time.
THIS IS SERIOUSLY AMAZING!! Keep it up! :3
YourAnimeDude No probs, will endeavour to do so
Very interesting, I can't wait to learn more
supertylg Cheers buddy, more coming at you soon.
I know it's a bit late (8 years or so but whatever) anyway I'm making a language and I'm trying to make it simple, no character makes two sounds and no two characters make one sound and yeah
This is great. Does this mean you are done with Planet / Solar System building? And moving on to other parts of world building? or are there still more physical "world" building videos coming?
Archimagus Yes there is a ton more geo fiction to do. I'm going to run the geofiction and conlanging alongside one another so there is a greater variety on Artifexian.
Great plan. Looking forward to it.