Hey all, about two and a half years ago I shared Monke here, a word generator I made for my own conlang. A lot of you tried it and sent feedback and bug reports, thanks a lot for that.

Last week I finally found time and motivation to work on that feedback, but what started as just a small 2h effort to fix a couple of bugs turned into a fully fledged multi evening rework of Monke to the point I'm calling it a version 2.

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The biggest new thing is phonological features, which I really wanted for my own language. Let's say you want vowel harmony: you declare a feature harmony with the values front and back, tell your Vowel rule that its sounds are tagged by it, and tag each vowel. Then a rule higher up (like Word) picks a value (at random), and every vowel inside it is filtered by this choice. In practice it means you get harmony like features without writing every rule twice.

You can also filter a reference directly: Vowel<front> only gives front vowels, and Vowel<!back> gives anything that isn't back (so untagged ones too). While this was mainly designed with harmony in mind, it is completely generic and supports any use you have for it!

Other changes:

• Words update while you edit and output comes from a seed you can set, so a shared link always shows the same words.
• "Generate all" lists every distinct word a grammar can make (up to 10,000), with rewrites and exclusions applied.
• Word boundaries ^ and $ in rewrites and exclusions, e.g. no word final h: 'h'.$
• Back-references in exclusions, C.#0# bans pp but still allows pt
• Repeat weights: each pattern or terminal can get a repeat factor next to its weight, e.g. 0.5 makes it half as likely each time it already showed up in the word. Same thing in a pattern with V~0.5.
• An option to repeat rewrites until nothing changes, so one rewrite can act on the output of another
• Browser back/forward work as undo/redo
• Awkwords import: open an .awkw file or paste a pattern. Anything that can't be translated exactly gets listed so you can check it. (experimental feature)

The editor got redesigned too, and the old guide is now a Reference with hopefully better examples you can open directly in the generator. The syntax is still a bit more complex than other generators, but it's better explained now. I also spent a lot of time on keyboard and screen reader support for improved accessibility.

Plenty of bugs got fixed as well: escapes in quotes, rewrites that could freeze the page, unweighted choices that weren't actually equal, share links breaking on big grammars. (Old links and .monke files still work)

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You can find it at the same url as before: https://monke.lunah.dev/

It is free to use and always will be, without any restrictions (a shout-out or a link to the website is always appreciated, but never required)

If you find bugs or have feature requests please let me know here or on GitHub. Feedback is very much welcome!

"Omg. I think this individual is about to hurt zirself!"

—Welcome to the Modern World of Pronouns: Identity-Inclusive Natural Language Processing beyond Gender (p. 5; submitted by Lexi)

Please provide at minimum a gloss of your sentence.

Sentence submission form!

Feel free to comment on other people's langs!

Welcome to the r/conlangs Official Checkpoint. You have been selected for a random check of your language. Please translate one or more of the following phrases and sentences:

"I am not a “who,” Archivist, I am a “what.” A “who” requires a degree of identity I can’t ever retain."

"Ceaseless Watcher, turn your gaze upon this wretched thing."

"There is a wasps’ nest in my attic. Perhaps it can soothe my itching soul."

"[EXTENDED SOUNDS OF BRUTAL PIPE MURDER]"

“Be still, for there is strange music."

"Stop!"

If you have any ideas for interesting phrases or sentences for the next checkpoint, let me know in a DM! This activity will be posted on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The highest upvoted "Stop!" will be included in the next checkpoint's title!

This languages uses 4 different word endings to transform nouns to adjectives.

• -a: high value / positive;
• -e: medium value / neutral;
• -i: low value / negative;
• -u: to indicate the existence of an abstract noun (same as English -ful, -al, -ive).

Endings can also stack with each other, if useful.

Example:

• telm: n. temperature (derived from Proto-Hellenic)
• telma: hot
• telmi: cold
• telme: moderate temperature
• telmea: warm

• telmei: cold

• ut: n. extreme (derived from Proto-Indo-European)

• utu: adj. extreme

I'll go first!

A small list of very specific words in one of my conlangs would be

Fachio — something that sucks but doesn't blow

Nefafauro — something you or others accept as bad because you are concerned for the environment

Miniyo — a 5’6 robot with a soft exterior that can run up to 8 mph (12 kmh) that you buy for reasons unknown to other people

Gakibo — a person who speaks a language and or knows a script/cipher but does not want anyone who doesn't already know it to learn or speak said language and may even go as far as sabotage if desperate

Jiafo — a person who is a fan of Jiafe, wants to (if they haven't become Jiafe) or sings songs but replaces the lyrics with the lyrics of ye hua xiang

Renisito — a person who lives in a place and spreads false information (or cherry picks specific real information) to give someone else who doesn't live there a false impression of what it's like to live there

Torinto — a convoluted puzzle, Riddle or paradox used to send a message that is unclear because it appears to be meaningless

What you all will see:

• Introduction
  • (History)
• Phonology
  • Some diferences with Japanese (for example).
  • Some IPA sound tables.
  • How to make sentences?
• Writing System
  • How it work?
  • Sum of symbols (算書, là su)
• Grammar
  • Basic word order
  • Verbs (the ultra basic of them)
  • Denial
  • Pronouns
• Examples
• Final things

Hi guys, I made another tool for my own conlang, Danetian, and thought it might be useful to anyone else working on an Indo-European conlang.

It’s called PIESCA, or Proto-Indo-European Sound Change Applier. It’s basically a searchable PIE dictionary with Mark Rosenfelder’s SCA2 built into it. You enter your sound changes, and it applies them to every headword and recorded inflection in the dictionary.

You can try it here.

The idea is that you can browse what your sound changes would produce across both vocabulary and inflection tables, without having to copy individual forms into a sound change applier. You can search by English meaning or by the resulting forms, so it also works as a dictionary for the vocabulary you’ve evolved.

I’d appreciate feedback, especially from anyone working on an Indo-European conlang. Let me know if you run into any problems or find something you’d want it to handle.

Thank you!

Hi :D

This is a full IPA chart including sounds not found in natural languages, such as a Alveolar Non-Sibilant Affricate Ejective!

Feel free to give any feedback or criticism!

Link

This is a game of borrowing and loaning words! To give our conlangs a more naturalistic flair, this game can help us get realistic loans into our language by giving us an artificial-ish "world" to pull words from!

The Telephone Game will be posted every Monday and Friday, hopefully.

Rules

1) Post a word in your language, with IPA and a definition.

Note: try to show your word inflected, as it would appear in a typical sentence. This can be the source of many interesting borrowings in natlangs (like how so many Arabic words were borrowed with the definite article fossilized onto it! algebra, alcohol, etc.)

2) Respond to a post by adapting the word to your language's phonology, and consider shifting the meaning of the word a bit!

3) Sometimes, you may see an interesting phrase or construction in a language. Instead of adopting the word as a loan word, you are welcome to calque the phrase -- for example, taking skyscraper by using your language's native words for sky and scraper. If you do this, please label the post at the start as Calque so people don't get confused about your path of adopting/loaning.

Last Time...

Zerian (WIP) by /u/WinterlessSolstice

sacdes /sɔ.des/

v. to doubt; to feel undecided

Ex.

Ei sacdesant deinen weidum.

/eɪ sɔ.de.sant deɪ.nen weɪdəm/

ei sacdes-ant dei-nen weid-um

1SG doubt-PST 3SG-GEN idea-N

"I doubted his ideas."

Take care of yourselves and each other

Peace, Love, & Conlanging ❤️

I was in the shower thinking about a simplified language, (my current idea is no pronouns outside of you, me, we, they) and it struck me that most modern languages just have pronouns for gender (i know japanese has honorifics too), and not anything else.

I feel like there are more meaningful differences than just gender! Is this a consequence of colonization or globalization or whatever, and those other pronouns just got erased?

Any answers appreciated

edit: turns out i'm completely wrong

Like some of you out there, I like to conlang as part of the worldbuilding process for my D&D settings. Recently, I have been working on some new hand-drawn battlemaps for my current campaign, set in my homebrew world the Myriad Isles. As part of that, I made some generic sprites for the basic races common to the central isles, where the party is currently located. I realised this might be a fun opportunity to create names for these races in Tovan, so I put together this little graphic.

I've tagged this as an activity to encourage everyone who uses their conlangs for TTRPGs or other works of fiction with fantasy races to share their own terminology, and the histories behind them!

I can somewhat read Hebrew, so I tried to preserve the original word order, verb aspects, and phrases (as much as my limited understanding permits). Nevertheless I tried to maintain good practice prose in Ḫārūwian. For example, you may notice some hyperbaton (e.g. separating adjectives or genitives from nouns) since that is generally considered in Ḫārūwian to be less clumsy writing.

Gloss:

imruq-a   imtē-na,         še     nunnuš-ā 
im.ru.qa  im.teː.na        ʃe     nun.nu.ʃa
lord-NOM  shepherd-1SG     not    NPFV.lack-1SG.

ḫūz-u         ruaššā-tu       ta-zāq-mi-na;     zūm-u 
χuː.zu        ru.aʃ.ʃaː.tu    ta.zaːq.mi.na     zuː.mu 
pasture-GEN   PL.abode-PREP   CAUS-lie-3SG-1SG  peace-GEN

wa       annāb-tu         ḫuḫḫul-mi-na.
wa       an.naːb.tu       χuχ.χul.mi.na
above    PL.water-PREP    NPFV.lead-3SG-1SG

rās-na       ta-dū-mi;         geggeš-mi-na         ām-u     mualleq-tu, 
raːs.na      ta.duː.mi         geg.geʃ.mi.na        aː.mu    mu.al.leq.tu 
spirit-1SG   CAUS-return-3SG   NPFV.teach-3SG-1SG   law-GEN  PL.road-PREP


qub       ṭāk-t-ūm. 
qub       t'aːk.tuːm
serving   name-3SG-DAT

nu sū-laq-tu         ṭiw-a     rāt-tu,       še   daddan-ā       bur, 
nu suː laq.tu        t'i.wa    raːt.tu       ʃe   dad.da.naː     bur
and dead-dark-PREP   go-NOM    valley-PREP   not  NPFV.fear-1SG  evil

lū           ka-ru-ša-tu             ānu,
luː          ka.ru.ʃa.tu             aː.nu
because of   be with-GER-2SG-PREP    me-PREP

urqa     urkir-š-ā         awattu     muttanā-min-na.
ur.qa    ur.kir.ʃaː        a.wat.tu   mut.ta.naː.min.na
scepter  staff-2SG-NOM     they.NOM   console-3PL-1SG

kikkī-ši           sīm-na-tu           ilkāš    ba         miarri-na.
kik.kiː.ʃi         siːm.na.tu          il.kaːʃ  ba         mi.ar.ri.na
NPFV.prepare-2SG   presence-1SG-PREP   table    towards    PL.enemy-1SG

ta-nāb-ši     išpag-tu   lūk-na,   ētum-n-ā     rirriq-mi. 
ta.naːb.ʃi    iʃ.pag.tu  luːk.na   eː.tum.naː   rir.riq.mi
CAUS-wet-2SG  oil-PREP   head-1SG  cup-1SG-NOM  NPFV.abundant-3SG

ulū      kur   zēra       šiššib-min-na,       aḫḫur-u   
u.luː    kur   zeː.ra     ʃiʃ.ʃib.min.na       aχ.χu.ru
indeed   good  mercy-NOM  NPFV.pursue-3PL-1SG  PL.all-GEN  


dām-n-ū         assūy-u, 
daːm.nuː        as.suː.ju
life-1SG-GEN    PL.day-GEN

nu   duw-ā         imruq-u   uršā-tu       assūy-u     bīt-um. 
nu   du.waː        im.ru.qu  ur.ʃaː.tu     as.suː.ju   biː.tum
and  return-1SG    lord-GEN  abode-PREP    PL.day-GEN  length-DAT

Diagram to show some vocabulary in ᵹoqhoᵹ !

I made the illustration on illustrator, and you are free to use it, as long as you don't remove my watermark (and mention me if you post it, i'd love to see the results!)

2nd slide is the version with only the natively written words, 3rd slide are the vaoskianizations (romanizations) only.

Template is in the fourth slide.

Get to know ᵹoqhoᵹ more - More about the script

Mine have Semitic, Indo-European, Iranian and Altaic cognates or loanwords. Most of those words were loaned through exploring other lands or influence, while others are direct cognates.

Do your languages have any kind of connection to other existing languages that belong in the same family, or did they gain the cognates through unrelated languages? Let me know, I'd like to hear!!!

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.

Mo’r ba m Pyun,
Tw’r nam gwl,
Tw’r gwot zum ter,
Tw’r wufets zum asnin,
M po mrts, Tertc zum sim Pyun.
Tcit, dar mo mo’r tyen’r paf.
Dort mo l mo’r zyamxiks,
Sim mo mwl dort mo’r zyamjyts.
No win mo l ungwl wufets,
Am win mo ar granjyd.

1PL=GEN father LOC heaven
2SG=GEN name venerable
2SG=GEN state FUT come
2SG=GEN want-NMZ-PL FUT PASS-achieve
LOC these way-PL earth FUT similar heaven
today [IMP] give 1PL 1PL=GEN day=GEN bread
[IMP] forgive 1PL DAT 1PL=GEN owe-NMZ-PL
similar 1PL PST.PRF forgive 1PL=GEN debt-person-PL
[IMP] NEG lead 1PL DAT NEG-venerable want-NMZ-PL
but [IMP] lead 1PL ABL evil-person.DEF

/mor bɑ əm pjən
tʰur nɑm ɡul
tʰur ɡwot zəm tʰer
tʰur wəfets zəm asnɪn
əm pʰo mɚts tʰerθ zəm sɪm pʰjən
θɪt dɑr mo mor tʰjenɚ pʰɑf
dort mo ʊl mor zjɑmʃɪks
sɪm mo mul dort mor zjɑmʒits
no wɪn mo ʊl ənɡul wəfets
ɑm wɪn mo ɑr ɡrɑnʒiːd/

kɑ-lib-yç ɑllo ɑntɑɹ-ɑn dɑn mjylɪ xʷɪ kʏ-ɲɛm fun-un ɲɪk-ɯn dæçɛ xʷɪ kɑj-yç mjæɣr-yç dæmjɛ ɑbodzoʃt-ɑs dɪ wɑr mɑɹ-tjɛt nɑ mɯd wɑr kʷyjæ-ʋ mæŋɡɪ-ʋ ʋʏjɛt

PAST-love-INCH god world-ACC 3SG.ACC much.DAT which PST-give son-ACC only-ACC 3SG.M.GEN which person-PLR all-PLR 3SG.M.DAT believe-PLR 3PL.M will die-INF not but will life-INST eternal-INST COP.INF

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

John 3:16 being spoken in Kaiyuma

Here are the personal pronouns in Danetian, my Indo-European conlang. What do you think?

Background

Etvétēsu is the language of one of the "nations" of my world. It has no /b/.

Its substrate, Old Settled Tongue (OST), split into an eastern and a western variety, and the ancestral stage did have /b/. OST was split because of the geografy of the area at the time of migration of speakers of "Proto-Etvétēsu".

These people borrowed its farming calendar from OST, which is where the five season names come from (spring, summer, autumn, harvest, winter; five being a sacred number there).

In the eastern and western "provinces" some OST (evolved) is still spoken to this day, though not officially.

Argument

Take *berinoti. In the east /b/ survives (/berinota/), in the west it devoices (/perinot/), and in Etvétēsu it comes out as /v/ (/verinot/). I read this as a dated borrowing.
The word was taken from the ancestral form before the east/west split, while Etvétēsu's ancestor still had /b/, and the native shift /b/ > /v/ then swept it along with the inherited lexicon.

There is a counter-case that I think supports this. *buta "pig" reached Etvétēsu through the west provinces, which had already devoiced (centuries of intermingling), so it arrived as /put'aːt/ with /p/ ready-made. So the /v/ words date from before the split and the /p/ word from after it.

Wear

The loans have had thousands of years to wear down, so I let them. A loan loses the vowel before its stressed final syllable only if the resulting cluster already exists in the language: *nt* and *rt* do, so *manitar > /mantar/ and *peritar > /pertar/. *rn*, *vn* and *ln* are unattested, so *verinot*, *revenir* and *kalinir* keep all three vowels.

In the west, *r...r* words sporadically dissimilate (*peritari > /peltar/).

Questions

I was going thorugh a few loans from other languages and I thought I was being too prescriptive with my changes, so... help me please.

1. If a later loan arrives with /b/ after the merger is over, I'm planning /p/. The language has /d/ and /g/ but nothing at the labial, so devoicing seems natural. Would you expect /v/ instead, given the native shift?
2. Can you get this pattern without two strata, for example through perceptual adaptation alone?
3. Does blocking syncope on cluster legality read as a believable cause for partial wear, or does it look ad hoc?

This is a weekly thread for people who have cool things they want to share from their languages, but don't want to make a whole post. It can also function as a resource for future conlangers who are looking for cool things to add!

So, what cool things have you added (or do you plan to add soon)?

I've also written up some brainstorming tips for conlang features if you'd like additional inspiration. Also here’s my article on using conlangs as a cognitive framework (can be useful for embedding your conculture into the language).

If naturalism wasn't a concern, what noun classes would you wanna see a conlang experiment with and why? Bonus question: what would the culture of the speakers be like for that distinction to occur?