One conlang or multiple conlangs?
- KaiTheHomoSapien
- greek
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One conlang or multiple conlangs?
Some users here seem to churn out new conlangs on the daily--what do you personally prefer (for yourself)? Do you put "all your eggs in one basket" and focus primarily on one or two conlangs?
Or do you find yourself creating new ones more often? If you create multiple ones often, how often do you abandon them?
(I've really only put work into one and have hardly considered creating another one--not saying that's the best method, but it's the only one for me at the moment).
Or do you find yourself creating new ones more often? If you create multiple ones often, how often do you abandon them?
(I've really only put work into one and have hardly considered creating another one--not saying that's the best method, but it's the only one for me at the moment).
Re: One conlang or multiple conlangs?
I've got a handful of conlangs within one conworld that I'm working on (or rather should be working on).
The main idea is that there are three or four main conlangs I can work on, moving from one to the other, so that I get a break, but still end up working on a single project. I've not touched it at all, though, properly, in a few months, so it's clearly a good idea
The main idea is that there are three or four main conlangs I can work on, moving from one to the other, so that I get a break, but still end up working on a single project. I've not touched it at all, though, properly, in a few months, so it's clearly a good idea
You can tell the same lie a thousand times,
But it never gets any more true,
So close your eyes once more and once more believe
That they all still believe in you.
Just one time.
But it never gets any more true,
So close your eyes once more and once more believe
That they all still believe in you.
Just one time.
Re: One conlang or multiple conlangs?
I have one main project that I try to work on daily and a few side projects that I neglect daily.
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Re: One conlang or multiple conlangs?
I have two conlangs I work on fairly regularly, which belong to the same (con-)world, and one that didn't move for quite a while now.
The thing is: The conlangs I make are, almost always, supposed to be spoken in a world among many other languages, which influence each other.
So I move on from one (Roedentèrran) conlang to another when it's time to influence an existing one (for the needed phonology and a few sample words) and cycling my way through the languages to make them more and more usable.
The thing is: The conlangs I make are, almost always, supposed to be spoken in a world among many other languages, which influence each other.
So I move on from one (Roedentèrran) conlang to another when it's time to influence an existing one (for the needed phonology and a few sample words) and cycling my way through the languages to make them more and more usable.
Languages of Rodentèrra: Buonavallese, Saselvan Argemontese; Wīlandisċ Taulkeisch; More on the road.
Conlang embryo of TELES: Proto-Avesto-Umbric ~> Proto-Umbric
New blog: http://argentiusbonavalensis.tumblr.com
Conlang embryo of TELES: Proto-Avesto-Umbric ~> Proto-Umbric
New blog: http://argentiusbonavalensis.tumblr.com
- KaiTheHomoSapien
- greek
- Posts: 641
- Joined: 15 Feb 2016 06:10
- Location: Northern California
Re: One conlang or multiple conlangs?
Thanks for the answers. I have a conworld too, but so far I've only made place names and talked about the other conlangs in it, rather than actually tried to create them. I think if I do create another one, I'll want it to have a lot of features that my main conlang doesn't have, that way I can have some variety.
Re: One conlang or multiple conlangs?
One at a time, lest I never get anything done.
- Thrice Xandvii
- runic
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- Location: Carnassus
Re: One conlang or multiple conlangs?
I'm currently "working" on all the languages in my sig... with energy directed to them in the order they are listed. But, those last ones I have't really thought about in a while. I will hold myself to those languages for a good while, because I am dedicated to not giving up on them and scrapping like I usually do. (Though the last one is starting to fall out of favor with me, so that may be a problem. However, I am thinking about relegating it to "naming language" status which takes off some of the pressure to dump it since I won't have to work on it really.)
- DesEsseintes
- mongolian
- Posts: 4331
- Joined: 31 Mar 2013 13:16
Re: One conlang or multiple conlangs?
I can only really concentrate on one conlang at a time, but like others have noted, it's nice to have side projects to work on from time to time.
That's what I'm doing now with my Híí language family; I focus mainly on Híí proper, and then I've got a closely related dialect and some sister languages that serve as dumpsters for ideas I reject in Híí along with helping me flesh out the protolanguage.
That's what I'm doing now with my Híí language family; I focus mainly on Híí proper, and then I've got a closely related dialect and some sister languages that serve as dumpsters for ideas I reject in Híí along with helping me flesh out the protolanguage.
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- sinic
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Re: One conlang or multiple conlangs?
I have lots and lots of conlangs. This is partly because I want my languages to have history, and there's lots of languages in my main setting, and they borrow from each other and everything, and partly because it lets me try out different things. Also, I write science fiction and fantasy not set in my main conworld, and I like to have some idea of the basics of the languages in those settings, so whenever I start a new story there's a good chance I'll start a new language (or several!) to go with it.
That said, I work on different languages to vastly differing degrees. There's one I've done lots on and continue to work on in spite of it already being my oldest and most detailed language (Viksen), and others I've done quite a bit on, and others that are little more than a phoneme inventory and a few words.
That said, I work on different languages to vastly differing degrees. There's one I've done lots on and continue to work on in spite of it already being my oldest and most detailed language (Viksen), and others I've done quite a bit on, and others that are little more than a phoneme inventory and a few words.
The Man in the Blackened House, a conworld-based serialised web-novel
- WeepingElf
- greek
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Re: One conlang or multiple conlangs?
I have one main project, but it is in a family of side projects, and then I have a few ideas for yet other conlangs. I just can't put all my ideas in one single conlang as i) it would result in an ugly kitchen-sink conlang and ii) some of these ideas are incompatible with some others.
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My conlang pages
My conlang pages
Re: One conlang or multiple conlangs?
IMHO many conlangers miss an opportunity, or mistake it as a big roadblock, the ability for a conlang to bud and make sister/daughterlangs.
A conlanger will invest a lot of time and effort into a conlang, and then want to add a whole lot of changes that maybe don't fit. Then they get frustrated and either their conlang or they themselves implode.
This is a great opportunity for a sisterlang to share that mountain of changes one would want to heap into the conlang they're currently working on.
Early on (1980s) , I was fascinated with linguistic family trees. even though I made two or three conlangs to start, very very soon afterward in my journals and conworld-specific dalliances, I began to refer to related tribes, and languages related to the conlangs I had made.
Soon it hit me: Well, what the heck do those conlangs sound like? And thus, even more work began. But it was good, because now I had other outlets to diffuse all these interesting language traits I was learning about as I read about more and more different natlangs.
I cannot tell you the last time I made an actual ground--up conlang (mebbe 1990s??). More often than not, I have been tweaking and adding to the conlangs I have already begun.
A conlanger will invest a lot of time and effort into a conlang, and then want to add a whole lot of changes that maybe don't fit. Then they get frustrated and either their conlang or they themselves implode.
This is a great opportunity for a sisterlang to share that mountain of changes one would want to heap into the conlang they're currently working on.
Early on (1980s) , I was fascinated with linguistic family trees. even though I made two or three conlangs to start, very very soon afterward in my journals and conworld-specific dalliances, I began to refer to related tribes, and languages related to the conlangs I had made.
Soon it hit me: Well, what the heck do those conlangs sound like? And thus, even more work began. But it was good, because now I had other outlets to diffuse all these interesting language traits I was learning about as I read about more and more different natlangs.
I cannot tell you the last time I made an actual ground--up conlang (mebbe 1990s??). More often than not, I have been tweaking and adding to the conlangs I have already begun.
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- mongolian
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Re: One conlang or multiple conlangs?
I'm a filler.
♂♥♂♀
Squirrels chase koi . . . chase squirrels
My Kankonian-English dictionary: 87,413 words and counting
31,416: The number of the conlanging beast!
Squirrels chase koi . . . chase squirrels
My Kankonian-English dictionary: 87,413 words and counting
31,416: The number of the conlanging beast!
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- korean
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Re: One conlang or multiple conlangs?
I have tons of ideas, but 99% of them are for my conworld. I also have some a posteriori ideas that I'm mostly not working on, except one that I'm currently calling Visigothic.
I have one conworld, which I call Bwana. I want to eventually flesh it out with dozens of languages, which will then be developed into dozens of language families. I'm currently working on Project Jade, Project Steppe, Project Silk, and Project Orchid. I'm also trying to work on Project Ypsilon, but since it's my main project, I often go long periods of time without touching it because I worry too much about how it's going to turn out. That's something I'm going to have to get over, and hopefully I'll get over it soon. Anyway, I don't want to work on more than 5 or so languages at a time, because then I fear they'll all start looking the same and I won't be able to keep my ideas for them straight. At the moment, Project Steppe is getting the majority of my attention, but that could change within as little as an hour, honestly.
Sometimes I wish I could focus on just one conlang and have that be it, but I like having multiple languages and an entire world to work with. Making language families and having groups of speakers interact is really fun for me.
I have one conworld, which I call Bwana. I want to eventually flesh it out with dozens of languages, which will then be developed into dozens of language families. I'm currently working on Project Jade, Project Steppe, Project Silk, and Project Orchid. I'm also trying to work on Project Ypsilon, but since it's my main project, I often go long periods of time without touching it because I worry too much about how it's going to turn out. That's something I'm going to have to get over, and hopefully I'll get over it soon. Anyway, I don't want to work on more than 5 or so languages at a time, because then I fear they'll all start looking the same and I won't be able to keep my ideas for them straight. At the moment, Project Steppe is getting the majority of my attention, but that could change within as little as an hour, honestly.
Sometimes I wish I could focus on just one conlang and have that be it, but I like having multiple languages and an entire world to work with. Making language families and having groups of speakers interact is really fun for me.
Re: One conlang or multiple conlangs?
I'm (or rather was) juggling three conceptlangs that were supposed to be short sketches, and two language (families) that I wanted to complete. Unfortunately the conceptlangs took over my life.
Spoiler:
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- korean
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Re: One conlang or multiple conlangs?
How would you define a "conceptlang"?
Re: One conlang or multiple conlangs?
A sketchlang, just less developed, and seeking to emphasize a certain trait.shimobaatar wrote:How would you define a "conceptlang"?
Last edited by qwed117 on 13 Jul 2016 20:23, edited 1 time in total.
Spoiler:
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- korean
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Re: One conlang or multiple conlangs?
Ahh, got it. Thank you!qwed117 wrote:A sketchlang, just leased developed, and seeking to emphasize a certain trait.shimobaatar wrote:How would you define a "conceptlang"?
- KaiTheHomoSapien
- greek
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Re: One conlang or multiple conlangs?
I designed a language just to emphasize the use of the Linear B alphabet (basically my imagination of what language Linear B was originally created for, because it wasn't Greek). I guess maybe that would count?qwed117 wrote:A sketchlang, just less developed, and seeking to emphasize a certain trait.shimobaatar wrote:How would you define a "conceptlang"?
- k1234567890y
- mayan
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Re: One conlang or multiple conlangs?
I tend to have multiple conlangs...I am more a person who works on the quantity than the quality, I think.
I prefer to not be referred to with masculine pronouns and nouns such as “he/him/his”.