What do you recommend? What to do?

If you're new to these arts, this is the place to ask "stupid" questions and get directions!
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Evni Öpiu-sä
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What do you recommend? What to do?

Post by Evni Öpiu-sä »

I currently know very little about my conlang. I want to make more content by translating. I ask your opinion: what should I translate and in which order?
:fin: - C2
:eng: - ranges from A2 to B2
:swe: - ranges from A1 to A2
idov
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Re: What do you recommend? What to do?

Post by idov »

To begin with, the Swadesh list is popular to get that base vocabulary needed. It's also traditional for conlangers to translate the Tower of Babel from the Old Testament as well as the first article of the UDHR. But really, I think the most important thing is whether it feels like every possible concept is somewhat easy to state. Can you do simple statements as well as comparatives, relativization, possession and hypotheticals?

There isn't really any right order. There isn't really any right stuff. We don't pick on anyone for doing things their way. There's a whole sub-section to the forum titled "Translation" just so you can pick and choose. Constantly there are those there who discover that they were missing something in their conlang.

Hope your conlang gets fleshed-out.
The accusative of <emo> is <eminem>. :lat:
Evni Öpiu-sä
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Re: What do you recommend? What to do?

Post by Evni Öpiu-sä »

Whoa! I didn't know Swadesh list.

Is there something that is like Swadesh list, but grammar, not base vocabulary? Edit: I mean I want to make grammar while translating sentences
:fin: - C2
:eng: - ranges from A2 to B2
:swe: - ranges from A1 to A2
Salmoneus
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Re: What do you recommend? What to do?

Post by Salmoneus »

Evni Öpiu-sä wrote: 08 Apr 2018 09:12 Whoa! I didn't know Swadesh list.

Is there something that is like Swadesh list, but grammar, not base vocabulary? Edit: I mean I want to make grammar while translating sentences
Well, if you really want a project, there's something called the Graded Sentences for Analysis. It's a little over a thousand random sentences of varying complexity from literature (and also requires a vocabulary of a little over 2,000 words).

On a slightly smaller scale, but perhaps even more useful, search in the translations forum for the snowball thread. This is a thread in which people contributed various sentences for translation - a few hundred of them - but all using the same relatively small lexicon. So after you've gotten a few dozen words, you can concentrate on the grammar.

Beyond that, you could just translate a large text, or part of one. Eventually different constructions will be encountered. One downside is that a single document tends to have a pervasive style, which can mean you don't explore the entire grammar and vocabulary, so a selection of texts of different style might be appropriate.
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Reyzadren
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Re: What do you recommend? What to do?

Post by Reyzadren »

Evni Öpiu-sä wrote: 08 Apr 2018 09:12 Whoa! I didn't know Swadesh list.

Is there something that is like Swadesh list, but grammar, not base vocabulary? Edit: I mean I want to make grammar while translating sentences
You could try browsing language typology/features, such as CALS.
Image conlang summary | Image griushkoent thread
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lsd
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Re: What do you recommend? What to do?

Post by lsd »

To avoid any preformatting of your vocabulary, flee the pre-established lists...
Translate everything that goes through your head...
starts a diary...
subtitle your favorite series...
Describe everything that happens in front of your window...
Reality is the best breeding ground for growing a language...
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