So I've started this game. I'm putting it on the translation board, although I'm not really sure this is the best board. Ossicone or another mod may move it if she or he thinks another topic would be better.
All the sentences will be written with only 625 (five to the fourth power!) nouns, action verbs, linking verbs and adjectives, plus 50 names. That means you'll only have to create a maximum of 625-ish words (maybe a bit more if you split up the semantic space more) from these lexical classes as you develop your language. You could come up with equivalents for them all before you start this game, but if you run through them too fast you run the risk of relexing this list. (<---- Ooh! Tongue-twister!)
This list covers only content words; you're free to use whatever numbers, adverbs, adpositions, prefixes, suffixes, conjunctions, helping verbs, noun declensions, verb inflections, interjections, comparison markers, relatives, determiners, miscellaneous particles and pronouns you wish. Think of your sentences as like a mollusc: the nouns, proper names, action verbs, and adjectives are like the shell, and the function words, numbers and pronouns are like the soft part. Using "Alice", "feed", "green", "apple" and "goat", you can make "Alice was about to feed the greenest of her apples to that goat over there".
As I mentioned before, I've included 50 names. If you have a language that evolved on Earth, or an auxlang, or an altlang, you can have these evolve in their own way. If you have a language from another planet or a language that was isolated from Indo-European and Biblical names until recent times, you may either use these names unchanged, or adapt these to the current phonology of your conlang (the way Dave becomes Deebu in Japanese).
Without further ado, here are the 675 content words in 50 categories:
Some names:
Alice
Amanda
Anne
Ashley
Becky
Christine
Claire
Elizabeth
Jennifer
Jessica
Joan
Julie
Kate
Laura
Mary
Meg
Michelle
Natalie
Nicole
Rachel
Ruth
Sarah
Sharon
Stephanie
Susan
Alan
Alex
Andy
Brandon
Brian
Chris
Dan
Dave
Greg
Jim
Joey
John
Josh
Justin
Kevin
Mark
Matt
Mike
Nick
Paul
Peter
Rob
Steve
Tom
Tony
Adjectives:
bad (quality)
big, large
clean
cold
cool
deep
different
dirty
dry
dull
empty
fast
flat
full
good (quality)
hard
heavy
high (in altitude)
hot
huge
lightweight
little, small
long
low (in altitude)
narrow
new
old
right, correct
rough
round
same
shallow
sharp
short
slow
smooth
soft
straight
thick
thin
tiny
warm
wet
wide
wrong
Color words:
black
blue
brown
green
grey
orange
pink
purple
red
white
yellow
dark
light
striped
Sides:
back
bottom
corner
front
left
middle
right
top
Linking verbs:
to be (permanent)
to be (state)
to become, to get, to turn
to feel
to look
to seem, to appear to be
to smell
to sound
to stay, to remain, to keep
to taste
Vaic verbs (some languages make these aspects):
to begin, to start
to continue
to finish, to complete
to stop, to end
Events:
accident
birthday
breakfast
date
dinner, supper
meeting
lunch
party
race
shower
trip
vacation (US)/holiday (UK)
war
wedding
Entertainment words:
ball
game
to lose
movie, film
to play (a game)
to play (children's play)
to take (a photo)
to watch (TV or film)
to win
Money words:
cheap
coin
to cost
dollar (or other monetary unit)
expensive
money
poor
rich
Thinking verbs:
to agree
to believe, to think
to decide
to dream (have an oneiric experience)
to know (information)
to know (a person)
to learn
to think (cogitate)
to think (hold an opinion)
to understand, to see
to wonder
Feeling verbs:
to feel
to hate
to like (doesn't need to be expressed by a verb)
to love (agape)
to love (romantically, eros)
to love (something, philia)
to miss
to want, would like
Speaking verbs:
to apologize
to argue
to ask
to call (refer to by a certain name)
to lie
to reply, to answer
to request, to ask for/that
to say
to speak, to talk
to teach
to thank
Giving and receiving:
to borrow
to bring
to buy
to feed
to find
to get, to come to have, to obtain
to give
to go shopping
to have (something inalienable)
to have, to possess, to own
to lend
to lose (come to no longer have)
to lose, to misplace, to mislay
to need
to pay
to sell
to send
to share
to steal
to take
Verbs of physical contact:
to kiss
to pick
to play (an instrument)
to pull
to push
to rub
to squeeze
to tap (on the shoulder)
to touch
Verbs of position:
to be sitting
to be standing
to fall
to lie, to recline
to lie down
to sit down
to stand up
Verbs of handling matter:
to break
to carry
to close
to cut
to dig
to open
to put
to shatter
to split
to squash, to crush
to tear
to throw
to wash
to wipe
Expressions and gestures:
to cry
to laugh
to smile
Bodily functions:
to bleed
to break wind, to fart, to pass gas
to breathe
to cough
to defecate, to take a dump, to do one’s business
to drink
to eat
to have sex, to sleep with, to make love, to fornicate
to live
to smoke
to sleep
to spit
to suck
to swallow
to sweat, to perspire
to swell
to urinate, to pee, to piss, to make water, to take a leak
to vomit, to throw up, to puke
to wake up
to yawn
The five senses:
color
to feel
to hear
to look
to paint (a house, etc.)
picture
to see
sign
to smell
sound
to taste
Verbs of movement:
to climb
to come
to crawl
to dance
to drive
to fly
to go
to go down, to descend
to go up, to ascend
to jump
to leave
to return
to ride (a bicycle, a camel, etc.)
to run
to swim
to turn
to walk
Verbs of physical aggression:
to bite
to hit
to kick
to kill
to scratch
to stab
Some nature words:
air
ashes
beach
cloud
desert
diamond
dust
earth
fire
forest
glass
gold
ice
iron
island
lake
light
metal
moon
mountain
ocean, sea
rain
river
rock, stone
salt
sand
silver
sky
snow
soil, dirt
space
star
sun
valley
water
wind
wood
world
to burn
to float
to flow
to freeze
to sink
Husbandry and farming words:
to fish
to hunt
to plant
Time words:
afternoon
autumn, fall
day (time it takes a planet to rotate on its axis)
day, daytime
evening
hour (or equivalent)
month
morning
night
spring
summer
winter
year
Food and drink:
to bake
beef
beer
bread
cake
chicken
chocolate
to cook
cookie, biscuit
egg
fish
food
fruit
ham
honey
juice
meat
milk
nut
pie
pork
salad
sauce
soup
sugar
vegetable
fresh
rotten
Places:
bank
bar
bridge
church/temple
cinema, movie theater
city, town
country, nation, state, land
garden
home, house
hospital
hotel
library
park
restaurant
restroom
road
school
store, shop
street
tower
Music words:
band
concert
drum
guitar
to listen (to music)
music
piano
to sing
song
Published material words:
book
card
dictionary
to draw
homework
letter (written message)
magazine
newspaper
test, exam
word
to write
Containers:
bag
basket
bottle
box
Vehicles:
airplane
bicycle
boat
bus
car, automobile
motorcycle
ship
skateboard
taxi
train
truck
wagon
wheel
Weapons:
arrow
gun
rope
spear
Household objects:
bed
camera
CD
cell phone
chair
computer
door
headphones
knife
mirror
paper
pen
pencil
photograph
radio
refrigerator
room
soap
table
telephone, phone
television, TV
wall
window
Clothes:
belt
button
clothes
coat
glove
hat
jacket
pants
ring, piercing
shirt
shoe
shorts
skirt
sock
sunglasses
watch
to wear
Plant words:
apple
banana
bark
bean
bush
coffee
corn, maize
flower
grass
leaf
orange
pepper (Capsicum)
plant
potato
rice
root
rose
seed
stick
tomato
tree
Animal words:
animal
ant
bear
bird
camel
cat
chicken
cow
dog
elephant
feather
fish
fly
goat
horse
human
insect
lamb
monkey
mouse
pig
rabbit
sheep
shell
snake
spider
tail
wing
worm
Human body:
abdomen
arm
back
blood
body
bone
breast
ear
eye
face
finger
foot
hair (mass)
hand
head
heart
knee
leg
mouth
nail
neck
nose
shoulder
skin
tear
tongue
tooth
Physical description:
beard
beautiful, pretty
blind
blonde
brown (hair)
curly
freckles
glasses
handsome, attractive
hazel
messy (of hair)
old
short (height)
straight (hair)
tall
ugly
wavy
young
Physical condition:
(to be) cold
(to be) hot
(to be) hungry
(to be) thirsty
(to be) tired
alive
dead
Events in life:
to be born
to die
to have (a baby)
to marry
Emotions:
afraid
angry
bored
excited
happy
interested
proud
sad
sorry
surprised
Kinship terms:
brother
child (reciprocal of parent)
daughter
father
husband
mother
parents
sister
son
wife
People
adult
baby
boy (young man)
child
girl (young woman)
little girl
little boy
man
person, people
teen, adolescent
woman
actress/actor
artist
doctor
farmer
fisherman
friend
king
neighbor
president or prime minister, whichever your connation has
priest
prince
princess
queen
sailor
scientist
soldier
student
teacher
waiter/waitress/server
warrior
A few very basic verbs:
to be (location)
to be (Steve is a boy)
to do, to perform
to help (assist)
to make (create)
to make (cause to be)
to try, to attempt
to use
And finally, some general nouns:
class
group
kind, type, sort
name
pair, couple
place
system
team
thing
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HOW TO PLAY:
The first person creates a sentence from these words, and translates it into her/his conlang, with a gloss.
The next person translates that sentence into her/his own conlang, then adds a sentence or her/his own, also translated into her/his conlang.
Each person will translate all the previous sentences, and add one each time. The sentences should all be translated into that conlanger's own conlang, so the list of sentences (and workload) grows like a snowball.
For example:
Joey writes:
Then Sam writes:Komgithrian:
I painted the door purple.
Tumayafoy wa ludigavhiq phamist.
paint-RECENT.PST-1sg 1sg purple-MAS-OBL door-ACC
Then Jacqlyn writes:Nharistani:
I painted the door purple.
Onhukhez shyhakh triphouzh.
purple-FEM.SG.DAT door-FEM.SG.ACC 1sg.MAS.PST.TELIC-paint
Becky made a coat of feathers for her father.
Beki dhutalhós khramel psistend.
Becky-FEM.SINGULAR.NOM father-3sg.FEM.GEN-MAS.SG.BEN coat-MAS.SG.ACC 3sg.FEM.PST.TELIC-make
And so on.
Gwapikiru:
I painted the door purple.
Ki ru pikawa si xuqwa 'upapi.
1sg PST paint DEF.ALIENABLE door purple
Becky made a coat of feathers for her father.
Ta Biki ru vuxu 'i'a kwi gwagwa rida davu vuqa
NAME Becky PST make BEN GEN.3sg.INALIENABLE father coat made.out.of feather
Jim was listening to music with his eyes closed.
Ta Jimu ra 'imu la kwi kaku 'a'i 'uni mina qatiji.
NAME Jim PPART close ADJ GEN.3sg.INALIENABLE eyes IMPF hear music
If Joey should participate in the snowballing a second time, he does not need to translate the sentences he's already done the first time he took a turn. He can just list the other three sentences in English, then add a new fourth sentence, with his translation in Komgithrian.
Tips on playing:
*Write sentences that are good at demonstrating some aspect of grammar, be it verb tense, cases, aktionsart, order of adjectives and nouns in certain situations, or whatever.
*Sentences that deal with aspects of grammar often overlooked in conlangers' grammars are good. Things such as object complements, oblique pronouns, polite order of pronouns, possessed actions ("John's playing the guitar at night made me wake up"), etc.
*Aim to create sentences that are different from the ones created before and demonstrate new grammatical phenomena. On the other hand, two similar sentences can help demonstrate subtle but importance semantic differences (as with the famous pair of sentences "Ellen wants to marry a Norwegian", meaning "Ellen's partial to Norwegian guys", and "Ellen wants to marry a Norwegian", meaning "The fiancé of Ellen happens to be Norwegian").
*Most of all, have fun!
I'll start:
Kankonian:
Trying to help his friend made Peter happy.
Novos id kuni id meshi ad wan hazien ad iyef Peter.
try done_to help done_to friend to 3sg make-PST to happy Peter