@professoremily.bsky.socialWe're taking a step back from the details of your conlang today to look at the big picture. What's the origin of this language? How did it evolve? What purpose did it serve?
This is important to think about, because it should inform things like grammar rules & word etymology!
![Daily prompt for the #Conlangity worldbuilding game:
DAY 5
[CULTURE] How did your language develop? Did it form in isolation, or through migration or colonization? What purpose did/does it serve? Is it a creole, a common tongue for trading, a language of scholars or elites, a peasant vernacular?
Light yellow text printed in two columns over an orange background showing a faint photo of a large open dictionary. Hosted by @professoremily.bsky.social.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:br2rslmo7elrd3hp5dfsx3ye/bafkreif3bjt42ym22b4w2fyvfkv3jwwwtdc27lfct352kgpqxdubuvance@png)
@acturek.bsky.social#Conlangity 4
I have one hard-and-fast rule *so far*: The C is hard when there’s a single consonant after the following vowel and soft when double consonant. To wit, words:
Cinnawon = “sinnawon”
Cinshamm = “kinshamm”
Proper names:
Cerel = “Kerel”
Cinnaroth = “Sinnaroth”
In two-syllable words🧵
@sabrinamars.bsky.socialCan there technically be "tone" in sign language?? 10000% YES ! I explain and show examples in the video
Bonus cat sabotage
@danigracewrites.bsky.social@professoremily.bsky.socialEveryone who's playing #Conlangity with me this month, please note this important point!
It won't be perfect on the first try (or 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc). You gotta keep playing with things & adjusting. And you can always return later to questions you weren't sure how to answer at first! ☺️❤️
@khonri.com#Conlangity friends remember that Emily set out to make a workshop for the FOUNDATIONS of a conlang.
It doesn't have to be perfect when you post it.
It's not going to be.
I'm clowning around with greetings & goodbyes and it genuinely feels like this is what is going to happen all month:
@wreybies.bsky.socialRedwood's Tukhé is non-tonal. Words in isolation would seem to answer to a fixed stress paradigm, but when strung into syntax, word stress becomes lexical and prosodic stress answers to phrasal boundaries within which syllabic count tends to orchestrate. 🧵
@alexfromawen.bsky.social#Conlangity Day 4
I confess, I have some trouble explaining the sounds in a vacuum so I put together a short snippet with the example sentence I started talking about yesterday.
As should be obvious, I'm not great with the IPA chart symbols so I just went with the phonetic spelling that made the 🧵
@adorkablesmile.bsky.social#Conlangity Day 4!
Athan is fairly simple, it's mostly stressed on the first syllable. When it comes to sentence structure, the subject of the sentence tends to be stressed - most Athan words are one syllable "base" concepts, so this avoids some confusion.
@khonri.com🫣 We have worked out that it may be too early (I do not have enough vocab yet) to determine a complex stressing structure but I'm tentatively sitting on two main rules:
1. Syllables containing long vowels & dipthongs will be stressed.
2. The h following a consonant forces a stress.
@skarabraeauthor.bsky.socialThe first syllable of the root or stem tends to be stressed.
@miwwdu-sitsom.bsky.social#TheDragonblood: Draconoidic is a tonal language. Common Draconoidic has three tones: high tone (á), mid tone (a) and low tone (à). High tone arises from a historical voiceless lateral in the onset of a syllable (originating from Nemorian t or k).
@pykeredrock.bsky.socialAtchua is a tonal language, but it goes further than just the rise-or-fall of words and syllables. The speaker's pitch and the way they express a word's tone also contribute to intent and meaning. 🧵
@sayaashrah.bsky.social#Conlangity 4. On day 2, we saw the basic pronunciation of the Kraslan alphabet. However, as I implied, there’s still another layer to explore. That’s because vowels are divided into light (/a/, /i/, /o/) and heavy (/e/, /u/, /y/). While light vowels don’t change the sound 🧵
![Consonants:
C - [s̪] > (H) > [sˠ] (a normal [s] sound but with the tongue on the upper teeth; same for the other consonants with this little symbol below them)
D - [d̪]
G - [d̠ʒ] > (H) [kʟ̝̊]
Ɠ - [ʒ]
H - [ç] > (H) [ɣ]
J - [dz]
K - [k̟] when at the beginning of words or the very last letter of a word, and [ks] when in the middle or final syllable, except when before or after c, s, or z.
Ƙ - [x]
L - (l̪) > (H) [lˠ]
M - (m) > (H) [w̥]
N - (n̪) > (H) [ŋ]
Ŋ - [ɲ]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:syapazu2jvttvxhl6ogabwrz/bafkreiblnbtwoaskrxyrtltdkcjzlomdc4q7n4dcxqdma7xrrph57c7nvm@jpeg)
![P - [p] when at the beginning of words or the very last letter of a word, and [ps] when in the middle or final syllable, except when before or after c, s, or z > (H) [k͡p]
Ƥ - [f]
R - [ɾ̪], except when between identical vowels, then [r].
S - [ʃ], except when between identical vowels, then [ʂ].
T - [t̪] when at the beginning of words or the very last letter of a word, and [ts] when in the middle or final syllable, except when before or after c, s, or z.
Ʈ - [ð] (the English [th])
V - [v] > (H) [ɰ]
Ʋ - [ʙ] except before /r/, then [b]
Z - [z̪]
Ȥ - [ʥ]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:syapazu2jvttvxhl6ogabwrz/bafkreifgajt5vdjtywseiq3tfhvyg25kwxw3fmsrbwumzurrmzym677lw4@jpeg)
@thirdmonti.bsky.social#Conlangity 4
Sun-Drop, regardless of dialect, stresses consonants in the middle of a word. Some examples human words and names getting elongated:
Aidenn —> Aidden
Human —> Humman
It takes a Sun-Dropper some practice to shorten a middle consonant when learning a new language. They themselves 🪡
@midnightrose838.bsky.social#Conlangity (If I'm gonna stick with this prompt, I'm gonna have to take this chill, so anyone feel free to tell me to leave, but I will join at least for the song translation, & I actually enjoyed today's bc I feel like I'm finally getting to blabber about *something*)
I'm gonna start - 1/?
@aura-olympian.bsky.social#authorsky #booksky #Conlangity #writers #writing #WritingCommunity
I would envision the Kirrhin language as non-tonal language, but the emphasis/stress on certain letter sequences in some word could be a source of distinction for intended meanings. Similar to the variations in pronunciation with 🧵
@professoremily.bsky.socialGonna go ahead and do mine now in case anyone isn't sure where to start with theirs!
Na'aqal is a stressed language, not a tonal language. Some rules:
1. A syllable immediately following a glottal stop usually gets stressed. Examples: Na'aqal = na'-AH-qal, Xu'ue = zhu'-OO-way
🧵