The CBB

My first ever conlang was a mix of Spanish and Nahuatl. I didn't actually know any Nahuatl, so the language was actually based on the names I got from reading books, when some of the phonemes didn't exist in Classical Nahuatl, so it was based more on what I thought it sounded like. Hecorajo (now def...

How important is aesthetics and sound in a conlang? Obviously, a conlang needs sound to be spoken, but some conlangers aim to make a language that sounds nice to them, while others point out that a language that sounds pleasant all the time is impossible and thus aesthetics and preference isn't that...

I'm building the setting mostly for the sake of worldbuilding, but plan to develop it enough to write stories in it. The magic storm isn't a regular storm or an ion storm, as getting caught in it might turn people into dogs or something. It's effects are mostly unpredictable and usually dangerous. M...

So, I'm stuck with my setting. It is science fantasy. Magic exists in the setting, but it is an untamed and unpredictable force, so phenomena such as magic storms are common. Civilization occurs in areas without as much magical activity. Since people cannot normally use magic, they instead developed...

Pitakuna [pɪta'kʊna] is a language spoken by a race of forest dwelling humans also called the Pitakuna. They construct their homes high up in the trees and connect to each other by rope bridges. Below is the phonemic inventory for their language: /m n ŋ/ /p t ts k ʔ/ /pʰ tʰ kʰ/ /ɸ s ʃ h/ /β z/ /l ɻ ...

How would you describe the sound of a velarized consonant, like the broad consonants found in Irish?

Here's an inventory I've been fixated on lately: /m n/ /t t͡ʃ k/ /b̥ d̥ d͡ʒ̥ g̥/ /s ʃ ɬ x/ /l ɻ j ʋ/ I'm undecided about the vowel system. I might use the standard /a e i o u/, or I might copy Nahuatl's /i iː e e o oː a aː/, or use a vertical vowel system like the one found in Abkhaz. The most compl...

So, I've begun my first serious attempt at making a Proto-Lang to use as a basis for my main conlang, and I have a few questions. -How much depth should I put into the earliest stage of the Proto-Lang before I start applying sound changes and and other tweaks? How much of the morphology, grammar and...

I don't have a lot of Easter eggs in my main project due to phonological constraints, but I fit them in there where I can.

The verb for "travel" is "kino," which is the name of the protagonist of an anime I like, and it's about a person who travels between various countries.

I've been reading about coreless planets, and I'm wondering if it is possible they could contain a strong magnetosphere? By coreless, I mean a world that has no metallic core or magma, and is entirely rocky mantle. Is there a way I can get around having a core in order to have a magnetosphere? The ...

I've been reading about coreless planets, and I'm wondering if it is possible they could contain a strong magnetosphere? By coreless, I mean a world that has no metallic core or magma, and is entirely rocky mantle. Is there a way I can get around having a core in order to have a magnetosphere? The i...

I practice the pronunciation aloud just to see if I like how it sounds. I was working on a conlang with a goal for it to be my ideal language, but I ended up not liking how it sounds, so I scrapped it and started anew.

What are some ways to achieve a portmanteau agreement system? Let's say a language has polypersonal agreement, but uses one affix to mark both the subject and the object. So, /kanu/ is a verb that means "to fight." The suffix -/jon/ marks the subject as first person and the object as second person, ...

Yeah, I mean't Saturn. My bad. I'm not a scientist, but I figure that the sun becoming a red giant would perhaps make Mars easier to settle or terraform, but I'm likely to be dead wrong. I kinda agree with you about Mars. I find Titan to more interesting. I like galactic scale settings, but I think ...

I have an idea for an interplanetary setting where we have explored and colonized our own solar system but have not ventured beyond it. The sun has become a red giant, so I presume Mercury and Venus would no longer exist while earth can no longer support life. Mars is the new Goldilocks zone and has...

Okay, I hit a roadblock with my conlang because of vocabulary generation. I found out that many of my words tend to have a one on one correspondence with English, with the exception of a few words.

What are some tips for avoiding this while generating vocabulary?

Looks very okay, it's basically a standard 5 vowel system plus back rounded vowels. I think some phonologists would use the IPA symbols for centrals vowels instead, but that does not really make a difference, I guess. Thanks! My concern was with having the back vowels outnumbering the front vowels,...

Here's a vowel system I've been using and I want thoughts about its naturalism and balance. I actually kinda like the system.

/i ɯ u/
/e ɤ o/
/a/

Given Kazumbe's syllable structure (CGVC) being the most complex, I think a syllabary might work best, but I've also been toying with an abugida or a logographic system like in Chinese. Unfortunately, I have absolutely no skills in designing a conscript as I can never seem to get the aesthetic quite...

In a direct-inverse system, only going by animacy May not be enough. First thing you need to consider is speech act participants: either 1st or 2nd person would count as more salient than the other, and both usually count as more salient than any 3rd person. In 3rd person, you also need some strate...