Finding fun in wordbuilding

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mira
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Finding fun in wordbuilding

Post by mira »

Hello ^^

I started working on something new a few days ago after quite a long time and I'm very close to the point where previously I would very quickly burn out. Coming up with words was always my arch nemesis in conlanging and I'm trying to experiment with ways I can make it fun or at least bearable.

My current general approach is with a fairly simple derivational morphology. I'll find something I need a word for and then spend a minute or two thinking of related words to try and zero in on something that seems to work as some root concept. Then I'll use the words I just wrote plus some sound symbolism if I can think of any, maybe the name of someone I know, and create a little root. Then I apply some little modifications and affixes for different categories like people, places, abstract concepts, creatures/plants etc. so I have a short list of words based on this root. Finally, I come up with as many definitions for each word as possible, for nouns, verbs, everything, and then put them in a dictionary.

This works fine and I can do it, but it is a very large amount of effort when just one word is needed, which makes it hard to do repeatedly or over time. Ideally, I need to change something about this approach that either makes it fun and engaging (which for me generally requires problem solving, hence why i love tinkering with grammar so much), or efficient so that when i need specific words for translations i can make them or find the gaps where they fit quickly so I can get back to the really enjoyable bit before my brain gets foggy.

I'm curious to know if there are any other people that struggle/struggled with this in a similar way and what things they found helpful or made things more fun, cause really fun is the whole idea right?

Also once I'm able to get a few tens of words so I can start to translate some things I'm quite excited to share what I'm working on as on the grammar side at least I've been having a lot of fun!

Thanks ^^
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Salmoneus
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Re: Finding fun in wordbuilding

Post by Salmoneus »

I guess that if you get bored developing every possible meaning and derivative for each root, you could just... not?

On way to avoid this is just to say that your language doesn' have a lot of non-transparent derivation, and just coin a new root whenever you need something new. Particularly if you happen not to be trying to derive related languages, so you don't have to worry about proto-forms. English, after all, doesn't do a lot of non-transparent derivation, particularly with its inherited lexicon*, and you don't need to know which words are cognate at a PIE level to speak English.

The other way would be to accept that there ARE all these derived forms, but just don't bother creating them. Just create the vocabulary you actually need. This obviousl has the danger that you end up ignoring your created words and, as it were, 'overwriting' their semantic areas with new words. You could get around this firstly by noting several paraphrases of the meaning of the root, and then by semantically classifying the root in one or more ways (eg by general semantic area and then by, as it were, attitude, and/or area of use. You could write, for 'hack': VIOLENT ACTION; CRUDE; AGRICULTURE). Then when you wanted to create a new word you could look at roots that you already have in each semantic category to see if you could derive from them rather than needing a new root.


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*consider how many derived forms we get from words in that sentence:
- English: ?
- after: I guess 'afterward(s)', a productively-generated (near?)-synonym. I guess "afters" as a noun?
- all: ?
- do: productive forms like 'doer' and 'doing' that don't need to be mentioned
- not: ?
- a: ?
- lot: ? adverbial "lots", I guess
- of: ?
- non-: ?
- transparent: transparency? including a rare nominals sense?
- derivation: derive, derivative (both productive). I guess thee's a rare nominal sense of the latter
- particularly: particular, particularise. Etymologically also 'particle' and 'particulate'.
- with: ?
- it: ?
- inherited: inherit, inheritor, inheriting, inheritancy
- lexicon: lexical, lexicography...?
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mira
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Re: Finding fun in wordbuilding

Post by mira »

True. I think the trick really is in organisation. I do think it would be nice to have very related words look similar which is why I was working the way I was, though a lot of the similarities are from the "productively generated" words so perhaps I needn't think too much about them when initially creating words. Similarly I suppose for e.g. diminutive/augmentative variations on words.

I think I will try the approach of only making the very specific words I need and logging each root with plenty of synonyms so they're easy to find later and see how I do ^^
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Khemehekis
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Re: Finding fun in wordbuilding

Post by Khemehekis »

One idea would be to wait to come up with derived terms and polysemies until you need them. For example, when I was creating Kankonian I decided that gilis would mean "thing, object, item". It wasn't until years later when I was trying to think of a Kankonian word for "article" (as in an article of a constitution) that I decided gilis could also mean "article". Similarly, the adjective ve*itzi (lemony) is about a decade younger than the noun ve*itz (lemon).

There are only a few categories of words that I add in derivational groups when creating Kankonian. One is countries and nationalities (Doitshland = Germany, Doitshlandik = German).

Another is phobia words. These come in threes, and I normally form these with tyuph (the Ciladian word for "fear") preceded by another Ciladian root. So using kamel, the Ciladian word for "chicken", I get:

kameltyuph (alektorophobia)
kameltyuphi (alektorophobic)
kameltyuphis (alektorophobe)

Occasionally, a fear of something unknown to the ancient Ciladians will use a modern Kankonian root instead of a Ciladian one. Using metzekima, the modern Kankonian word for "clown", for instance, we get:

metzekimatyuph (coulrophobia)
metzekimatyuphi (coulrophobic)
metzekimatyuphis (coulrophobe)

Then there are the -scope, -scopic, -scopy words, the -meter, -metric, -metry words, and the medical terms (appendicxtis, appendicxtic, appendicxtis patient).

The only other word category I can think of that I always create in sets are the words for sapient species. Using mentel, the word for Grey, for instance, I get:

mentel: Grey (alien race)
mentelya: delphimology (the study of Greys and their cultures)
mentelis: delphimologist (one who studies Greys)
namentelya: delphimological (pertaining to delphimology)
mentelar: Grey nature (analogous to human nature)
mentelore: Greykind (Greys as a collective species)

But for things like "sing, singer" or "beautiful, beauty", I just create derivations when it occurs to me to create the derived word.





Another idea would be to have a second prestige language, perhaps an ancient one, wherefrom you could derive inkhorn words, and make more Latinate or technical words when you need them by cobbling those roots and affixes together. As Salmoneus mentioned, we have a lot of words made from Latin, Latin -> French, and Greek roots in English.

See that Ciladian language above? Ciladian is the go-to language for inkhorn words in Kankonian. I have these languages for a number of my conlangs: Jukasta for Javarti, Mazmiza for Quispe, Bionjengese for Tentan. It depends on the history of the peoples who speak those languages and who conquered whom, of course: languages like the Romance languages and Mandarin don't really have their own languages like Latin and Greek, or Chinese, or Ciladian, because they are those learned prestige languages, but English and Japanese do.
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My Kankonian-English dictionary: 86,336 words and counting

31,416: The number of the conlanging beast!
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