Making Languages Doesn't Have To Be Hard (Conlang) | Worldbuilding

Episode 19: Language / Conlang
In this video we discuss designing fictional languages for worldbuilding projects, and how creating an entire language doesn’t have to be a daunting task with some simple steps.
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WORLDBUILDING CORNER: www.worldbuildingcorner.com
IPA CHART: www.worldbuildingcorner.com/r...
Biblaridion's Channel for Advanced Conlanging: / @biblaridion
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Drawings of the fantasy races created in this video are original content made by Worldbuilding Corner, including the silhouettes used in the thumbnail.
All other music, images, and other media used in this video are available for commercial use with Creative Commons licensing, found on www.pixabay.com and www.pexels.com.
The subsequent listed images are permitted for use under the following Creative Commons license: creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Indo-European Language Tree Illustration: EnriBrahimaj
Indo-European Language Tree Chart: Mandrak

[@fauwckspause]

As someone who is very bad at language, including the only one I speak, this was very enlightening

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

Glad you enjoyed it! Some languages are harder than others, and English is notoriously difficult compared to many of the other widely spoken languages. Especially considering our (CCC)V(CCCCC) syllable allowance!

[@Hwelhos]

i conlang a lot, and i used to be very bad at language, but now it gets easier and easier

[@JeroenDoes]

​@@WorldbuildingCornerI am not a natieve English speaker. I have dyslexia. But I found English to be a relatively easy language. Almost all other languages are harder imho. Not to dismis your statement of course. I am just saying that the experience is different for different people.

[@3nertia]

How are you "bad" at language? Lol

[@giannixx]

@@JeroenDoes There isn't a language inherently more difficult than other, it's just a matter of subjective, individual experience and what your native language is. For a native English speaker, German is easier than Mandarin or Arabic, not because it is easier in an absolute sense, but because it is closer to what you already know and are accustomed to.

[@Alkis05]

If you are interested in a short list of basic words, I suggest the Leipzig-Jakarta list. It was constructed in a very scientific way and represents 100 words in each language that are very unlikely to be borrowed from other languages. The fact that they are not borrowed is an indication that they are core to the language, very old when the people speaking it enters in contact with other languages.

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

That is a fascinating and very helpful resource! Thank you for sharing!

[@xwtek3505]

Although to be noted that while it's unlikely to be borrowed, it's not impossible. In fact, the word "soil" itself is borrowed from Norman.

[@Alkis05]

​@@xwtek3505 Although the modern iteration might have a Norman flair, the word is quite older and there already existed cognate words not only in old english but in Proto-Germanic as well, without much change. To say it was "borrowed" from Norman is quite misleading.

[@Andrewtr6]

Something that should be kept in mind is that languages can exchange words. This can be seen in English which has adopted words from Latin, French, Spanish, and pretty much every other language. Since you have four races with unique languages, it should be simple to have them exchange words- this would be harder in a story that only uses one language and doesn't show any others.

[@Andrewtr6]

@Anne O'Nymous If one species adopted a word from another species that had a sound they couldn't pronounce, they would likely just change the word to fit their language. English has a number of words taken from other languages that were changed to fit better in the language.

[@TrueWolves]

@Anne O'Nymous As Andrew has said, there are plenty of cases where a language has still adopted a word from another language but lacking the characters to properly express it's own phonetics, causing the phonetics to shift from language to language as a word gets adopted from language/dialect to language/dialect.

[@Reverend_Salem]

​@Andrewtr6 a great example is Jesus. Jesus is a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew Yeshua.

[@knightraven7772]

English - The language that muggs other languages to steal loose words...

[@jonathanthomas8736]

Props for bringing Biblaridion into this didiscussion. Artifexian also has good stuff, intermediate between this and Biblaridion's. Mad props for making this really easy and accessible

[@epis8613]

Linguistics is pribably the most underrated academic discipline. I have learned so much about myself and humanity from Linguistics.

[@MarzaButTube]

Omg I've been searching for a sort of "short cut" for making languages for a while now!! Cuz it's really not my thing, yet when it comes to when I need to use fictional languages in a world, I'd like for it to at least appear consistent.

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

Conlang definitely isn't everyone's cup of tea, and it can be a really daunting rabbit hole. Hope this has provided an easy entry at least!

[@axolirvin971]

What I usually do, especially if I need to make something up quickly, is go with sounds based off a real-life language. Like "this is the German area, so all words sound vaguely germanic" or "this is the French area, so all words sound vaguely french"

[@axolirvin971]

That way you can create words that all sound similar enough to be from the same language, but you don't have to create a whole new language of your own

[@davidurbaniak2380]

"They have strangest language at least to english speakers" and then he gives them the most english like vowel system out of them lol

[@joshuaschmidt3261]

This is amazing. Can't stop rewatching your videos to apply them to my world.

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

Thanks and glad you are enjoying them so much! Good luck with your worldbuilding project :)

[@JKR9488]

There was a fantastic book called children of time (may have been the sequel) where a race of octopuses evolved intelligence but instead of comunicating through words they use bioluminecents, using different colours to convey certain consepts or feelings

[@Lilas.Duveteux]

When designing a language, I often don't force myself to create an entire language, just the basics (phonetics, sentense structure and what not), but how would they describe environmental, technological and cultural things unique to themselves or that is particularly important to them. For example, if one of your cultures are river nomads, than they might have 2 to 5 different words to differentiate the kinds of rivers and where they lead, and they might even be root words that can be run through a derivation system. Not all of them have to be verbal. Sometimes, describing or illustrating a character's posture can tell a lot. For the drow I am worldbuilding, a large part of the drow language is dedicated to various ways they prepare layer mushrooms, which constitutes about 80% of their diet. Also, constantly describing a technology or a dish over and over would get tiresome very quickly. Also, since elves are kind of presented as isolationist, I decided that the Drow language would be kind of unforgiving towards any foreigners. They have in their sound group the equivalent of the Russian "soft sign" but they assign it to vowels as opposed to consonants, and have a language constructed so that the smallest mistake in pronunciation can completely change the meaning of a word. Also, most of their ways to describe wounds and injuries come from latin floral words, but have lost their floral meaning because there are no flowers underground. Another aspect of their vocabulary is that they do not have a selected vocabulary to describe violence. Their language does not have a specific word for hitting for example. Instead, they use a plethora of verbs and nouns that are usually meant to design completely innocent things. A single sentence in drow could very well translate to: "Can you please pass me the water jug?" and "I want you to waterboard me".

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

The drow example made me laugh hahaha. That's a wonderful example of how societal structure and cultural 'feel' influences language. A great way of implementing nuance on that level is stress and inflection. The real life language most people turn to for this is Mandarin, where subtle differences in inflection can completely change the meaning of a word. And you're absolutely correct regarding the words that are more relevant to a culture being more prevalent. The Urakan for example have very refined and diverse words for fishing and rivers as their cultures centre around them heavily. Silarin however borrow from other of their usual 'hunting' words for fishing, and they have a single word for 'water' that is also used in other contexts, such as also meaning 'wet'. Silarin probably wouldn't develop a root word for 'snow' at all while the Urakan likely would develop words for snow, sleet, ice, slush, etc. It's also common (and something I'll discuss in later videos) for cultures to borrow words from other cultures rather than making their own. If a culture hasn't established ironworking for example but starts trading with (or is conquered by) a culture that does, it's likely they might just start using that culture's words for it. As always, thank you for your detailed and thoughtful insight!

[@Hwelhos]

wdym with the russian soft sign? do u mean palatalization? and when applied to vowels, wouldnt that just create umlaut or diphthongs (depending on how u say it)

[@Lilas.Duveteux]

@@Hwelhos It's hard to explain to non-speakers.

[@Hwelhos]

@@Lilas.Duveteux r u a russian speaker? just give me some words that have it and ill figure it out

[@Lilas.Duveteux]

@@Hwelhos Yes. So a word with the soft sign would be "Обезьяна", meaning monkey. The "z" is somewhat palatized.

[@steakdriven]

Orcish in Saearyn has the following structure for "doer of action": [verb] + "in". Boomin is their word for wizard, literally, "exploder". [verb]in [noun] means "doer of action to thing" or "nounverber" (like giant slayer, etc).

[@aaronbeckett4062]

Creates channel on KZbin, Drops most extremely helpful worldbuilding series, Refuses to elaborate, Leaves.

[@lordbeetrot]

just found the video and channel today. It was really helpfull. Did he quit?

[@aaronbeckett4062]

@@lordbeetrot I think so, unfortunately

[@lordbeetrot]

): @@aaronbeckett4062

[@quentenwalker1385]

I liked the approach to simplify conlang on the fly. Perhaps a follow-up on using it for naming of persons and settlements and geographical features.

[@lastofrwby8395]

I’m so glad I found this channel. ❤

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

I'm glad you are enjoying the content! :)

[@lastofrwby8395]

@@WorldbuildingCorner well without you I wouldn’t have been able to map out my climates and now I can work on my languages. I do have question for you tho, where did you get or how did you make that empty IPA chart? I have been struggling with make my own.

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

@@lastofrwby8395 I put it together myself in excel! I'm out at the moment, but I'll post it to the resources section of worldbuildingcorner.com when I'm home. I'll reply again to your comment when it's up!

[@lastofrwby8395]

@@WorldbuildingCorner thank you.

[@vadalyiahomes7048]

I feel like it is exactly what I wanted

[@Aarlaeoss]

The "old" english there at the beginning of the video is more like middle english. Using a bootleg translator it would look something more like, "Canne êow rêada tôhwon" Some words are readable but its almost an entirely different language than modern english. Compare this to a more accurate translation from Beowulf. Lo, praise of the prowess of people-kings of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped, we have heard, and what honor the athelings won! Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum, þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon, hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.

[@Sierra99]

Are you a teacher?? I’ve seen so many videos on this topic but I don’t think anyone has explained it in such an easy to grasp way. I’m loving this series

[@EJinSkyrim]

Ohhh my days, thank you for that highly concise and easy to grasp explanation of how possessives, adjectives, and adverbs work, because I have been SO lost on that front for months. I might be able to move past just naming languages because of that. (If I need to, I may not. I may just do it for fun.) I definitely did this but sideways for the world I'm writing in for NaNoWriMo. As in - all of my species are mixed up in different cultures, so I didn't do proto-languages for each species but rather each major language group around the world. I did take dragon anatomy into account for two of them (and listened to all of the GoT/HotD dragons talking to each other for basic sound reference - also definitely gave one of them the double-vowels from Skyrim's Dovahzul because I'm a Nerd and Skyrim is my day job) but the rest, I basically just did this. A tiugi and a human from the same area would speak the same language, have roughly the same culture, but might have different cultural standing, for example.

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

Glad you found the video helpful! I actually think having a mixture of species within a culture is SUPER fascinating, and I'm really hoping to reach a point where this happens on Locus! (Spoilers lol) Even though in real life we are a single species, languages like English are awesome examples of multiple cultures and languages coming together to create something new. So long as the mixing species in a fictional setting can produce the same sounds, a unified language should work just fine!

[@festoga8890]

Conlanging is addicting and you can easily fall down a rabbithole. ... but a fun one.

[@waspsandwich6548]

Proto languages, as the term is used by modern linguists, weren't any less complex than languages today. Indeed, the only reason it appears that way is because we only know the simplest stuff about them.

[@user-hv7mb3ye2v]

At 4:58, I think "exceptionally likely" is an exaggeration. It's quite common for languages to only have voiceless obstruents, like Hawaiian or Finnish. Or, rather than having a distinction between voiceless and voiced, there will be a distinction between aspirated and voiceless obstruents, which is the case in Mandarin and Korean. Love the video! Just didn't want anyone watching to get the wrong idea that they HAVE to include voiced counterparts. I'm always happy to see new conlanging content uploaded to KZbin so keep up the good work!

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

Absolutely, there's almost always real life languages that have exceptions to every single 'guideline' I mentioned in the video, and many have really cool and unique ways of differentiating themselves from others! Glad you enjoyed the video :)

[@Applestripe]

​@@WorldbuildingCorner also voiced affricates other than /d͡ʒ/ are generally very rare, so if a language has /t͡s/ in its phonemic inventory, it most likely doesn't use /d͡z/ as a phoneme (although it's a common allophone)

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

@@Applestripe I will bear that in mind, thank you! The intricacies of phoneme prevalence is definitely fascinating.

[@sleepycandle2642]

This new tool of sentence structure is going to come in really handy for my world building. Thanks!

[@kori228]

4:03 to clarify, that's referring to different things [g] contacts the _soft_ palate (also called velum), which makes it velar _dorsal_ refers to using the back of the tongue to touch the aforementioned spot

[@meetarthur9427]

every video in this channel is so dense packed

[@paleozoey]

giving this a like and a comment to boost a new project with good production values. keep up the good work!

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

Thanks! Glad you are enjoying the content!

[@CesarTheKingVA]

I appreciate your use of heroforge character designs. It's a great tool for world builders.

[@powerofanime1]

The Urakan are Spanish Polar Bears....AWESOME! I love Biblaridion's work. Both of you are incredible world builders. You may already know this book, but I've found The Art of Language Creation by David J Peterson to be a fantastic mid-to-high level of detail on the subject.

[@Anatolius1010]

bless your heart, your channel is very accessible and I am looking forward to viewing more of your content

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed, definitely more content coming soon :)

[@Anatolius1010]

@@WorldbuildingCorner I actually just tried your steps, and it has made making a language so enjoyable, appreciate this detailed but concise look at languages

[@joshuascheele7732]

This is a life saver! I have been struggling for a long time for my story. I have recently figured out to make a proto language to first make a naming system and then slang. If allows then a fully fleshed out language. It was still difficult to understand how to create a basic naming system but this is definitely helping. Due to time constraints, is there a way to just set up a naming system before going any deeper with a proto language?

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

Glad this has been helpful! Do you mean, is there a way to establish a naming convention for places, without establishing the rest of the language? In theory yes, if you have words for the places you want, like 'forest', 'valley', 'river', etc, then that's basically all you need. Many places IRL use either 'descriptor/descriptor' or 'pronoun/descriptor' and that's it. For example, 'Tarnhurst' = 'Tarn' (lake) 'Hurst' (wooded hill). Or 'Matthewstead' = 'Matthew' (me!) 'Stead' (place). How complicated you want your naming system to be is up to you. For the languages in this series, the most complicated I've gone with is using compound words (river = water/path, etc), but it can get way more complicated if you want. Or you can just come up with a word and be done with it. It's up to you!

[@user-mt1qi4vd1z]

This one is a real crash-course on linguistics!

[@kompatybilijny9348]

Well that was helpful. I avoided writing anything at all when a fictional alnguage is being spoken and sometimes just type gibberish with the sounds I know that a species could make.

[@donivanjones9235]

loving this series! is there any way you could show off your worldbuiling notebook, or where you jot down all of the info about your world?

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

Glad you are enjoying it! My 'notebook' is more of a collection of documents for various topics. Before I write up a script for a topic, it's usually a series of dot points on key information, url links, and pictures all in a word doc that then comes together to make the videos. Truthfully most aren't very impressive or exciting haha. I'd say 60% of my worldbuilding makes it into these videos, and the remaining 40% the more mundane stuff, like the excel spreadsheets with all the root words for every language, and some mock sentences I've put together to make sure the languages work. Is that the kind of stuff you're asking about? I can put together a Google Doc of my background process, though I'm aware it's very much my own 'organised chaos'!

[@donivanjones9235]

That would be great!

[@draugarnatt3816]

Perhaps the most comprehensive video on conlanging I've seen so far, I will definitely give it a try!

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

Glad it was helpful! Good luck with your conlang :)

[@KristovMars]

Agreed! This had far more depth than I expected going in. Thanks for this great resource Matthew, have a Subscribe and a Like

[@Drudenfusz]

Personally, I would remove the subject from the Na'qwuil sentences, like the passive voice in English, to increase how alien the language feels. Since this would create a feeling of things just happen and the beings of that language having a very different understanding of identity.

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

Wonderful idea! I'm intending on using Na'qwuilian as the 'exception' example throughout the series, so that fits very well with the intended feel.

[@13thk]

Free word order most often **has** a default word order, and adjectives in almost if not all languages have rules in where they're placed even if looser in some. As a speaker of a so-called free word order language: Turkish, I can tell you that there is in fact a dominant order: SVO. It is extremely rare even rarer than OSV and OVS for a language to not have a dominant word order even in the case that the language has free word order.

[@nvdawahyaify]

At 1:41 the language you have marked as old English is actually early modern English. I noticed something neat while watching your video. Another difference between suspect and suspect is where the line between the syllables is drawn. Su-spect vs sus-pect.

[@commandereclipse5373]

Conlangs are a bit too advanced for my worldbuilding but it was incredibly interesting watching you work out the ones for your world!

[@KC-vq2ot]

A bit late, but still Because its internal grammar may likely remain a mystery to the uninitiated, the "feel" of your language is very important You may not really get that "Ik so vekka" and "Ek sum veiga" are different languages with very little in common, but it is hard to miss this fact about "Ik so vekka" and "Ek veigum" So it is also helpful to decide early on what template your language will follow: Highly analytic languages encode grammatical information within standalone auxiliary particles. Usually one piece of information per particle. Their morphology is sparse to non-existent. Their grammars are highly regular and predictable. It is common for such languages to look like an array of short words. Their word order is extremely rigid. In real life many creoles, Chinese and Vietnamese follow this template. In English this is also mostly the base template. "I go", "we go", "you go", "I will go", "we will go", "you will go", "I would go", "we would go", "you would go". Agglutinative languages encode grammatical information within affixes. Once again, one piece per affix. This produces long words with (relatively) complex meanings, but, once again, agglutination is extremely regular and predictable. Word order is usually free. Turkic and Finnic languages are almost a textbook example of this approach. "evimden" -- "ev-im-den" -- "house-my-from" -- "from my house", "evimizden" -- "ev-imiz-den" -- "house-our-from" -- "from our house", "otomobilimden" -- "otomobil-im-den" -- "car-my-from" -- "from my car", "otomobilimizden" -- "otomobil-imiz-den" -- "car-our-from" -- "from our car" Fusional languages encode multiple pieces of information per particle, usually an affix. Such languages employ "medium-sized" words with relatively dense meanings. Unlike previous examples, these languages exhibit a lot of unpredictability and irregularity. It is common for them to have multiple conjugations and declensions, with regular and irregular sub-groups within. Word order is also usually free. This is a template common in the Indo-European language family. Sanskrit, Classical Latin and Ancient Greek together with Baltic and Slavic languages follow this template. And to what extent and in what areas your languages follow these patterns. Romance languages have an extremely robust fusional verb system, but their nouns are highly analytic with no morphology besides plurality marking, otherwise mostly analytic Continental Scandinavian languages preserve genitive case and mark verbs for tense and voice, while highly inflected Slavic languages use analytic constructions for subjunctive mood and future tenses. Languages may be in transition between templates. Agglutinative Estonian slowly fuses its suffixes into single units. They all still trigger predictable mutations, but not for long. Colloquial Welsh abandons its inflected verbs for English-inspired analytic constructions

[@nekokoishi]

I might want to reconsider how I name things in my world after watching video XD Although at the same time, I don't really want to fully create a new language since it just takes place in the future.

[@kadenvanciel9335]

There is the likelihood of creoles. Though I expect creoles between another language and Silarin to exclude the labial consonants, unless I'm wrong to do so.

[@nathaniellufkin]

Take a look at the Destroyermen series by Taylor Anderson. It's an alternate history WW2 series where several ships get transported to a parallel earth during the opening months of the Pacific Theatre. This other earth went down a different evolutionary path and you will heavily appreciate the attention to detail on evolutionary biology and how the Grik (sapient theropods) can't make sounds that require lips.

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

Very cool! I love alternate history settings like that. They're a great blend of relatable while still being wonderfully fantasy based.

[@atheistlinguist542]

*fails to resist nerdy urge and pushes glasses up on nose* Strictly speaking, "Can you read this," in capital-O Old English would be, "Canst þū þis rǣdan." What you've labeled "Old English" is technically Early Modern English (and even then, "thee" is used incorrectly). I have serious doubts about the Middle English translation as well, but I'm not sure how seriously you intended these particular examples to be taken, so your point is made regardless.

[@Chasedtuna9]

Im trying to go the FFX Al Bhed route, where i use a substitution cypher to swap the English consonants and vowels around in a way that is still pronounceable... it is on the back burner right now because it needs fine tuning...

[@wun_zee3599]

I hope this comes in handy for the language I wanna make for my fantasy species. They're called "The Scribes" cos they write down _everything_. This behavior/tradition developed due to their mysterious passive ability to wipe themselves from the recent memory anyone and everyone who stops looking at them. Not a total wipe tho. If you see one at the market you'll remember going to the market but you won't remember seeing the Scribe. Unfortunately, they are not immune to this effect from others of their species. This prevented them from developing a spoken language for quite some time. Instead they developed a writing system lol. Their language is entirely written, causing the atrophy of their vocal chords. In my experience it's ridiculously easy to make a language. Making a _good_ language, however, that shit hard lol so we'll see how it goes. Let's hope this video can be adapted to what I wanna do :)

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

You're absolutely right, making a 'good' language can be challenging, but I find that if you go into it with an idea in mind of what you want the language to roughly sound like, it helps guide the process. The scribes sound so cool! They remind me a lot of the anti-memetic entities in the SCP universe. SCP-055 is the most iconic I think, which is a 'self-keeping secret' that is forgotten once someone looks away. Full disclosure, if you are not familiar with SCP content then be aware that it is designed to be on the creepy side. Just wanted to clarify before anyone goes googling things haha.

[@wun_zee3599]

Oh I forgot about 055 (fitting lol) I was thinking more something like the silence from Dr who (also kinda creepy tbh lol) tho I want the scribes to be nicer lol

[@Stephen-Fox]

If I were doing this sort of world building project for the purpose of storytelling (rather than as a form of storytelling in and of itself - both are valid approaches, I think) I'd still be tempted to give the humans a conlang, albeit an extremely simple naming language just to keep place names consistent.

[@LinguarumFautor]

A Common Tongue is great, but what if a chapter or character arc is from the POV of a Silurin? Then they would hear the Human language as a foreign tongue.

[@isaacthomas1198]

I just wanted to make one tiny correction - language is not unique to humans in the real world. Many other primates can use sign language, and while that’s not a language they developed themselves, I’m fairly certain dolphins communicate using their own language and even have specific names for each other

[@siegmund2000]

I have one question: What types of sounds can produse a felinid, a bird-like and a fish like species?

[@cerberaodollam]

That sentence should have been "the majority of your players/readers are going to be human" lol

[@user-pk6hl4tk7r]

Interesting, how to construct a language made up of radio waves instead of sounds? I have a dragon race who use their horns like antenas.

[@kadenvanciel9335]

What are the grammatical features of each of the three languages? Do they distinguish genders? Is there grammatical number? What about tenses? Copulas and valency? Cases and classes? A lot of details to think about.

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

All important questions to ask if you're going to use your languages for more than signposting for a project! Language is definitely far more detailed than what I've covered in this video, I wanted to present enough information to just get people started and provide basic naming conventions. In an effort to not have this comment be exceptionally long haha, here are the answers to your questions just for Silarin: 'gender' distinguishes informal/formal (not male/female), uses one-two-some-many, unmarked present, marked past and future, has a passive, causative, and interrogative switch (to have, to force, to ask, respectively), as well as continuous (to run), agentive affix (person), recipient affix (take), locational affix (place), instrumental affix (thing), and possessive affix (own).

[@nordichistorian6719]

Clarification: You wrote: Berg: hill/mountain "Bergen, Edinburgh, Nuremburg" The etymologi of "Bergen" is indeed the Norwegian word "berg", meaning mountain. It seems like you're also right about "Nürnberg". So you're correct with your non-English examples. But "Edinburg" refers to "burgh", which means something like a fortified town (and is still a word in modern English). It's related to the Scandinavian word "borg" (like in Göteborg/Gothenburg) and the German word "burg" ("Hamburg", "Strasburg", etc. I actually incorrectly throught "Nürnberg" as well) - both meaning "castle".

[@3nertia]

Language itself is far less complex than the myriad of topics we can discuss with it today :D

[@1furious]

I didn't understand anything about the adjective and adposition derivative part. Can anyone shed more light on what this means?

[@brockscanlan8891]

🙌🙌🙌

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

🙌❤️

[@shi_no_kurai_kage]

Aelora (my elf): "UPDATE MY LANGUAGE ALREADY!!" (Yep I have my own elvish but I don't consider it elvish)

[@cleitondecarvalho431]

I've been making a conlang, I call it Neoaztec. Well, it's basically Nahuatl shaped as an indo-european language.

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

Interesting! Nahuatl is one of the more fascinating languages I've come across! Good luck with your project :)

[@DavidGlenn]

Oh, I had to go to Vulgarlang to create a language of sorts for my world. I'm not sure I need one. I'm trying to finish the first draft to see if I need to do so. I will say that with my bird species I was going to create a language, but I've decided to have that their language is something humans cannot mimic or speak (for simplicity's sake). I may see if Biblaridion can help me with the language should I need it

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

Artifexian made a video with Fomor featuring non human languages, and I remember them showcasing an avian language. This is the link to it: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bqfEmZ-kd9CJi6M Hope this is helpful!

[@DavidGlenn]

@@WorldbuildingCorner Thanks.

[@Somebodyherefornow]

YOO VULGARLANG

[@DavidGlenn]

@@Somebodyherefornow Is Vulgarlang bad? I used it because of World Anvil. I was desperate because I can't create a language

[@Somebodyherefornow]

@@DavidGlenn it takes the art away, conlanging is like art, vulgarlang is like Dalle (art generator) "language is my second music"-conlanging is a form of art you can still use vulgarlang, like DALLE it's perfectly OK, but it takes the art away

[@Hwelhos]

as someone who has fallen into this rabbit hole, it has been a lot of fun, and if u want to learn more, check out (as said) biblaridion, but also artifexian, which has other amazing worldbuilding tutorials to next to all that id recommend watching conlang showcases (u can find them by simply searching "conlang showcase") these help giving inspiration and let u see things that r possible in languages

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

Absolutely, Artifexian has phenomenal content in general, and is a big inspiration for me. Awesome for the more in-depth scientific spreadsheet side of worldbuilding. Conlang showcases are definitely a great way to get a deeper look into the process of conlang. Biblaridion is probably one of the largest conlang 'showcasers', and I also like Jan Misali's channel for similar showcase content.

[@Hwelhos]

@@WorldbuildingCorner yeah, jan misali is also amazing, gotta love conlang critic and the toki pona lessons. i also like narandil, which makes short videos about his conlang agēre

[@Denneth_D.]

7:41 why have /o/ & /u/ when they can’t round their lips Seems like an oversight to me.

[@Liethen]

Perhaps go with /ɤ/ and /ɯ/ instead. Though if instead they have a syrinx like a bird or some other physiological method of generating sounds even the lack of lips wouldn't stop /p/ or /m/ equivalents. Just look at parrots.

[@zombie1356]

I think i am on to something. In a later video about ore distribution (which I have seen first because of the algorithm) he will show a german map of arabia. In this video he showed a german dictionary. Why always German?

[@PraiseJ-Pope]

2:15 JRR Tolkien be like "Lol you wot mate?"

[@Roxor128]

One thing you missed: bias towards various sounds. Two languages with the same sound inventory and syllable structure would sound quite different if they favoured different sounds. A language that favours high vowels and hard consonants would give a different impression than one which favoured low vowels and soft consonants. Compare these two random four-word example sentences: Pikka deka zepto nak! Sholu mula choola nes? They could well be from related languages, but they sound pretty different.

[@tobiasglendenning7966]

Languages are very easy to create, they're just difficult to make naturalistic or learn them like regular languages.

[@alananimus9145]

If you have multiple species then magic must be involved in understanding other species. They will hear and speak outside human hearing range.

[@walabang437]

Thank you! This is very helpful for me, I've been stuck on just the syllabary for months;;;

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

Glad this was helpful! Good luck with your Conlang :)

[@Gregatron13]

What does it mean when you say "derives from nouns or verbs"? Is it just like saying a king is kingly? Or am I missing something?

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

Generally with language creation, nouns and verbs come first, and then adjectives stem from them. In very early language, they might even BE a noun or a verb. Consider "the chair-like rock" (noun-based adjective) and "the rock for sitting" (verb-based adjective). Both get the same meaning across, but one descriptor stems from a noun, while the other a verb. Over time, a distinct adjective would form, such as 'chairlike' or 'forsitting'. Hope this helps!

[@Gregatron13]

@@WorldbuildingCorner Yes that is exactly the answer i was hoping for!

[@DapperDinosaur]

I almost forgot to like and comment.

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

I almost forgot to respond!

[@rudidavidson8422]

Bib (a.k.a. the guy who made Alien Biospheres)

[@Peace_seeker2390]

I have created mine _tulu yorad yar twashin toz yithel udus el yar zawa pral_ you just need to believe in your magic so you'll be guided by your magic soul

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

Very cool! Reading your conlang aloud makes it sound breathy and elvish to me, I hope I've gotten that feel right!

[@JayFolipurba]

A whole semester of english in 20 minutes.. I'd give the bears bilabial fricative rather than labiodental, ф instead of f, because I see bears with more relaxed lips. And do the octopuses even have mouths? Be advised that sometimes people turn their aapproximants into fricatives, like I for instance pronounce j as a voiced fricative Having English as a default language can always be handwaved as an automatic translation. Our proxy in the world speaks a language that is automatically translated for us as the observer. Think about it, we're already doing that for time-shifted stories. Stories about medieval England are in Modern English, automatically translated from the actual Old English, but stories about sci-fi cultures a thousand years in the future are also automatically translated into Modern English, because realistically their way of speaking will have changed and be as unintelligable to us as OE is to us now.

[@Somebodyherefornow]

Don't hesitate to have rare sounds in your language, don't have just sounds that English, french or anything! have rare sounds like alveolar-velar plosive maybe your creatures have two tongues? so you can pronounce a alveolar and retroflex at the same time? The colon does not make a sound longer!! its "ː" not ":" its more triangles

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

My mistake regarding the colon symbol and elongated sounds! I have genuinely been viewing the triangle symbol as a colon for the longest time, but you are certainly correct! Also absolutely yes regarding having rare sounds, they make a language sound more exotic, and exciting! Be wary of at least making sure that a human can pronounce your language though. If they cannot, at least have a relative 'best translation possible', otherwise as cool as it will be, it sadly won't be usable.

[@Somebodyherefornow]

@@WorldbuildingCorner perfectly ok:) I'm just pretty critical

[@lilruni]

IT WOULD BE NICE IF IT WOULD STAY LOADED FOR MORE THAN 2 SEFONDS

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

Wish I could help with this haha. I upload in 4K, that may contribute to the issue if that's what it is loading for you in.

[@lilruni]

​@@WorldbuildingCorner no, its my wifi, its a problem for every video most of the time

[@steakdriven]

Always annoys me when I see an apostrophe in a name or word that lacks the glottal stop when spoken aloud.

[@LOGANggihgmmnaa]

I have two languages hexian and leyvronian

[@bjorncorvin4568]

Considering the languages are made up of words that we as Humans can make, you say an Urukan learn to speak English or Siluran?

[@lordbelou7279]

There's something I don't understand... Why is IPA so important ? I mean, beer is good but I'm not sure we really need Indian Pale Ale so much...

[@jojogodtier]

I would be able to roll my r's but sadly i dont speak Australian

[@tux_duh]

Your English Language timeline is a little wrong. Modern English: can you read this? Early Modern English(Shakespearean): Can thee readeth this? Middle english (medieval): Can thee reaede hider? Old English (Anglo Saxon): Mæg þū þis rǣdan? (Maig thu this raydan)

[@Alkis05]

Strange that you pronunciation of Humans is different than the other species. I was expecting you to pronounce it like the Ferengi do in Star trek. Something like Hooman.

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

Haha I want the humans to sound 'normal', as a baseline for the series. However, adding exoticism like in your example with the Ferengi can help add flavour and build immersion!

[@turbofrigger]

"at least that's what I'm called in English" what are you called outside of speaking English?

[@Alkis05]

I wonder how reptile species are going to pronounce 5 different kinds of vowels without cheeks. The should stick to unrounded* EDIT: *originally I said frontal vowels, but what I meant was unrounded vowels.

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

Good point! Their vowel sounds would be quite unique and different. Also important to note that while lack of lips do make labials impossible, lack of cheeks may not entirely impede vowels. We as humans use our cheeks to support the sounds, though another species may have other musculature to do so. There is precedent for this in individuals who have sustained damage to their cheek muscles, as well as stroke survivors.

[@Alkis05]

@@WorldbuildingCorner Sure, you can produce vowels with cheeks. I was talking about round vowels, which are labialization of a vowel, like 'o' and 'u'. They could still pronounce 'a', 'e', 'i'. That being said, you might be right that even not having a human anatomy (cheeks in this case) they might compensate some other way and be able to produce very similar sounds. I found a paper discussion the phonetic capabilities of parrots and they cover just that.

[@Hwelhos]

so i was rewatching this, and at 7:45 u only mentioned pie languages, so i looked at some other examples, chinese, japanese, malay, polish, hausa, ukrainian and georgian and apparently non of them have it so i think u mean west european languages instead of human languages and tbh i think u should be careful with it since 2.7k ppl have watched this video and might have accepted it as fact

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

Yes you are correct, I used a sample from a few languages which are all European, definitely not all languages include an 'r' sound for their word for 'bear'!

[@steakdriven]

....oops. I thought conlang meant it was spoken at conventions >_>

[@nordlyz_4881]

So the Na'qwuil have lips, tongues and teeth?

[@crowdemon_archives]

I just assume they use their host's lips, tongues, and teeth lol Remember they're Mindflayer-ish

[@goldcarrot493]

12:46

[@ShaggBaggins]

In german, my name sounds like "Odom"

[@mew2knight337]

3:23 /ğ/ ? seriously ?

[@wagonrestorant8032]

1:45 Can thee readeth this? Are you fluffing serious?!

[@princezsshorts3209]

the IPA is my nightmare, but only because I find it super confusing. I've looked it up I've heard explanations and I understand the concept but the symbols and slight variations in sound trip me out.

[@WorldbuildingCorner]

This has given me a brainwave! I have just uploaded an edited IPA where I've gone through the whole thing and changed every symbol to the closest sound it would make relevant to an English speaker. I've highlighted in green the places where sounds are 'correct' according to the actual IPA, but all other sounds are represented by the approximate sound they make for an English speaker. Here is the link to the resources page, edited IPA is labelled "Romanised IPA": www.worldbuildingcorner.com/resources I hope this might be helpful to you, and anyone else struggling with the symbols of the IPA!

[@elderscrollsswimmer4833]

Maybe the whole scale is too much. No language uses all of them. Try focusing on the sounds your language uses at first.

[@waspsandwich6548]

8:00 That's not a "human" thing, that's an Indo-European thing. All those words were the same word 4000 years ago... I mean, it's not a critique, as that's a good way to select sounds, I'm just a little annoyed you used the word "human" instead of "European" or something

[@Mangofretchen]

Easiest way is to take an existing language and just switch out the words

[@tsifj]

I liked the material but I couldn't stand the "youtube speech". All that exaggerated emphasis works on the masses but grows tiring quickly. You curate your audience I guess

[@elfworshipper4081]

are you jewish?

[@Choppete]

Nah you lost me, and I know three languages… more or less

[@izzulizzanalifshah5668]

My language is called Vam. It's like english but kid of more simple then it. For Example volcano is pronounced = vkaano (vkaːno) Telephone = thyeleefun (tjʏliːfʊn) Impossible = Implosiibl (implosyːbʊ̈l) The letters are like English+Russian+Greek=Vam The letters are: a/ɶ b v d ɡ e/ɘ/ɪ je f h i/ɪ dʒ k l m n ɲ o/ɑ p ɾ s ʃ t ts/tz u w j z ʒ The alphabet song is: 🎵=slow 🎵🎵=fast Sing it like the normal Latin alphabet song 🎵Aip, Bui, Vag, Dul, Gim, En, Yen; Fal, Hat, Iyotka, 🎵🎵Jik, Kal, Lam, Min, Nun; 🎵 Nyun, Ong, Pey, Raa, Sin, Shin, Taa; Tsaa, Ukotka, 🎵🎵 Wug, Yu, Zita, Zhita; 🎵 Nau I Kow Mii Aip, Bui, Vag; News Tim Won Yu Sig Wit Mii. Also my number system is a Base 20 number system