Hi! I've been lurking in this subreddit for a really long time and have been working on my conlang on and off for several months. I wanted to finally share some information on Bêskixêr and it's Tripartite alignment. I know it's a rather rare alignment and there's VERY few attested natural languages that ​​use it, but I think I've managed to come up with a decent explanation of how this system developed during the transition from Old Bêskixêr to Middle Bêskixêr and I also wanted some feedback on it!

Old Bêskixêr used to use the Nominative-Accusative alignment, the language also did not allow for a sentence to lack a direct object. Because of that, the speakers of Old Bêskixêr formed intransitive sentences (the ones without a direct object) by repeating the subject with a reflexive suffix, so to say "She smiles", they would say something along the lines of "She smiles herself". Over time, sometime during transition to Middle Bêskixêr, the speakers omitted the usage of the Nominative Case in these intransitive sentences and intransitive sentences ended up using only the reflexive noun, so in this case, "She smiles herself" would become "Smiles herself".

Over time, the reflexive subject in intransitive sentences was reanalyzed as an entirely new case: the Intransitive Case, and was used only in the intransitive sentences (as the name suggests), leading to the development of a Tripartite Alignment that distinguishes between the noun that is the agent of the transitive sentence (Ergative case), the noun that is the patient of the transitive sentence (Accusative case), and the noun that is the subject of the intransitive sentence (Intransitive case).

Apologies for the sound, I believe this is a recording of a recording of a recording and terrible things have happened to the sound quality.

Just curious, is there any reasoning?

Welcome to Word Wednesdays

For this activity you can pick any word you want whether it be a verb, noun, or adjective, and conjugate/inflect in all possible ways*, for tense, case, plurality, perspective, etc.

The purpose of this is to learn about cases and how words are slightly or vastly different under different cases, tenses, or perspectives. In many natural languages verbs or nouns are often changed because of the words around them. In other languages, the reader has to figure out number and perspective based on context. Who knows, maybe you can take inspiration from someone else's conlang!

How does your conlang handle cases? Do you have any unique ones that don't exist in natural languages? What are some irregular verbs or inflections that exist? How did they evolve? Do you think that the cases would hold up or fade away in future evolutions? Do any of your words when inflected have another meaning? What languages inspired you to add these cases?

*If you have way too many conjugations/inflections, you can share the simplest ones or the ones you find the most interesting. If you don't have any conjugation,

Have fun conlanging!

*it's a priori, so these aren't derived from a language family.

So I am making a conlang derived only from three vowels i, u, and a, as a project to see what is possible with such a constrained phonemic inventory, the aim is to get to modern version of the conlang from said vowels which are the proto-lang by applying the possible phonological changes the three vowels can make. (turns out anything is pretty much possible if you do the right changes)

Now one of the basic rules in this proto-lang is /i/ > [j] / __V / /a/__ this is always the case with no exceptions so j is just an allophone of i.

Due to the proto-lang’s small inventory, I decided to add stress to differentiate between words (a bit like in Russian but not totally the same).

A common occurrence with /j/ is that it can become /ʝ/ or /ʒ/ under circumstances like stress, so I thought of making the allophone [j] > [ʝ~ʒ] / [+stress] (this would also be a mandatory rule with no exceptions) because I can't really tell the difference between /ʝ/ and /ʒ/.

But now I am wondering if that is even a thing? Can an allophone have an allophone, or does it count as an allophone of /i/ then?

If yes, can it go even further? For example, on stressed syllables at the end of a word [ʝ~ʒ] > [ç~ʃ] a bit like in German, so [ʝ~ʒ] > [ç~ʃ] / __# (again, a rule with no exceptions). Would said [ç~ʃ] then be considered an allophone of the phoneme /i/ or of the allophone [j] or [ʝ~ʒ].

As these changes do not mark stress but are a result of the allophone [j] / phoneme /i/ being on a stressed syllable or one that is stressed and word finally would they be allophones or new phonemes altogether?

Also, they do NOT distinguish words, the stress does; so one could say /iaˈia/ and still would be saying the same word as some pronouncing it as /jaˈʝ~ʒa/.

I want to take a short break from my main conlang and work on a little side project. 

And I want to design a language that behaves like a linguistic virus, so the way a biological virus infects living cells to replicate, this language would infect languages/people to spread. Obviously this is not really possible, that is not how language/human minds work, but the language should feel like it could do that. The way I imagine it would go is that the language does not have its own script but it could be written in most scripts due to a small Toki Pona-like phonology. I imagine the morphology to be more on the analytical/isolating side. 

How would I give this language the vibe of a mental virus?

How should the grammar look like? (I imagine a mix of the previous host languages)

How should I build a good lexicon?

Any help would be appreciated :)

Also, if I made a mistake in mapping the sounds onto the letters, please tell me so I can fix it. Some scripts don’t have a 1:1 fit for the sounds so I had to improvise… 

In one of my conlangs, I differentiate not only between inalienable and alienable, but also between "genitive" and "possessive". Here, "genitive" means something like "This town relates to me", while "possessive" means something like "This town belongs to me". Both translate to "my town", but they have very different meanings.

I was wondering how everyone else handles possessives in their conlang(s). How many possessives do you have in your conlang(s)?

I would like someone to send me a sentence to see if I can translate it into my language to see if it works as a living language

Faites-moi vos retours. Était-ce facile à lire ? Compliqué ?

Si le Français n'est pas votre langue maternelle, cela était-il plus simple qu'en Français classique ?

Je me suis bien amusé en tout cas !

The title says it all. In German, they say zum Beispiel. In Japanese, they say 「例えば (たとえば、tatoeba)｡」 In Polish, they say na przykład. And you?

OMG, it took me so long but I finally have all of the Lovecraft story "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" translated into 26,714 words of Spanglish.

Spanglish is an auxlang I'm making that tries to be as intelligible as possible to speakers of both English and Spanish while minimizing the effort they would need to learn it. It takes elements from both languages. Most basic words are from Spanish and it uses cognates and common words whenever possible. When nothing similar between the two languages is available, it generally borrows from English. It has a very detailed Lingocon page here, where you'll find guides and lessons for learning the language, as well as some translations of other texts such as Uncleftish Beholding, the first chapter of Genesis, and some common aphorisms.

You can read the entire translation here:

https://lingocon.com/lang/spanglish/texts/la-umbra-sobre-innsmouth-part-uno

https://lingocon.com/lang/spanglish/texts/la-umbra-sobre-innsmouth-part-dos

https://lingocon.com/lang/spanglish/texts/la-umbra-sobre-innsmouth-part-tres

https://lingocon.com/lang/spanglish/texts/la-umbra-sobre-innsmouth-part-quadro

https://lingocon.com/lang/spanglish/texts/la-umbra-sobre-innsmouth-part-cinco

Since the subreddit rules require a companion English translation, I'll just note that you can find it here, but really if you know English or Spanish well you should have no problem getting the gist of it.

Lastly, I would really like to see where the Spanglish experiment goes. Although I suspect that making a language that's concurrently intelligible right off the bat would be impossible, since otherwise it would have already happened on its own, I think there might be real value in setting up a standard, minimal-effort auxlang bewteen English and Spanish. If you can't speak Spanish fluently, no matter what your level, then I would be interested in finding out how easy Spanglish is to learn and comprehend. My long-term goal is to pair native monolingual English and Spanish speakers together to test Spanglish's power in facilitating communication.

If this interests you, then you are also invited to our Discord: https://discord.gg/Np6Z5pHEex

Check the first photo for Asermathian, and the second one for the full English translation!

I def nerded out with this one ☺️

Hey! I recently finished the number system for my conlang, and I wanted to move on to deciding math-related stuff. I wanted to ask how other conlangs handle this, do you just use the normal signs +×÷-=, or do you have your own?

I'd kind of like to have no new symbols for it, just use the existing letters, but I'm wondering how impractical it would be to always write words like: "5 plus 5 equals 10".

Hello!
I was wondering: can you create a new keyboard with my conlang’s alphabet? And how?
Thank you so much for the answers!!!

I use an iPhone 13 (iOS 26.5.2) and an iPad 11th gen. (iPadOS 26.5.2)

PS: it‘s an abugida alphabet with invented letters

​

Well, everyone, I hope you're all doing well.

A few months ago, I made a post on this subreddit explaining a specific particle in my conlang.

Since then, I've made quite a few changes to the language.

I'd love to hear what you think about the aesthetic of lẹes alecẹes.

I haven't finalized everything yet. I'd like to share more example sentences and passages showcasing some of the interesting features of the language I'm developing.

By the way, I don't usually post very often, so if there's anything I could do to improve this post, please let me know.

Thanks for your time!

Welcome to the r/conlangs Official Checkpoint. You have been selected for a random check of your language. Please translate one or more of the following phrases and sentences:

"What are you staring at?"

"My brother is just another me."

"Would you like to use Rock Smash?"

"Please, stay right here and enjoy the crab rangoon."

"You had one job: stop the bus, not kill the bus."

"Stop!"

If you have any ideas for interesting phrases or sentences for the next checkpoint, let me know in a DM! This activity will be posted on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The highest upvoted "Stop!" will be included in the next checkpoint's title!

I'm looking for YouTube channels where the creator uses a constructed language, rather than only making videos about the language or conlang showcases.

Examples of what I mean could be vlogs, gaming, commentary videos, livestreams, comedy, stories, or everyday content where the conlang is the actual medium.

So in other words, I'm interested in creators who are "living through" a conlang (it need not necessarily be fluent/native-level, just regular use of the conlang)

For example, I create YouTube videos in Toki Pona: https://www.youtube.com/@janPolijan/videos

I know a few creators in the Toki Pona space, and I'm curious whether there are similar creators using other conlangs too. Please share links if you know any! I'd love to discover more channels (and I'm sure others would too).

Origins:

Dəngvéh is an Indo-European language in North America.

It was created when Indo-Europeans crossed the Bering Strait.

It is spoken by the Fər̥hgóh people.

This language has two forms: spoken and written.

Alphabet:

(this language has a unique script I haven't created yet but for now I'll use the Latin script.)

p, b, t, d, k, ɡ, ɡʷ, m, n, ŋ, r, r̥, ŕ̥, f, č, h, ɦ, v, ʒ, l, ĺ̥, y, i, u, ú, e, ē, é, ḗ, ə, o, ō, ó, ṓ

Sounds:

(these are the sounds in the language in IPA and how they are written in the script)

(IPA=spoken form)

(script=written form)

p (p), b (b), t (t/d), d (d), k (k), kʲ (k), ɡ (ɡ), ɡʷ (ɡʷ), ɡʲ (ʒ), ɡʲʰ (k/ɡ/ʒ), m (m), m̥ (m/əm), n (n), n̥ (ən), ŋ (ŋ), r (r), r̥ (r̥/ŕ̥), f (f), fʰ (fə), tʃ (č/k), h (h), v (v), vː (və), ɦ (ɦ), l (l), ɫ̥ (ĺ̥), j (y), i (i/e/é), iː (é/ē/ḗ), u (u/ú/o/ó), uː (ó/ō), ɛ (é), ɔ (u), ɔː (ṓ) ə (ə/é)

Morphology:

Morphology is incomplete.

Sample Words

(written form and translation)

bərétēr (brother)

bir (to bear, carry)

but (to awaken, be awake)

birk (to rise, hill)

dékəmət (ten)

dəvōh (two)

div (to do, to make)

dəhgum (earth, ground)

fṓdəh (foot)

fətér (father)

fəréhh (flat, broad)

féur (fire)

fik (to cook, ripen, cattle)

fi (to protect, guard)

fiuk (to strike)

gunəh (goose)

gʷəm (winter, cold)

gʷir (heavy, to carry)

gʷuv (cow)

ɦévəh (dawn, east)

hənəgʷnih (fire)

hətḗr (star)

hhɦən (sleep)

húən (son)

hrégh (king, ruler)

hi (to sow, plant)

hədir (to put, stand)

héh (to be, to exist)

hərif (to sleep)

hégən (egg)

hun (son)

hənih (to spin, bind)

hik (to increase, amplify)

hədir (to spread, stand, stiffen)

hrudróh (red, ruddy)

hóver̥ (sun)

hrit (to run)

həvéhōr (sister)

iyk (to drive)

ir (to move, set in motion)

ik (to lead, draw)

kəmətóm (hundred)

métēr (mother)

midu (mead, honey)

mōdēr (mother)

min (to think, remember)

mi (to measure)

névən (new)

ni (to push, harm)

niyək (to swim, flow)

rivək (light, brightness)

ruŋguh (long)

təréyih (three)

tir (to cross, overcome)

up (to work)

uf (under, below)

vĺ̥kuh (wolf)

vir (to raise, hold)

ver̥k (wolf)

ékvuh (horse)

égruh (field)

énəh (to breathe, blow)

ékəm (arm, hand)

čidəvórih (four)

ŕ̥tkuh (bear)

ʒénəhh (kin, people)

ʒir (to seize, devour)

This is a 'What-If" I have been thinking about recently, but what is the lowest amount of words necessary for a universal practical second language?
I have recently heard anecdotally that majority of communication only requires around 3000 words so I am curious if it would be lower than that.

Now I want to try clarify a few things I mean when I ask that and some initial thoughts I had about this:

• By practical I mean able to have somewhat detailed conversations and even shared literature. Directions to a specific place and non-technical fiction as examples of the level of complexity that should be achieved.
• This is a universal second language so I am unsure of how much culture would/should bleed into the language and if that should be brought into consideration. Having a 'question word' like Mandarin for example or gendered language such as in French. My personal thoughts is lets make this a lean language that acts as a universal second less complex language so most people would have cultural connections in their first, but that may be my own personal language and mindset bleeding through.
• Is there a potential for a streamlined alphabet as well? Somehow making it out of all of the most common letters across all languages and disregarding the outliers perhaps.
• I don't think this language should replace the need for translators as complex high level and specific topic discussions that you would need training to understand in your first language should be the level at which is exempt so this is not becoming a new language language of business or something more just a universal way of connecting to fellow humans.

Hope this is a fun discussion and I am looking forward to hearing peoples thoughts on this, especially if there are significant aspects I haven't considered.

Hi everyone! I'd like to share an update on my constructed language project, Gonstan (Гонстанский).

Gonstan is designed as an accessible, international auxiliary/artistic language that balances vocabulary and structural elements for speakers of Slavic, Germanic, and Romance background.

🔤 Multi-Script System

The language features three distinct orthographic systems (check images attached):

Cyrillic Katti'iti (Primary Cyrillic)

Cyrillic Nukadzi (Ukrainian-adapted variant)

Latin Lafjaću (Features dual writing conventions for Western European vs. Eastern European/Turkic users)

📘 Core Grammar Features

Plurals: Formed by adding -s (optional apostrophe before -s, e.g., kvitkay's — flowers).

Past Tense: Universal suffix -id (e.g., delotid — did/made).

Genderless Pronouns: Strictly human vs. non-human division (Shi — She, Khi — He, Iyt — It/Animals/Objects).

Particle ly: Used at the start of future-tense questions (Ly yu delot...?).

🗣️ Beginner Vocabulary Highlights

Greetings: Pryvët / Khaj (Hello), Zdroyvo / Olasio (Greetings), Dobri dey (Good day)

Basics: Ja / Yes (Yes), Fjaytto / Veritajsmykja (Fact), Džuns (Juice), Tea / ​Čaj (Tea)

Nouns: Kvitkay (Flower), Kjeyneke (Book), Budynok (House)

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the phonetics and the Latin adaptation strategy!

Dezoese was my first conlang, originally inspired by my feelings about real language loss. Over time, the emotional and creative strain of continuing with a single language led it to evolve into five descendants, each developing its own identity, sound system, and writing tradition.

Beyond their sounds and scripts, each descendant of the Dezoese family represents a different feeling connected to loss, change, and preservation.

Vêthulš and Vǒmanŝ reflect the emotional struggle of allowing something deeply cared for to evolve.

بُڠَلَ (Buŋala) represents the grief connected to scripts and the fear of written traditions being lost.

Кэржашка represents the struggles and histories of European languages.

가누메 (Ganume) represents those same feelings through the lens of Asian languages and cultures.

Each language is a reflection of a different wound, memory, and path forward.

Listed below in order of creation:

Vêthulš

Vǒmanŝ

بُڠَلَ (Buŋala)

Кэржашка

가누메 (Ganume)

Vêthulš and Vǒmanŝ are sister languages, and together with Кэржашка they are the direct descendants of Dezoese. بُڠَلَ (Buŋala) and 가누메 (Ganume) are the more distant descendants, having developed further away from the original branch.

Each language has its own alphabet and sound system, reflecting the different paths this family took.

Here are the alphabets:

Vêthulš Consonants

k t p s n m l r v h g y d z š ǰ č ɲ ŋ

Vêthulš Vowels

a e i o u æ â ê ô û ä ö ǐ

Vǒmanŝ Consonants

k t p s n m l r v h g x d z ž ŝ ĵ ĉ ɲ ŋ

Vǒmanŝ Vowels

a e i o u å ů ō ï ë æ î ū ā ǒ ǔ ǎ ě

Buŋala Consonants

ک ل ن م ب ۏ س ر د ز ث ژ ش ڠ

Buŋala Vowels

َ ِ ُ

Buŋala Consonants

k l n m b v s r d z th zh sh ng ny

Buŋala Vowels

a i u

Кэржашка Consonants

к = k, т = t, п = p, с = s, н = n, м = m, л = l, р = r, в = v, һ = h, г = g, х = x, д = d, ф = f

Кэржашка Vowels

а = a, у = u, и = i, о = o, э = e

까누메 Consonants

ㄱ = g/k, ㄷ = d/t, ㅍ = p, ㅅ = s, ㄴ = n, ㅁ = m, ㄹ = , ㅎ = h, ㅋ = x

까누메 Vowels

ㅏ = a, ㅜ = u, ㅣ = i, ㅗ = o, ㅔ = e