Our /lang/uage

This is going to be a long post. I might separate it into parts.

/lang/, stay with me for a second here, what if we (the /lang/ collective) were to write, publish, and fluently speak our own language? Wouldn't that be interesting? You remember when you were kids you always had dreams of concocting your own language to speak with your friends and stuff? Same concept, only you probably have the capacity, with a little patience, ingenuity, and help from others, to actually ACCOMPLISH it. This thought came to me a couple days ago, I was listening to "Prenzlaurberg" by Beirut, and since the song sounds like slurred gibberish, I decided to transcribe it the way I heard it/maybe fudge what I hear a little and have it take on its own meaning. I'm going to post a small portion of the song, what I think it would say in the new language. Completely by ear, make your own assumptions for any loanwords that it looks like I used

Prenzlaurforue / District of Prenzlaur (forue being a suffix)
Sol la vor ' manie fonore / The sunshine ' [on] balcony's edge
Zlait crie eurnre remoir / Even when people lament
Sol la vor ' manie fonore / The sunshine ' [on] balcony's edge
Zlait crie em nol dem deed / Even when I'm old and dead
Aicanter toni, zlait au crie / Singing tonight, even still
An lo eisis vai ensom foture / And look, [the] moon's face tells [of the] future
Addolot sem sair por la vire, soilar / [The] neverending sea dances at lit. "the"; in context: "its" call, shaking
Em wachet ver por la vire, taim, taim.../ He abruptly stills at his call, wait, wait...

Literally any question/comments/criticism are welcome, I really hope it can become a success.

Lets fucking do it
All 3 of us (HUEHUEHUE)

But really, I think this board is small enough, without being too small, that we could actually do something if we tried.

 First of, what will we call it? What sounds will it have? What alphabet (we could always make one)? Will it be agglutinative or what? Will we have declensions, conjugations?

I'd love to do this (although I'm still new to language and linguistics in general), but we gotta get some basics ironed out.

>>2
Oh, and what type of course in our language are we gonna have so /lang/ lurkers can learn it?

>>2
and >>3
here. We could make a language for discussing languages and linguistics, call it Linguanese or something. Since it'd be used only here (maybe other foreign language image and text boards eventually), we don't have to worry about too many terms that don't deal with basic shit and linguistics, we wouldn't have to make words for higher level math or science or anything. But we could make a system for making new words so that in the future we could expand it, if needed.
Also, what will the vocab be based on? Any language or language families? Latin, Greek, Igbo, where will the words come from?
If it's for discussing languages, then the vocab can come from a mix of Greek, Latin, German, and French, maybe with some English. We could possibly add more classical languages to that.

Guys, read this:
http://zompist.com/kit.html
This is how to make a language.

>>4
Vocabulary source: if you borrow words from French or English, and your language has a decent spelling, they'll be distorted until be unrecognizable.

I suggest using Classical langs - Latin, Middle Chinese, Arabic, Sanskrit, Greek.

I have some ideas. I'll put them here.

1) Default script
*Latin alphabet is overused and its letters change values from lang to lang (like, Z is /ts/ in German, C is /s/ and /k/ in English but /tS/ and /k/ in Italian, this kind of thing.

Greek is more consistent, but isn't flexible.

Georgian is confusing, too similar letters.

Syllabaries [Hiragana] is only good for CV languages like Japanese or Tsalagi. Too restrict to use with a conlang.

Abjads [like Arabic and Hebrew scripts] doesn't mark vowels, this increases the learning curve.

Solution: use Cyrillic as default, but people can just transliterate. Only minuscules - meh, there's no reason to double the graphemes.

First off, I think this is a great idea and could end up being  really awesome (or comepletely fail)

>>5
I agree that vocab should come from Classical Languages - Latin and Greek would seem to be the best options as I'm guessing most people here speak an Indo-European language as their first language.

>>6
Greek would be better if it were to be spoken, but I think Cyrillic would also work, as long as we don't use accents like in Russian. Pronounciation should be consistent.

>>7 again
Also there should be some degree of inflection to give us freedom with word order. Not as complex as Latin though - eg form passives like French/English with an auxilliary verb etc..

>>5
We'd make spelling phonetic, and if we borrowed from French or English we'd use our script (Maybe we could use Cyrillic?) and make it phonetic, no silent letter bullshit.

>>6
I agree with this, Cyrillic is fairly easy to learn, much easier than the Arabic alphabet or Hebrew alphabet.

>>8
This sounds good.

>>7
No accents needed if we don't make stress phonemic :D

>>8
I disagree. I think it's better to use fixed word order: few languages use inflections, but all languages use word order in some degree. Yes, even Latin - "est Claudia" (here is Claudia) is different from "Claudia est" (this is Claudia).

About verbs: mark tenses like English, but with adverbs and not another verb. Like, "I 'after' eat a bread" instead of "I will eat a bread".

>>9
again (I'm 2 and 3 also)
If we do use the Latin alphabet, we have to bring back þ and ð, assuming we have those sounds.
But the Latin is alphabet is pretty overused...anyone wanna make a fairly simple, but cool looking alphabet just for us?

Guys, I've made a phonology. This is a mess to explain in English, however :P

This is a mess to explain in English... I'll only explain DEFAULT pronounce, but it's OK if yours differ a bit.

VOWELS - more or less like in Spanish or Italian. Roughly,
а/a - AH (open center unrounded)
е/e - EH (mid front unrounded)
и/i - EE (closed front unrounded)
о/o - OH (mid back rounded)
у/u - OO (closed back rounded)

SEMIVOWELS
й/j - like Y in Yes
ў/w - like W in Was

CONSONANTS

п/p - like P in 'sPill'
т/t - like T in 'sTill', never a tap as in USA
к/k - like K in 'sKill'
б/b - like B in 'Big'
д/d - like D in 'Dig', never a tap as in USA
г/g - like G in 'Give', never "soft" as in 'edGe'
м/m - like M in 'My'
н/n - like N in 'No', end-syllable can be as 'M' or 'NG' if speaker likes that way.
ф/f - like F in Spanish 'Fuego' (both lips), but English 'Fire' is OK.
с/s - like S in 'Sour', never "soft" as in 'eaSy'.
х/h - like CH in German 'baCH' or Scottish 'loCH', but as English H in 'Horse' is OK.
р/r - like R in USA's English 'boTTle' or Spanish 'peRo', but English Real is OK too.
ч/z - like CH in 'CHurCH' or TS in 'caTS'

>>11
Few langs use them. When it's about phonology, less is more.

>>11
I can make some alphabet, but first I need some phonology... are the phonemes I suggested above OK?

>>13
Yeah, I know, but those letters are cool as fuck

>>14
That seems fine, as long as we have a trilled r, I love the trilled r and it's not even in my native language.

We should include the sound of the voiceless alveolar bilabially trilled affricate

Hey OP here, first of all thanks for the support, you guys are awesome, here are my thoughts:

Cyrillic could be interesting, also might be our best option, my first thought was Latin, but as >>6 said, its WAY too overused, but I always thought that constructing original characters might be too daunting. I would really enjoy using inflections. I was originally taking influences from Latin, Old French, all the usuals, but it would be engaging to use several oddball influences as well.

A supposed title (of course merely a working codename)
Лангиан

Grammar might have to be decided as we go, mainly because I'm kind of inexperienced in advanced linguistics (fancy way to say "lazy"). I also wanted to make myself available to answer any questions on the pronunciations of those lyrics I made up. Mite b cool if someone were to put them into Cyrillic...just saying

>>16
That's Langian, when transliterated for you guys if you don't know Cyrillic yet.
Let's try and make this language pretty simple, easy to learn. We can use some inflection, but not crazy amounts.

Maybe we could use the Latin alphabet at first then change it once we decide on some basic vocabulary?

Oh, and I could probably transliterate those lyrics but I really should be writing a paper for English class.

>>17
No problem, I'll get around to doing it myself I guess.

Also for future reference, all honest contributors/interested persons please put on a name so we can keep track of your posts/make note of contributions/criticisms. Again I can't thank you anons enough for your interest, it really means a lot to have support.

>>15
Tap R (peRo) and trilled R (peRRo) can be used as allophones in this phonology - use whichever you want :D

About a "brrrrr" [trilled alveolar]... no :P

>>16
Well, it's something like this... I made these bits of conlang about 2 years ago, and forgot to continue working on them. I named "синпйо" (Sinpjo), but well, I think the name must be collective decision... it was to mean "simple" (until I wiped out adjectives :P)

About your song: I'll use Russian Cyrillic... note that Sinpjo/Langian's doesn't have an L or a V.
Прензлаурфоруе
Сол ла вор ' мание фоноре
Злаит црие еурнре ремоир
Сол ла вор ' мание фоноре
Аицантер тони, злаит ау црие
Ан ло еисис ваи енсом фотуре
Аддолот сем саир пор ла вире, соилар
Ем ўачет вер пор ла вире, таим, таим

>>18
I'll start a trip (I normally don't tripfag)
Just for reference, these are my posts
>>2
>>3
>>4
>>9
>>11
>>15
>>17
shit thats a lot

>>17
We can use both for now :D
But before vocabulary, we'll need phonotatics - like, which syllables are OK and which not. So it doesn't become a mess like Esperanto's majskstribo [or something like that].

>>18
Serious... making a conlang is like, like... playing Lego with language! :D

Mine are more or less tripfagged from the start, except >>5 and >>13 (these I forgot to use trip...)

>>21
Good
гоод

Oh, just in my opinion here, but please feel free to convene.

Tap R = good
Trill R = ...ehn.

Also, Khaos is right, t'would be advantageous to actually construct some basic phonetics before we get ahead of ourselves...also the Language construction webpage that might be a nice building block, download/bookmark if you want.

Alphabet and phonology, >>12 OK...

Well, I'll show what I made until now for Simpjo that can be used for Langian. Disagree with me when you find better solutions, ok?

Primary source languages - Middle Chinese, Latin, Greek, Arabic, Sanskrit. Because:
1. Together, they're culturally comprehensive.
2. All of them are dead - so no faggot will whine about national bias.
3. They have been used as linguae francae for millenia, with many borrowed words in other langs.
We'll need more languages for vocabulary like "chocolate", "computer", etc., but as basis, they work great.

Another thought...vocaroo for pronunciation ideas in the future

http://www.vocaroo.com/ Note: they've announced that they'll only keep recordings for 6 months before they get deleted, but I don't foresee that as being a problem you can always DL.

>>26
This is nice for those who doesn't know IPA ^^
We can just demonstrate the sound when doesn't exist in English.

>>26
Alternatively, this doesn't have to be a spoken language and we won't have to worry about pronunciation, since we will probably just be using it via text.
But I'd like spoken too.

>>25
Very comprehensive, love that idea. I saved the phonology as a .txt that has been pastebinned, http://pastebin.com/Nmtvta0a

>>29 Forgot the trip

>>28
Oh. Very true. I always thought that speaking is an essential tool in language comprehension, (i.e. saying words in your head as you read them) but thinking realistically when will you ever speak it, lol

>>30
I also read it in my head (internalizing is what it's called I think). But it wouldn't really matter whether you read it with Spanish vowels or English vowels, as long as you understand the word and its meaning. If anything, we could put of precise pronunciation until much later and focus on making the language itself.

So, does anybody here know any of these: Middle Chinese, Latin, Greek, Arabic, Sanskrit.

I know a little of Latin myself. We need some basic vocab.

>>31
Forgot my trip, I hate retyping it for this shit!

>>32
Haha, I think it would be safe to assume its just us three (as scarily foretold by >>2) until we gain a little more momentum.

We can gain a liiiiiittle basic vocab from the lyrics I posted and their Cyrillic equivalents, but before we assume those are actual words, any suggestions/objections? Also, the grammar/overall placement of words isn't set in stone either.

>>31
I know Latin and a little Greek...

Does someone want to start a Wikia so we have somewhere to record grammar and vocab?

Also, will we use affixes for word-building, like Esperanto?

PHONOTACTICS

Restrictions to word/syllable construction. This is why most people struggle to pronounce English "strength" or Russian "spravdi" ("serious?").

If they're too lax, it's hard as English or Russian to pronounce. If they're too restrict, words get too big and with many homophones like Japanese.

SYLLABLE START/ONSET:
Ø - no consonant OR
C - any consonant OR
O+r - occlusive (p t k b d g) plus 'r' OR
C*+(j,w) - any consonant except 'z'/ts/ plus semivowel
(like, /rja/ is OK, /pja/ is OK too, but /tsja/ no - gets too heavy)

SYLLABLE CENTER:
V - any vowel

SYLLABLE END/CODA
Ø - nothing OR
(f,s,x,j,w,n) - one of these consonants

>>33
Haha I was post number 2 that foretold that

>>34
How about we use suffixes and affixes, with each telling a person something about the noun (or whatever) it modifies?

>>6, >>7 and >>31
Decided to use a trip... want to see this through!

By the way, langian seems to be an old english word
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/langian

>>37
That's fucking sick, we "long for" a conlang

We could get some vocab from Old English too.
No matter what our language turns out to be like, it has to sound AT LEAST as epic as this when stories are being told :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y13cES7MMd8

>>37
Woops last one should've been 34

Anyway, >>36, prefixes are probably the best way to modify nouns as we'll be using the end of the word for any inflection and infixes just confuse the root.
If we adopt this method then we only need a few hundred root words.

>>38
Oh wow it's like Lord of the Rings xD

Langian needs to take words from all language families. It would be too easy just to take them all from Romance languages...