This chapter introduces strategies for building new words from existing pieces in the language. The first section introduces the concept of lexical gaps, some of which may be filled by expanding the lexicon using word-formation processes. The second and third sections discuss the two most common word-formation processes, compounding and derivation. The fourth section introduces conversion and semantic extension, which are methods for expanding a lexicon without creating new word forms. The chapter ends with a discussion on borrowing (though borrowing will not be appropriate for every conlang). By the end of this chapter, you will expand the vocabulary of your conlang to include words that have been derived and/or compounded and will consider how you might expand the definitions of existing words to include new meanings.

This chapter begins the focus on grammar, which includes all the information (or “rules”) necessary to generate new, meaningful utterances in a language. The basic introduction provided in this chapter provides the foundation you will need for all the upcoming chapters. The first and second sections introduce major concepts like grammatical form, grammatical function, word order, and headedness. The third section provides a sample walkthrough of how to work with linguistic data sets to analyze a language’s grammatical patterns, a skill that is useful for conlangers to develop a stronger understanding of grammatical structures. The fourth section models the decision-making process you will follow as you make initial decisions about your conlang’s grammar.

Verbs are typically the most grammatically complicated and diverse constituents within any clause structure. The information presented in this chapter is not intended to be an exhaustive resource; rather, my goal is to introduce foundational concepts that can support your own research of additional features. The first section introduces tense and aspect, two key types of inflections that occur with verbs, and mood and evidential marking are introduced in the second section. The third section explores negation strategies and auxiliary verbs, while the fourth dives into valency-changing inflections, including the passive voice. By the end of this chapter, you will have made decisions about marking verbs in clause structures and will be able to translate basic clauses into your language.

This chapter focuses on the art of translation now that you have enough components inyour language to begin using it to express a variety of concepts and ideas. The first section introduces general translation practices, discussing the importance of translating an intended meaning rather than substituting one language’s words for another. The second section provides examples of how you can use translation as an exercise of language expansion, creating new vocabulary and constructions as needed to communicate a particular meaning. At the end of this chapter, you will be asked to translate a short text into your conlang and to write an original text in your language to showcase your language and its features.

You have used IPA to document your language’s words and their features, but this chapter introduces other options for writing your conlang, beginning with a brief overview of different types of writing systems. The second section introduces romanization strategies, which utilize standard keyboard characters to represent sounds in a language. The third section discusses how you can adapt an existing orthography to your conlang, provided it makes sense for your speakers to have access to that existing orthography. Finally, the fourth section discusses the process of creating a unique orthography if that is the direction you want to take for your language. By the end of this chapter, you will decide how you might romanize your language and whether you will use an orthography to represent the written form of your language.

The focus of this chapter is on sounds. The chapter begins with an introduction to the International Phonetic Alphabet to show how you can represent sounds with written symbols. The discussion turns to phonetic features of sounds and how they are connected to physical features of human anatomy. The second section focuses on the production and features of consonant sounds while the third section explores vowels and their features. The final section discusses how to create a balanced sound inventory when selecting sounds for your language. By the end of this chapter, you will select the consonant and vowel sounds you want to incorporate in your conlang.

This chapter introduces constructed languages (conlangs) by first differentiating them from natlangs and then debunking common misconceptions about them. Along with defining major types of conlangs, one of the goals of this chapter is to identify the linguistic features that make conlangs languages. By the end of this chapter, you will make some important initial decisions about your conlang and conlanging goals.

This chapter builds on the grammatical foundation provided in Chapters 7 and 8, specifically diving into grammatical features of nouns. In this chapter, you will be introduced to three major ways nouns can inflect in languages: number, noun class, and case. The examples provided throughout each section focus on the most common types of inflections found in languages to help inspire you as you make noun-marking decisions for your conlang. The final section explores connections between adpositions and case. The exercises at the end of this chapter ask you to decide whether you will mark nouns for number, noun class, and/or case and, if so, how.

This chapter defines the term “natural language” (natlang) and introduces the field of linguistics. A major theme of the chapter is that languages change over time. The chapter demonstrates how you can systematically study those changes to understand how and why the language shifts typically occur. Language change is further connected to the development of language families and the importance of contact among speakers of different languages. At the end of the chapter, you will be asked to apply these concepts to a brief study of natural languages.

This chapter focuses on how sounds can shift when they occur in particular environments. It introduces key concepts from the field of phonology, such as phonemes and allophones, and demonstrates how sounds commonly change during speech production. The major types of sound shifts discussed in this chapter include assimilation, deletion, insertion, and dissimilation. By the end of the chapter, you will be asked to apply phonological rules to a small data set and create a set of potential phonological shifts you can incorporate into your language.