NOTE: this website (and my personal site) have been on hiatus for a few months due to some severe mental health issues I've been struggling with, I do want to come back to updating both sites regularly, especially because I've heard from a couple of different people that they like my Minecraft conlang (which is lovely, I'm very grateful) but it might take a few months, so please be patient, feel free to contact me regardless.
What is a conlang?
"The term conlang is short for 'constructed language,' and is the consensus term for a created language ... Any language that has been consciously created by one or more individuals in its fullest form is a conlang, so long as either the intent or the result of the creation process is a fully functional linguistic system."
(David J. Peterson in The Art of Language Invention 2015).
Why create languages?
There's lots of reasons why people like to construct languages, everything from aiding international communication to psychological and linguistic experiments to even artistic statements and expression.
The most popular reason though is to enhance fictional worlds, whether they are fantasy, sci-fi or alternative history settings.
There's some benefits to making conlangs for your fiction.
- It makes your world more immersive
Hearing or seeing characters use the language helps to reinforce the feeling that we're looking into a window to another world with its own history and culture, it gives the impression that we're only scratching the surface, which creates a feeling of wonder and excitement.
You don't even need to translate huge texts or make songs in your language for it to have this effect, even something as simple as using it to name characters, locations and items can make for a more immersive world.
- A language is a thing that you can actually use
It's one thing to design a fictional item that exists in your universe, it's fun and you can have all sorts of drawings, descriptions and even make a real life replica, but if you make a language you can actually interact with it in the same way that the people in your fiction would, you can use it for anything you could use a language for, it's almost like getting to reach through the pages and getting to actually interact with the fiction itself.
This also means that if your work develops a fan base there may be a few really dedicated fans who would learn at least a little bit of your language, and it will become a thing fans can geek out over and be really excited about.
- It helps you flesh out a lot of aspects of your setting
Language is deeply interconnected to our history and our culture, so when creating one you have to keep in mind all the different aspects of your world, and this forces you to think of all sorts of things that you may not have even considered before.
A few examples of popular conlangs include:
- High Valyrian created for Game of Thrones by David J. Peterson.
- Klingon created for Star Trek by Marc Okrand.
- Sindarin used in Lord of the Rings created by J. R. R. Tolkien.
So if you're a writer, a game developer, a cinematographer, an artist, a D&D player or you work on any type of artistic hobby (and if you're the type of nerd to get into a hobby like this one) you may be interested in learning how to create a language from scratch.
How can I create a language?
This website contains information and resources geared towards helping you get into language creation, even if you have no prior knowledge of linguistics this site will teach you everything you need to know to get started and create a whole new language from scratch.
NOTE: this site is still under construction so there aren't that many things here yet, but eventually I plan to have dozens of pages on various different topics.
Guides
A page with various step-by-step guides that show you how to create a language, each one has a different approach or focus, so feel free to pick from any in the list.
NOTE: at this point in time none of the guides have been written yet unfortunately, it takes time.
Glossary
A bunch of definitions of common terminology you might find when reading about linguistics or in the conlang community, if you've come across a certain word and you don't know what it means you could check the glossary page.
Deep dives
Longer articles that explain linguistic concepts and conlang-related topics in depth. These are a few thousand words long each, so if you're the type of person who likes to read a lot or hyper-fixate on a topic this is for you.
External resources
Links to resources that are useful for language creation. They're organized based on what aspect of conlanging they help with, and each comes with a brief explanation.
Contact
If you have any questions or requests for topics that aren't covered in this site feel free to reach out and ask, or you could also send me feedback on if you've found this site useful, show me your conlangs, or even send me corrections if you found a mistake in any of the pages.
A little about me
Hi, I'm Sombra Glaze, a latin american trans woman (she/her) in her mid 20's who likes worldbuilding and art.
I don't have any formal training in linguistics, nor do I consider myself to be an amazing language creator, but I have been doing it for a few years and I've learned a lot of information that I think could be helpful for those who are interested in making a conlang but don't know how, so I decided to make this site to hopefully help demystify the hobby and help people figure out where to start.
Also, if you want to see my own conlangs you can go to tekseni.bearblog.dev it's my personal website, and in the "Languages" section you can find info on my work.