Goal: Formalize your naming strategies
Note: Write a section in your language document about how names are formed.
Tip: As you update your dictionary, decide if you want to include place names.
Work focus: Solidify/Write/Share
Take some time to formalize your naming strategies in your language documentation, writing a section (or two, if needed) about how personal and place names are formed. Include the example sentences you created to demonstrate how names occur in context.
Also, update your dictionary to add any new forms you created, such as any new nouns or modifiers. As you work, take some time to decide which, if any, of the names you created should be added to the dictionary as their own entries. Names don’t necessarily need entries, but if they will be important places or people in your conworld, it might be helpful to create entries for them and write a brief description so you remember them.
Finally, if you haven’t already, take some time to figure out how your speakers will refer to themselves as a community and what they might call their language. Language names can be based on place names (e.g. where your speakers live may be what they call their language), an autonym for the speaking community (e.g. the language may be called according to how the speakers refer to themselves), or a word or phrase that incorporates a root meaning “word” or “tongue.”
Those are not all the options, but they can get you started if you hadn’t already figured out what you want to call your language. If you aren’t quite ready to name it, don’t push it. The language name can feel quite important, and it’s okay if you want to wait until closer to the end of the year to give it a name!
Whenever you do name your language, remember to update your document to ensure the language name makes it into your documentation to replace “MyLang” or whatever you had been using as a placeholder.