Tag: conlang
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Day 61: March 1, 2024
Goal: Create sources for new adpositions Note: These sources are often nouns or verbs. Tip: The source you choose affects position. Work focus: Create/Make/List Today’s goal is to create lexical sources for adpositions. Once you create the lexical sources, you can reduce the forms to create the grammaticalized adpositions, such as having meho “belly” reduce…
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Day 60: February 29, 2024
Goal: Explore ideas for more adpositions Note: Even languages with extensive cases have adpositions. Tip: Drawing diagrams helps with spatial adpositions. Work focus: Learn/Brainstorm/Try Now that basic nominal inflections are covered, it’s time to expand other strategies for expressing relationships for noun phrases. Adpositions are grammaticalized function words that provide relational information—they indicate the relationship…
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Day 59: February 28, 2024
Goal: Update your dictionary to include all forms Note: Be sure all the words you created made it in the dictionary. Tip: Some dictionaries have entries for affixes. Work focus: Solidify/Write/Share One problem I frequently encounter is that I note the lexical sources I want to use for grammaticalizing a particular inflection but then forget…
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Day 58: February 27, 2024
Goal: Organize and clean up your dictionary Note: Include all the inflected forms you need for nouns. Tip: Consistent formatting is really helpful. Work focus: Organize/Plan/Structure Yesterday’s focus was on selecting which inflections should be included in the dictionary entries (e.g. as part of the head word). Today’s goal is to actually make that happen!…
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Day 57: February 26, 2024
Goal: Select any nominal inflections to provide in the dictionary Note: Common inflections provided include number and case. Tip: If it’s unpredictable, list it! Work focus: Organize/Plan/Structure So far, your dictionary entries are likely headed by the base form of the noun. If you created any inflections that affect that base form when used in…
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Week 9: A Preview
Day 57, February 26 Goal: Select any nominal inflections to provide in the dictionary Note: Common inflections provided include number and case. Tip: If it’s unpredictable, list it! Work focus: Organize/Plan/Structure Day 58, February 27 Goal: Organize and clean up your dictionary Note: Include all the inflected forms you need for nouns. Tip: Consistent formatting…
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Day 56: February 25, 2024
Goal: Write an introduction to function Note: Some sections may be partial for now as you continue to create more features. Tip: Show nouns as they shift for all inflections the language marks. Work focus: Solidify/Write/Share Finally, today’s goal is to write a section introducing any inflections in your language that indicate a noun’s function.…
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Day 55: February 24, 2024
Goal: Write an introduction to definiteness Note: If forms shift depending on other inflections, show examples. Tip: Include both marked and unmarked forms in examples. Work focus: Solidify/Write/Share As a continuation of the past few days, today’s goal is to write an introduction to how your language treats definiteness. If you don’t have any definiteness…
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Day 54: February 23, 2024
Goal: Write an introduction to number Note: Your inflections may overlap and need to be discussed in one section. Tip: Include example nouns with different phonological forms. Work focus: Solidify/Write/Share Today’s goal is to write an introduction to how your language treats number for its nouns. Remember, if you don’t have number in your language,…
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Day 53: February 22, 2024
Goal: Write an introduction to noun class (if any) Note: A chart can go a long way in showcasing your system. Tip: Include examples as you describe the system! Work focus: Solidify/Write/Share It’s time to formalize all your nominal inflection decisions and update your language’s documentation. I’ve broken this up into a four-day process to…