Vreleksá

Aert · Joined: 03 Jul 2008 Posts: 354

Hi again,

When working on your conlang, how do you create new words? Just make them up right away, base them on something already in your conlang, or a natlang? By affixes or otherwise?

Mine may seem a bit complicated:

First I think of the sound for a verb.
Capitalizing it makes it a noun.
Adding -(h)ýd is like English -er (someone who does this)
Verb conjugations can be added to refer to a person who does it a specific way.
Suffixes (based on ideas, but fundamentally on English ones at the moment) describe a person based on this verb.
Adding -ërs/rz makes it a thing that does this.
Other conjugations can refer to things that do the verb in specific ways.
Other suffixes describe other parts of speech based on this verb.

It's interesting, by doing it this way I've begun to make some interesting idioms, for example:
from "to adapt/evolve" : "the shape of evolution" (approximately, "the means by which evolution works")
from "to allow/permit" : "someone who eats allowances/permission" (approximately, "someone who takes advantage of others' permissions/leeway/generosity")

I look forward to seeing how you guys do it!

Tolkien_Freak · Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 11:34 am Post subject:

For Kilhirjui, i use bases + endings (I don't remember the technical term for those) to make plain uninflected words, and then there are some extra affixes if needed.

So:
jiri- - sun, day, etc
jirilh - sun (jiri + ending for nouns in the sky (can't think of a better way to put that)
jirin - day (+ ending for time nouns)
jirinjan - morning (+ morpheme meaning something is beginning + time ending)
jirir - to continuously shine (+ ending for verbs involving plain action)
jirinjar - to begin to shine, to break (day) (+ beginning + plain action)
jiriu - shining (+ ending for adjectives that are caused by subject action)

I've got some other stuff way less well thought out for the stuff Aert's talking about.

Emitarjei just uses mostly Kilhirjui vocab with some sound changes. It's not to the point yet where I know how I want to differentiate the vocab.

killerken · Joined: 30 Sep 2008 Posts: 134 Location: Florida

I've been meaning to make a topic about this, too. I seem to go through spurts of creativity when I come up with a bunch of new words all at once. This usually happens when I'm writing something that requires new words, like translation challenges on here. Most of the time, I just come up with a basic noun on the day I do the TC. Then, if I need the adjective form, or whatever, I modify when I need to use it. That usually happens later.

I also use modified endings to change the word:
felshor-captain [noun]
felshvi-to lead [verb]
felshvim-leader [doer of verb]
felshorii-general (great captain) [augmentative]
felshorin-little captain [diminutive]
felshaar-captain-like (possessing leadership qualities) [adjective]
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mrtoast2 · Joined: 19 Feb 2008 Posts: 123 Location: Goromonzi

Most Gwákén words I create without standardization, some based on natlangs, and many just pulled out of my head. Few forms of association exist, but there are a few, for example:

All adverbs are taken from adjectives (with suffix "gértén")
All verbal nouns are taken from verbs (I can't remember the suffix right now)
And participial adjectives are taken from verbs, with the suffixes "trál" or "bíblén"

For Jje, all words are based around one "general form," which is usually used as the noun for the broader concept. (E.g. "kor" is the concept of motion)
Then, suffixes are added to place the general form into other specific categories. (E.g. "kormle" is the infinitive verb "to go", "korehj" is an object that moves, "kormtg" is the process of motion, and "korinn" is an adjective akin to "moving".)
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