spitz
I was born on my birthday.
It’s still a work in progress. I’ve got the phonology, most of the basic stock vocabulary, a number system, a list of rules… but it’s far from complete. I made some simple sentences and recorded myself saying them, and it sounds a bit like Latin with slight flourishes of English, German, Nordic languages, Greek, Russian, Celtic, Japanese… In writing, it looks sort of like a Welsh Latin. Once I build more vocab and finalise the fiddly grammatical stuff, I can share a bit and explain it.
I’ve had a long period of writer’s block, regarding songwriting. So I decided to invent a language, with a backstory of the peoples who spoke it. It’s a real challenge but exciting to see a language form right in front of you! And since I’ve been focusing so hard on the language, I’ve been writing some really fresh sounding music, and enjoying the songwriting process again. I guess I just needed to stop fussing over the music so much.
Decided to use base 4 for my conlang. I struggle with math and numbers, and it was an ordeal making several base 10 systems that were, to be honest, cheap knock-offs of existing base 10 systems. So I tried to assign names to each number, and my stupid brain kept dragging me to base 10 and I’d destroy an hours’ work. Over and over again. Eventually the pattern jumped out at me and I finally grasped it. I’m mad at myself how long, and how much effort, it took me to understand something so simple. Grr.
It’s vague now because the modern world has become too precise, too complicated. So my language “evolved” to discuss things in a more Zen kind of way. The old language (as I imagine it) was very gutteral and full of sounds most modern day people couldn’t pronounce. It evolved to a more modern day sound inventory to assimilate with the modern, technocratic population. It became private because the non-Atlandeans wouldn’t approve. Esperanto speakers were executed by the Soviets AND the Nazis, for example. It’s a way of keeping hold of their “Zen” lost world, and they don’t want it interfered with. So it’s not a terribly straightforward process to translate any of it unless you know it fairly well.
Assume you need to back up every statement you make.
Ooh, that’s a good one!
Actually, this has all been very helpful. As we say in my language: spaqi! (thanks!).
Well it avoids any technical/hairsplitty nuance. It’s intentionally vague, in a way that’s actually very expressive. The base vocab is unique to the language (“evolved” that way), and the more nitpicky the words get, the more they resemble pidgin English/German/French/Spanish/Italian. Then it seemlessly fades into English/whatever for technical jargon. It’s a sort of “intimate” language, meant for close personal relationships rather than to speak to millions of people.
I had a sort of fantasy idea for the backstory, but I don’t know if it’s stupid or not. I had the idea of the original Atlantis population survived in some way, a few people maybe. They have bred among themselves and other populations, lived among us in obscurity, hiding in plain sight, for many many years. So this language is their sort of creole, developed as they had to assimilate and learn other languages. The language has become anglified for broad communication (through necessity), but the intimate aspects are still true to their original language.
I’m not good at this stuff. Is that something of a starting point?
Edit: it’s also very melodic, and not gutteral. It doesn’t have the sounds th, j, r, sh, ks kh (like ch in loch), z, or ae as in cAt). So it sounds kinda like English, Latin, Esperanto, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Greek, Portuguese, Nordic, Irish, Russian, Japanese, Turkish… without really sounding like any of them.
