The Language Construction Kit

It's not very often that somebody comes up with a completely original idea for a book, but in this case it has happened. Mr Rosenfelder has published the first ever off-line how-to manual for inventing a completely new language.Intended for sci-fi and fantasy writers who want to create their own languages, the Language Construction Kit is also an entertaining and original introduction to linguistics.Invented languages are nothing new. Zamenhof created Esperanto in the late 1800s, hoping it would become a universal second language and foster international peace. Other people have made up their own languages purely for pleasure. Tolkien's Elvish languages, Quenya and Sindarin, have become famous thanks to his masterpiece Lord of the Rings. Star Trek's huge fanbase has ensured the spread of Klingon. However, until the development of the internet, most conlangs remained in their inventors' exercise books.Mr Rosenfelder is a programmer who does linguistics as a hobby. His website [...] includes a bulletin board for language inventors, several linguistics essays and other resources, including the original version of the Language Construction Kit, which consisted of two main sections, phonology (or sounds) and grammar. For the book version, the LCK has been revised and considerably expanded, with additional chapters on Semantics, Pragmatics, Language Families and Writing Systems. The author has published no less than fourteen of his own languages on the web, including several members of a language family, one with an absolute-ergative case system, and a non-human language which uses vowel continua to indicate degree (and violates several other universals). An upcoming colang, Lé, will feature tones. One of these languages, Kebreni, is featured in the book, as an example.The bibliography is an excellent resource for conlangers and linguistics students, featuring works by JC Catford, Bernard Comrie, Noam Chomsky, RMW Dixon, Daniel L. Everett, and George Lakoff. Web resources are listed on his own site, including the Sound Change Applier, a piece of free software designed by the author for generating daughter languages. The chapter on Language Families includes a how-to-use section for the SCA.I only have minor criticisms. British readers should be aware that the vowel diagram on page 41 is for American English: British English would include "part" and "pert". While some people might think the chapters on Semantics and Pragmatics are unsatisfactory, they should remember the study of those topics is still in its infancy and nobody has come up with a unifying theory that hasn't been debunked.Quotes"Non-linguists will often start with the alphabet and add a few apostrophes and diacritical marks. The results are likely to be something that looks too much like English, has many more sounds than necessary, and which even the author doesn't know how to pronounce.""Semantics is something like a rain forest: a huge area of obvious scientific interest, but not well mapped; paths have been hacked into it, but don't seem to meet up to allow us to form a coherent overview.""In our own tradition pragmatics is something of the trash bin of linguistics: anything that didn't fit into truth-conditional semantics was shoved aside into pragmatics, to be dealt with later if at all. However, many of the items put aside-- utterances, speakers, conversational rules and strategies, speech acts, real-world knowledge-- turn out to be pretty interesting, and close to the core of what language is.""Why Kebreni? Well, unlike Verdurian, it's short enough to fit in the book; and Kebreni was a sort of playground for trying out non-Indo-European features, so it makes an interesting example."

The Language Construction Kit provides a thorough introduction to a broad spectrum of concepts from the field of linguistics as they apply to conlanging (creating original languages). Thus, the reader gains not only techniques for creating conlangs but also an overview of the field of linguistics.I was impressed by the author's clear grasp of the many concepts he covers in the book. Without doubt, he is a highly-experienced conlanger and very knowledgeable about his topic.I have a background in foreign languages and linguistics as well as years of conlanging experience myself, and still I learned a few new things or gathered a few new insights in areas I hadn't studied much of, particularly semantics and pragmatics. I especially appreciated the author's focus on sounds, sound constraints and sound changes over time (such as in language families). I was familiar with such things but had not applied that knowledge to my conlanging in an extensive or systematic way. Now I will!My only concern is for those new to conlanging who have not studied foreign languages or linguistics, or who have little knowledge of grammar, etc. I think this book will be challenging to the novice if it serves as a first introduction. Perhaps a true beginner would benefit from first taking a foreign language, reading a nice overview of grammatical ideas such as found in  Latin for People : Latina Pro Populo  (Humez & Humez), and browsing through foreign language materials (course books, grammar books, etc., whatever is accessible and not too intimidating). Google Books has many older grammars and primers available online for free download. I really think some foundation is necessary to get the most out of this book, but others may disagree with that.The most important thing is not to be daunted by the complexity of it all. If this book is intimidating, remember that conlanging should be fun. Start small, do what works best for you, and learn and grow over time! You can return to this book when it makes more sense to you. Clearly, it belongs on every serious conlanger's bookshelf!

While this book will be particularly valuable for aspiring fantasy or science fiction writers, roleplaying gamers, and other individuals with made-up cultures brewing in their brains, it will be interesting for linguistics students and other language enthusiasts as well. While amazingly detailed, and chock-full of little lessons on how real-world languages work, the book's methodology is simple enough that a total amateur should be able to create a convincing fantasy "naming language" without too much trouble. Dedicated readers will find enough here to build a fully-functional language with its own grammar, dialects, writing system, and even idioms. It even explains how to "evolve" your language in order to create ancient and modern forms, or whole families of related tongues.The author is one of the best-known and most respected members of the language construction community (yes, there is such a thing). His website, Zompist, does feature a free web-based version of the "Language Construction Kit," but the book version is more detailed, more user-friendly, and a great deal longer. The book also seems pretty sturdy and well-made. If the topic interests you, it's well worth the cost. In fact, it's hard to envision a better book on this subject being published anytime soon.One caveat: if Esperanto, Klingon, Sindarin, or other famous artificial languages are what interest you, don't expect to find a lot of information here. Most of the examples in the book are from natural languages or from languages of the author's own invention.Highly recommended.

Bellissimo libro per imparare a creare linguaggi!

Gift for fantasy-loving grandson

Un résumé de "linguistique" précis et clair, qui nous explique comment les langues fonctionnent en général (peu importe leurs origines), met l'accent sur les particularismes de quelques unes (il y a de nombreux exemples), et finit par nous expliquer comment construire la sienne (pour les intéressés).

I guess the only thing I didn't like about this book (and the advanced version) was the way it's organised. I don't have a suggestion to make it better. It just confused me at times.Apart from that, this piece helped me a lot. I'm a writer in the making and I love to create worlds (I just noticed the author published a Planet Construction Kit) and peoples and for me, their language is a huge part of their personality and shows how they function and think. I used to create my own languages using my own (portuguese) and a few others I know a thing or two about as the base to start from. However, I didn't have a method and so, I usually abandoned them. With this book (and the advanced) I got to organise the way I work with languages and it helped me see the path, from beginning to end, more clearly.

Rosenfelder does it again. This man with his admittedly niche hobby of creating languages for his fictional worlds, has produced a superlative volume explaining, in great detail, how languages are put together, how they work and how they evolve over time. All elements, from the creation and modification of the sounds of languages, syntax, grammar and vernacular usages are all covered in great depth. Much of the stuff covered seems so obvious that you wonder why he covers it, until you discover that language features integral, even fundamental, to the use of English are entirely lacking in other languages.If you have any interest in how languages work, evolve or are created, or if you want to populate a novel or a map with names and places which have more consistency than the semi-random letter clusters many authors use, you simply cannot do without this excellent book. I cannot recommend it highly enough.