How do you build your lexicon

[Vivaporius]

I've been stuck for a bit now, and I can't seem to find the inspiration or the information for that matter on how one selects what words mean what in their language. How do you decide what words will represent certain ideas and concepts in your languages? Also, on a side note, how do you form your sentences too? Please forgive me if I'm asking a question that has been beaten to death already. I seek knowledge. It's my handicap.

[schyrsivochter]

Welcome to the ZBB! Have some pickles and tea.

There are two threads meant especially for new members:
Welcome to the board + Board rules
For new members

Have you read the LCK (Language Construction Kit) yet? It’s generally a good place to start with. (I would also recommend the print edition — it’s not that expensive, and much longer and more detailed than the online version.) It gives advice on conlanging and explains the basics of linguistics, especially for newcomers.

There’s a hint on word building that is in the print LCK but not in the web version (as far as I know): If you come upon a meaning you don’t yet have a word for, try deriving it from another one with a related meaning. For instance, if you have a word for ‘loud’, you can derive the word for ‘noise’ (‘something that is loud’) from that, or the word for ‘quiet’ (‘not loud’) — no need to create separate roots, otherwise you’ll need very long roots for distinguishing the myriad of meanings. Invent some roots, then work out a few derivational morphemes and play with existing words. With four derivations, you can create forty words from only five roots! (It’s perfectly fine if you leave gaps, though; natural languages do that, too.) I hope this helped!

[din]

Commit to things. If you've got no restraints, you'll never know where to go. With regards to word creation:

Think of putting limits on your syllable structure:
-What consonants or clusters can a syllable start with,
-are there any diphthongs,
-what consonants can appear in the coda,
-can you have clusters in the coda,
-what happens if one syllable ends in a consonant (or cluster) and the next syllable within the same word starts with a consonant (or cluster),
-is there any stress, and how does this influence pronunciation
-are there any extra limitations on unstressed syllables or on affixes (perhaps only certain vowels can appear, and clusters are not permitted)
-etc.

Come up with some derivational operations. How do you derive related words from each other? Maybe analyze other languages you know to get some ideas. How does English go from paint to painter, painting, painted and paintbrush?

Once you've come up with ways to derive one word from another, creating words feels less arbitrary, and you can get creative. Nowadays I rarely come up with a new root. Most of the words I create are derived from existing words.

A tip: look up words in an etymological dictionary (for English, http://www.etymonline.org is useful). It makes you realize that most words weren't created out of thin air. Even things that sound indivisible. Like 'pill' (according to Etymonline: from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German pille and Middle French pile, all from Latin pilula "pill," literally "little ball," diminutive of pila "a ball, playing ball," said to be related to pilus "hair" if the original notion was "hairball.")

Creating and deriving words is by far my favorite part of conlanging, because you get to be super creative. For example, the word for 'to enforce' in my conlang (asaulcôurho) breaks down as follows:

a- (transitive prefix)
saulcôurho - to patrol, which in turn derives from:

saul- - slowly creeping, inching forward
côurho - torch, which in turn was derived from:

courh - to wring (because you wrap a piece of cloth or rope around a stick to make a torch; in fact, torch and torque are related etymologically for the same reason).


Have fun

[Vivaporius]

I actually have both LCK books, and I've read the online version as well. I have my constraint in order, my rules regarding stress and the order of letters, as well as crude case system. I wanted to go for a complex system with a single word being modified into a series of new words with meanings related to it. In my language, it goes a lot like this:

Vâk - war
Vâka - sign, standard, insignia
Vâkomâr - battlefield (vâk/war - mâr/land)
Vâkoran - warrior

My only fear is that this system might become cluttered and generally untenable.

One question. Does anyone know the complete list of cases and their roles that can be used in a language? I can't seem to find them myself. Aside from that, thank you for your help. Seems that word creation wasn't as difficult as I originally thought.

[din]

For cases, there's this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_grammatical_cases

Don't go overboard

[Vivaporius]

Thank you! And I don't intend to. I've heard of "Kitchen Sink" conlangs, and I cannot for the life of me understand why they exist.

[din]

Just to respond to something from an earlier post: Don't be afraid of your system becoming cluttered or messy. Languages are far from perfectly logical, so unless that is your aim, it's not an issue (I mean, just think of the word inflammable, where, if you're unfamiliar with the actual usage of the word, it's not clear from the individual morphemes if you can set it on fire at all, or if it'll burst into flames as soon as you touch it )

[Vivaporius]

Thanks. I know languages aren't logical in the least, but I'll be darned if I don't try.