Conlangs Monthly is a publication dedicated to

publishing articles concerning Linguistics, Literature,

and guidance on Conlanging as well as Conworlding.

CONTENTS
Timotianupsum quallica
-Emma Zalazar-

A short history of Conlanging

-Raphael Camiso-

Frlynlyn
-Roy Costa-

Was den ar dies ding naam fon spraak?

-Rolf Weimar-

Vowel systems around the world

-Rodrigo Pereira-

-Brandon Heinrich-

-Kyle Farrington-

10 Commandments for
Sucessful Conlanging
-Gabe Witmonger-

Excerpt from Alice in Wonderland

-Lidepla-

Gods Grandeur
-Micah Wilger-

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J Fleury and G Witmonger 2014 All Rights Reserved

Editorial Team
Editor in Chief:
Jonathan Fleury
Layout Design & Graphics
Gabe Witmonger
Senior Editor
Rolf Weimar
Senior Editor
Sabrina Palis
Founders
Gabe Witmonger
Jonathan Fleury
Extra-credits
Calligraphy picture
by Mike Bacon

Timotianupsum quallica

Pluxogum gradere, colliniter cummycho La Torpeana es, hac cordauco?

Timotianupsum allicasinituvir vigixo closupsum bildaceuco alvaresem,
Ulvicuor et hovuor, allardituor et salvupsum balvicauco, hac cordauco?
Cumme hac cordauco hac sensauco?
Esque clautaelle, quisquautaelle hac cordauco,
Auculogum cummas par consiumogum sinnare hac andrauco.
Thyscuor et vurquauor copieuco,
Ancadyxi et clautupsum hovuiteruor.
Curmuroves cordat? Isse has puecnas
Cummisce Timotin cumitores manceavas,
Cummisce phulco manceumes raudavas,
Nautuor mille uluumascaucas.

Have you seen the rain falling, in the hills where La Torpeana rises?
Have you seen the daughter of Timotian rise shining covered by colours,
Full of music and songs, of kings and glory?
Have you though in what have you seen?
Because you have seen the Great, the Eternal,
The one who was born to civilise the world.
Covered by walls and towers,
By palaces and big singers.
Can you see the river? Theres a bridge
In which Timotian defeated the cummites,
In which the people victoriously rorared
With the howl of a thousand dragons.

Was den ar dies ding naam fon

spraak?

Ever since man has started to learn how to master

his own language has he tried to overcome natural
tongues with his own creations. However, not until
the Late Middle Age would a whole language be
constructed. The first one, crafted by the nun Saint
Hildegard in the mid-XII century as a mystical
tongue, was Lingua Ignota, which, though artificial,
was not made from scratch. Instead, it was Latin with
a reformulation of certain crucial words, with the text
written in mysterious letters.
From this time to the Renaissance, we saw a
complexification in the art of cryptography and the
first a priori language, Balaibalan, also with a mystical
approach. From there on, new constructed languages
would arise for mystical, philosophic or scientific
reasons, a notable and relatively well-developed and
widespread one being Solresol, a purely musical
language developed by the French musician Franois
Sudre in the mid-XIX century. Around this time,
many authors were discussing the idea of a language
to ease the communication between distinct peoples.
The Italian author Umberto Eco would write a long
essay on these experiences in 1993, in his book The
Search for the Perfect Language.
A mark on constructed languages, or conlangs,
though, would come with Volapk, developed by the
German priest Johann Schleyer and first published in
1879. Although built around religious reasons, not
unlike many aforementioned projects, it had some
success at the intention of being widely learned and
effectively developed. It had a short jump, with a boom
of media exposure, book translation and worldwide
conventions being held.

Artistic languages, or artlangs, would

re-emerge in movies in the form
of Atlantean in Atlantis: The Lost
Empire and the numberless ethnic
languages of the Star Wars and Star
Trek franchises...

However, after some decades, a young Polish Jew

would draw attention to his new
invention: Esperanto. Esperanto displaced Volapk,
walking towards the utopia of an international
language and roaming until nowadays through the
most diverse political and historical scenarios. Some
modern estimate say it has millions of speakers.
Something the language never achieved, though, was
to satisfy those who wished to create an international
auxiliary language; Esperanto itself
generating
Ido, with some of the other innumerable attempts
including the Romance-based Interlingua, numerous
Slavic conlangs and the mathematical and authentic
Lojban and Ithkuil.
The art of crafting languages would be taken to a new
field in the hands of the great writer J.R.R. Tolkien,
who would reveal the whole conworld (constructed
world) of Middle-Earth from 1937 on. Although
fiction had already been playing occasionally with
the idea of other languages, Tolkien took it to another
level when he designed a whole language family to be
spoken on his conworld, from Quenya to Sindarin,
from the Black Speech to Khuzdul. Artistic languages,
or artlangs, would re-emerge in movies in the form
of Atlantean in Atlantis: The Lost Empire and the
numberless ethnic languages of the Star Wars
and Star Trek franchises, the latter having deeply
developed the Klingon language, functional and
popular among its fandom.
Last but not least, it is notable as a tendency in the
2010s that conlangs have been becoming a more and
more widespread activity. Not only was its popularity
strongly enforced by artlangs such as Navi in Avatar
and Dothraki and Valyrian in Game of Thrones, plus
the cinema version of The Hobbit and the new film
of the Star Trek franchise but the internet also created
the sense of a conlanging community.
With forums and social networks, the activity
of conlanging has been popularised, becoming
something to share and discuss, plus more widespread
conlangs are ascending to a new level in the matters
of sense of community, enforced by softwares and
websites that ease learning. Conlangs have walked a
long path, and now here they are.

J.R.R. TOLKIEN

Frlynlyn
Yo lenx tro fs wius set
Dh dians angx wal annet
Frlynlyn...xan n von
Frlynlyn... n unmiend von
Annansieh rol annansieh
Dref andovhsh, dh frguld pyok
Xan n fub, dvhsh anvst
N wb zat kyen, ankoasst
Wid wius mayhya n hhn si un jang
Wiusr oas zayto kv wal ks filvo
Fer frlynlyn sjue vstlem yem
Te wius fantvojue acklyn yem

Tears fall from their faces

The ones wretched with poignance
Happiness... but a dream
Happiness... an unimaginable dream
Turmoil after turmoil
Hope relinquished, the utopia set ablaze
But a gift received, unbeknownst
A twist of fate, undiscovered
Should they experience an act pure in heart
Their eyes will rekindle with flames anew
For happiness is only truly known
To those who truly tasted pain

Was den ar dies ding

naam fon spraak?
Was den ar dies ding naam fon spraak?
Es ar pretvol, interesant, en spanent
All de spraaken das es geeb will ig lernen
Med spraak kan man anna kultuuren ontmoeten
Buchen in de herkunfda spraak leesen
En musik fon de gansa veld ferstaanen
Naturaala spraaken ar levenda istorieja
Kunspraaken ar pretvol en las man med spraak spielen
Beed ar wert deen zeet veeln beed ar interesant en pretvol
Ig mag spraak zeer feel omdat ig mag jede teel von spraak
Istoriejada spraakshaf, klangda spraakshaf en vortda spraakshaf
Ar noor een paar teel von spraakshaf ig mag
Ig mag spraak selb aver natuurlich ook spraaken
Ig is noor een paar grunden heer shriebd
What then is this thing called language?
It is fun, interesting and exciting
I want to learn all the language that there are
With language you can meet other cultures
Read books in the original language
And listen to music from around the world
Natural languages are living history
Conlangs are fun and let you play with language,
Both are worth your time, both are interesting and fun
I like language a lot because
I like every part of language Historical linguistics,
phonology and etymology
Are just a few parts of linguistics I like
I like language itself but of course also languages
I have only written a few reasons here
I am certain that you will agree with them!

Vowel Systems
around the world

Phonologists since at least Jakobson and Trubetzkoy

(cf. e.g. Trubetzkoy 1939) have been concerned with
why languages display their particular array of sound
patterns. The central questions raised in treatments
of the distribution of vowel systems in particular
are (i) why vowels fall into the particular zones of
the perceptible/produceable space that they do, (ii)
why some sounds are more basic and thus prior in
the synchronic and diachronic evolution of segment
inventories.
Theories of vowel inventory typologies:
Quantal Theory - prioritises perceptual invariance:
the point vowels {a i u} are typologically preferred
because they represent regions of the articulatory
space in which variability in production has a minimal
acoustic impact.
(Stevens 1972, 1988; Lang &Ohala 1996)

(from:http://www.academia.edu/207443/Explaining_vowel_
systems_Dispersion_Theory_vs._NaNatur_Selection9

(a selection of texts)

Traditional markedness theory - derives its hierarchy

from phonological behavior and cross-linguistic
distribution for the most part, though Sanders 1972,
Particle Phonologists (e.g. Schane 1984), Iverson and
Sohn 1994, the Toronto School (cf. Rice 1999, 2002,
Dresher 2003), the Government Phonologists (e.g.
Harris & Lindsey 2001),and most recently Clements
2003 derive it from feature counting.
Dispersion Theory - (DT) maintains that the structure
of inventories derives from functional principles such
as minimise effort and maximise contrast.

* The two former figures are from a study.

* ( http://courses.umass.edu/linguist716-kmyu/static/pages/readings/lindblom1986.pdf).

Types of Vowel Systems

(http://clas.mq.edu.au/speech/phonetics/phonetics/
vowelsystem/vowel_systems.html)

HIGH-MID-LOW Systems
No length contrast.

The systems are built up from a number of vowel

features. All vowel systems have at least two height
and two fronting contrasts. Further contrasts are built
up from the features length (also known as lax/tense),
nasality, and lip rounding. Some extra, less common,
features that define vowel systems also exist and will
be dealt with elsewhere. In the following examples
only monophthongs will be examined since the more Length contrast.
complex diphthongs are difficult to categorise in
terms of their place of articulation (having a separate
place of articulation for each target). The examples are
mostly from Lass (1984, pp139-146).
HIGH-LOW Systems
Languages with minimal vowel systems typically have
three vowel phonemes: one high front, one high back,
and one low vowel with no length contrast.

In other words there is a maximum dispersal of vowel

quality towards the far corners of the vowel space.
Length contrast.
Some languages are based on this basic system but
have in addition the added dimension of vowel
length.

Note that this table for Australian English does not

imply that there are intermediate levels between mid
and either high or low. The intermediate positions for
/ / and / / merely indicate indecision about whether
to make / / mid or high and whether to make / /
mid or low.

FOUR HEIGHT CONTRASTS

Rounding and Nasal contrast.

The upper limit is about 21 monophthong phonemes

(eg. Swiss German and Alsatian German with length
and rounding contrasts).
For more (simple) information see this great resource:
http://gesc19764.pwp blueyonder. co.uk/vowels/
vowel_systems.html

Genesis 1 - The Beginning

Fu Sondiur

The Road goes on and on

Het Grr gorre jedes gt
Et tro hgr hrr, dagr das beginn.
Jeg hebe het Grr vrodr gorret
Gar jve stggen kenne, munten fd.
Drod fennygg met modytt fosse
Ik varde gt het fejr-inn turren
P gretten mygg abend-shlav.
The road goes ever on and on
Out from the door which it began.
Now far ahead the road has gone
Let others follow it who can!
Let them a journey new begin.
But I at last with weary feet
Will turn towards the lighted inn
My evening rest and sleep to meet.

And there was evening, and there

was morningthe first day

1 Ot fu sondiur Iawbei niures fu noidomru af fu pomp.

2 Mpos fu pomp wimofrenc voidres, nciam ziures
tuc fu movori gui, af fu Iawbeii Siub feinkeson tuc fu
ntuiru. 3 Af Iawbei nkabes dant ziuroibcim sin af
sin siadiures. 4 Iawbei mirenc dant fu sin vinres, se
gampes fu sin fo fu nciam. 5 Iawbei sondares sasa
to sin, af sondares kuc to nciam. Af ziures gunta, af
ziurim diuf, zares fu cansofric sasa.

The Beginning
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the
earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty,
darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the
Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 3 And
God said, Let there be light, and there was light. 4
God saw that the light was good, and he separated the
light from the darkness. 5 God called the light day,
and the darkness he called night. And there was
evening, and there was morningthe first day.

10 Commandments
for successful Conlanging
I have narrowed down several musts for successful
conlanging to the top ten after asking and comparing
with some fellow conlangers some of the most
common problems. These 10 commandments are
the distilled advice many of us would have loved to
have had when we started our conlangs, so learn from
our mistakes and experiences and be successful at
conlanging.
1.- Do your homework
1. Do your homework
2. Be patient
3. Do ask for help when needed
4. Always inquire why/how is it so?
5. Be organised
6. Welcome challenges
7. Let your imagination go wild,
but not too wild
8. Be critical of your conlang/s
9. Take pride in your creation/s
10. Have fun!

I listed this one first because I want you to fully

understand the importance of doing research and of
learning as much as you can/want before and during
conlanging. Can you conlang without making any
research at all? YES, but the results will reflect such lack
of research; you will probably get stuck performing
basic processes and you will feel frustrated at not
knowing what to do next; how to understand certain
features or how to disentangle some key concepts or
challenges. Therefore, the best way to overcome these
issues is to study a subject carefully so that you know
enough about it in order to deal with it successfully.
Go online and start doing some light research on
topics such as: language, phonetics, morphology,
grammar, syntax, semantics, etc. Wikipedia has a great
deal of information on all these topics as well as on
general linguistics. Learn about other languages too;
dont limit yourself to your native language; there is
no need to become a polyglot, but knowing about how
other languages function and developed will give you
a broader perspective on how human communication
works and also how varied it can be.

10

Please also note that you are not required to be a

linguist or be enrolled in linguistics classes in order
to be proficient or successful at conlanging but you
MUST do your homework.
Here are some good resources that will not only get
you started but will also keep you on track while
crafting your conlang:

* Free resources:

The language construction Kit: a -how to- guide

(abridged online version)
http://www.zompist.com/kit.html
How to Conlang, Beginners
through Advanced guide.
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Conlang
The world atlas of language structures
(general information about different languages)
http://wals.info/
Wikipedia on Language
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language
Wikipedia on Grammatical category
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_category
Conlanging 101 from LCS
http://conlang.org/cl101.pdf
A blog about imaginary typology in imaginary
languages (tips and advice from a UG Computational
Linguist and Conlanger)
http://miniatureconlangs.blogspot.com/

* Paid resources

The Language Construction Kit

(unabridged versions)
-Beginners:
http://www.amazon.com/Language-ConstructionKit-Mark-Rosenfelder/dp/098447000X/ref=sr_1_1?ie
=UTF8&qid=1419017024&sr=8-1&keywords=langu
age+construction+kit
-Advanced:
http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-LanguageConstruction-Mark-Rosenfelder/dp/1478267534/ref
=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1419017024&sr=8-2&keywo
rds=language+construction+kit

-Lexicon creation:
http://www.amazon.com/Conlangers-LexipediaMark-Rosenfelder/dp/1493733001/ref=sr_1_3?ie=U
TF8&qid=1419017024&sr=8-3&keywords=language
+construction+kit
In the land of Invented Languages
(abridged history of conlanging)
http://www.amazon.com/Land-Invented-LanguagesAdventures-Linguistic/dp/0812980891/ref=pd_sim_
b_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=0CFC9V7Z9F9DT71VYVJ4
From Elvish to Klingon: Exploring Invented
Languages (a lively investigation of invented
languages)
http://www.amazon.com/From-Elvish-KlingonExploring-Languages/dp/0192807099/ref=pd_sim_b
_6?ie=UTF8&refRID=0CFC9V7Z9F9DT71VYVJ4
Linguistics for Dummies
http://www.amazon.com/Linguistics-DummiesRose-Marie-Dechaine/dp/1118091698/ref=sr_1
_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419017453&sr=11&keywords=linguistics+for+dummies

2.- Be patient
We live in a world where instant gratification is in
constant demand. When it comes to conlanging
there is no instant gratification, believe me. Creativity
requires time, patience, focus, effort, etc. and
conlanging is a hobby/craft that requires you to be
patient at every step.
Some days you just wont feel like conlanging or reading
anything about languages at all; this is absolutely
normal, every conlanger I know has a phase during
which his craft is simply put aside until better times.
Learn this and assimilate it into your routine because
it will make your craft more enjoyable and less like a
task.
If you do research on the word Patience you will
notice that its always tied up to the word Perseverance
and conlanging requires a great amount of the latter
because there is no finish line when pursuing this
hobby; you can certainly set goals and objectives to be
reached but to finish a language is something that has
not been discovered yet because no language is ever
completed, natural languages evolve constantly and
more words are added to their corpus regularly too,
thus making it impossible to fulfill such an endeavor.

11

Ergo, the advice of having endurance in this craft

is something to be taken to heart; many famous
conlangers such as Tolkien never finished their
conlangs, because they kept on revising, modifying
and developing their creations until the end of their
days; maybe this is one of the reasons why this passion
is pursued in the first place; conlanging may well be a
long-time and deep relationship with language.
So, work in your conlang/s when you can and when
you feel like doing so; there is no rush or need to speed
things up (unless you are being paid for it of course,
only then will time dictate what to prioritise and what
to sacrifice), learn to love the craft and it will love you
back; remember, patience is something you learn and
it requires practice too.
I leave you some proverbs that may come uplifting
when feeling down and ready to quit.
Trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit.
- Molire The patient man shows much good sense, but the
quick-tempered man displays folly at its height
-King SolomonPatience is not passive; on the contrary, it is active; it
is concentrated strength
- Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton
3.- Do ask for help when needed
When I was younger, I used to be reluctant to ask
for help even when I knew I most direly needed
it, but as time passes one matures and comes to
understand that it is the sum of collective efforts
which have made humankind advance so far in
development throughout the ages. Nobody has
ever gone far on their own, period.
There is no way around it and conlanging is
something in which feedback, advice and critique
will help you more than you think. Remember that
there is no need to reinvent the wheel; you may be
stuck on a topic you understand little about at the
moment but if you ask a fellow conlanger, a linguist
or a language teacher about it you will most likely
get over such challenge faster and move forward to
the next one.

My father used to repeat to me a proverb he always

remembered when needing advice from others:
Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in
an abundance of counselors there is safety
King SolomonSo dont be afraid and go ask for help when needing
it, there are plenty of people willing to share their
knowledge and experience from which you can
immensely benefit, and as you know the quest for
knowledge requires failing at times and common
hindrances usually include these personal questions:
What if they say no to me?
What if they ignore me?
What if they see me as a waste of time?
Get over them, be bold and dare to ask!
Because as Carl Sagan once said:
There are naive questions, tedious questions, illphrased questions, questions put after inadequate selfcriticism. But every question is a cry to understand the
world. There is no such thing as a dumb question
Then, where to go to ask questions about conlanging?
We have a nice group on Facebook with over 2k
members from several professional and cultural
backgrounds willing to lend a hand when needed:
Linguistics & Conlangs
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Linguistics.and.
conlangs/
Other forums:
http://www.unilang.org/
http://www.incatena.org/
4.- Always inquire why/how is it so?
In the history of humankind there havent been more
powerful words than Why and How?
They are the reason we have gotten this far in our
current technological development and the reason
behind the scientific method and all the answers
science has provided us with over the centuries.
Wondering why some language does something in a
certain way or how it accomplishes it will teach you
to keep your minds eye open to new possibilities,
patterns, unique characteristics, idiosyncrasies, etc.
and this attitude is a must for any conlanger.

12

Every conlanger is a born inquirer about the workings

of the mind and how this one creates meaning and
uses it to explore and advance his world. The more
you ask why and how, the more questions and
answers you will get and the better you will develop
your conlang; so have no fear and question your
own native language as a start, do research on other
languages and question them too.
You will discover and learn more than you think and
the reward will be fulfilling, trust me.
Assume nothing, Question everything!
5.- Be Organised
This advice cannot be overstated; being organised is
being in control and the last thing you want is to lose
control/track of the development of your conlang.
Once youve got midway into your creation you will
have so much data/material about it that it will be
burdensome to keep everything clean and organised;
we all have gone through such a phase and its a lot
better to begin a conlang knowing where and how
everything will be placed. The best way to organise
your conlang is to create a folder in your computer
inside which you will place all the resources pertaining
to your conlang sorted into different subfolders; also
generate an excel (spreadsheet) document and create
different tabs inside the document in order to keep
the different elements of your conlang neatly ordered
and ready to be edited at will.

6.-Welcome challenges
This is something you will encounter often:
Challenges; everything about conlanging is a
challenge, this is not like making a pre-made macaroni
and cheese dish on the microwave. The more you
delve into conlanging the more you will encounter
facets of the craft that seem daunting and perplexing.
So dont be afraid of such challenges and welcome
them because thats the only way to get through them.

Not every conlanger faces the same challenges, for

some phonology is a challenge, for others vocabulary
creation is taxing, others may find morpho-syntaxis
impossible to fully grasp and some others may find
cases unmanageable to work with; whatever your
challenge may be, welcome it! Ask for help when
This is just an example of how you can organise your needed (3rd commandment), solve your problem and
conlang; some options may vary from conlang to move to next challenge; in the end this is what makes
conlang:
conlanging so special The Challenging Experience
of creating meaning after
your own taste and will.
As Seneca once said:
Difficulties strengthen
the mind, as labor does
the body.
Remember, a good layout helps your system to be
better understood; and a conlang is a very complex 7.-Let your imagination go wild, but not too wild.
system which requires a good amount of organisation.
Along with such organisation there is another aspect Conlanging is such a creative endeavor that will
linked to such trait, DO always make a backup of your demand to squeeze your brains juices all over your
conlang, not just one backup but two or three, save work. When conlanging dont hesitate to add and/or
them in a flashdrive, on your cloud account, in an remove as many features as you desire. There are over
external hard-drive, etc apart from the original file in 6000 attested langauges in the world no one of them is
your computer. Many conlangers will tell you about an exact copy of another, each one of them has its own
the frustration and problems they have encountered flavor and characteristcs out of which you can derive
after losing a file in which they have worked for years. infinite inspiration for your creation/s.

13

Do you want to have 100 cases, 10 grammatical

genres, 20 pronouns, etc. go for it! Experiment and
see what works best for you, dont let your mind be
boxed inside a single pattern, but be careful with
craving to add every possible feature you read about
every natlang you make research on.
Unexperienced conlangers often fail at this, filled
with the passion of making something so unique and
special they start endlessly adding features they will
later regret; we have all being there at some point
and in some way, so learn from other conlangers
experiences and keep yourself from creating a
Kitchen-Sink-Conlang.
Remember and repeat this to yourself as much as
needed: when conlanging coherence is a big must.
Any thriving system thrives because of the coherence
of its arreangement and the proper work of its internal
units, and a conlang is a very complex system.
Imagine with all your mind, Believe with all your
heart and Achieve with all your might

DO always make a
backup of your conlang,
not just one backup but
two or three!

The National Council for Excellence in Critical

Thinking describes critical thinking as the ability
to conceptualise, analyse, synthesise, apply, and/or
evaluate information gathered from, or generated
by, observation, reflection, experience, reasoning, or
communication, as a guide to belief and action. As
Ashly Miller (writer) puts it Critical thinking helps
you objectively examine these factors, consider their
importance and impact on your course of action, while
simultaneously maintaining professional detachment
and a non-biased attitude. Apply this to your conlang
and see it flourish as a beautiful piece of art.

9.- Take pride in your creation/s.

Taking pride in your creation is not about getting
rewards and admiration from other people or fellow
conlangers, its about respecting the effort you have put
into creating your artwork. Never diminish your work
and never compare it to others as their intentions and
goals will most likely differ from yours.
Care about what you do and how you get it done so
at the end of day you can say well done comrade!.
Respect and honour what you do, be true to your
values and let your conlang/s be a source of enjoyment
and personal pride, after all its a path not many are
willing to tread through.
10.- Have Fun!
Last but not least, have fun while conlanging, most
conlangers already love languages and everything
related to it, and thats why they have so much fun in
spending hours, days, months and years at it, even
when there is no money at then end of their endeavors.

8.- Be critical of your conlang/s

No one will ever be a better critic of your work
than yourself, only you know and understand your
intentions, goals and purpose of your conlang.
Therefore educate yourself (1st commandment) in
order to develop the necessary criteria to criticise
and improve the system you are creating, do not fear
having to tear down that which is not working as it
should; Thomas Edison had to throw away many
failing experiments in order to achive the perfect
one.

Dont let yourself be caught bored at conlanging, many

of us have been there at some point and maybe more
than once, uninspired, apathetic and unmotivated to
continue, but be patient (2nd commandment), take
some time off and go back to it when you know youll
feel engaged and entertained in your craft. Youll learn
to love conlanging and your conlang/s, for nobody
ever loves something boring and tedious.

14

Excerpt from
Alice in Wonderland
On akwa lentem glidi nu
sub golde surya-ray.
Dwa syao bracha bukushal
zai remi ga bukway,
e syao handas bu oltaim
dirigi bota pai.

All in the golden afternoon

Full leisurely we glide;
For both our oars, with little skill,
By little arms are plied,
While little hands make vain pretence
Our wanderings to guide.

Tri wan sin pita! Garme es,

Me yao somni gro.
Yedoh yu pregi dabe me
koy fabula wud shwo.
E kontra tri pa hunta vos
un sole vos mog kwo?

Ah, cruel Three! In such an hour,

Beneath such dreamy weather,
To beg a tale of breath too weak
To stir the tiniest feather!
Yet what can one poor voice avail
Against three tongues together?

E Un-ney wan sin dera fai

edikta de Begin ya!
E Dwa-ney pregi dabe ye
absurdika in it ya!
E Tri-ney interrupti me
bat bu oltaim. Merit ya.

Imperious Prima flashes forth

Her edict to begin it:
In gentler tone Secunda hopes
There will be nonsense in it!
While Tertia interrupts the tale
Not more than once a minute.

E nau yo silensa ye
e fabula begin,
e gela chaukem zai go
tra diva-ney shulin,
amigem shwo kun farke wan
e inu garden zin.

Anon, to sudden silence won,

In fancy they pursue
The dream-child moving through a land
Of wonders wild and new,
In friendly chat with bird or beast
And half believe it true.

Walaa, fantasia fa-wek,

suy kwan yo suhefai.
Me finrakonti olo poy, ajorni fin me trai.
Bat Es yo poy, kontinu ba!
Felise voses krai.

And ever, as the story drained

The wells of fancy dry,
And faintly strove that weary one
To put the subject by,
The rest next time It is next time!
The happy voices cry.

15

Tak kresi sey rakonta for,

pyu longe it bikam,
eventa chu, un afte un,
ajib e nopinchan.
A dom zai go alegre tim
sub surya do aksham.

Thus grew the tale of Wonderland:

Thus slowly, one by one,
Its quaint events were hammered out
And now the tale is done,
And home we steer, a merry crew,
Beneath the setting sun.

Alisa! Pren kitaba sey

e pon a plasa tal,
wo kinda-drima jivi for
sub taim-ney vual,
kom wander kipi faden flor
fon blage landa dal.

Alice! A childish story take,

And with a gentle hand
Lay it where Childhoods dreams are twined
In Memorys mystic band,
Like pilgrims witherd wreath of flowers
Pluckd in a far-off land.

16

Gods Grandeur
As a minor poet and writer, poetry is one of my
favourite genres for translation. This is a poem
by Gerard Manley Hopkins that has stuck with
me throughout the years, as certain poems are
wont to do. I cant claim to have it memorised, but
certain lines tend to roll around in my mind at
various times. My own familiarity with it, combined
with its relative brevity made it an ideal choice for
translation. Tseilona is my personal conlang. It is
polysynthetic, and has been developed as a language
in line with my own personal sense of euphony and
morphological origins. Translating an English poem
into a polysynthetic language has reminded me that
poetry doesnt flow as well in translation, but I was
proud of certain expressions that emerged in this
piece. A brief example: in the line, Generations have
trod, have trod, have trod;, I managed to get the feel
of the repetitive action of treading within a compact
phrase using Tseilonas particles, rather than repeating
the verb phrase as English does.
This poem required me to coin new words, though
not as many as I expected. One problem that arose
was how to translate Holy Ghost. Given the poetic
comparisons of the Holy Ghost or Spirit with the
wind, and drawing upon personal imagery, I came up
with the word Xilqodtseil, meaning roughly, Holy
Bright Wind. Another interesting thing to note as that
the pronoun used for Xilqodtseil in Tseilona is
the 3rd person plural. I did this (as I do for God,
Koheilanu) in order to avoid tying the divine down to
either gender. I stress that though it has an etymology,
this word is a proper noun referring to that entity. The
etymology, in my opinion, also dovetailed nicely with
the final phrasing of bright wings.

Gods Grandeur (Interlinear, using standard

orthography):
The world is charged with the grandeur of God
Shitseilutamaldamlomtleikonak[k]iltsi Koheilanu
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil
Shitseilhon shitsalash, tseiluluskodeiklats
shikugalosashal
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Shiteglatleikonakmeglusliwankilgwam
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Shimogashalmal. Tsuniteilalonam[m]
almeishakasheimoshkilteilan?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
Teilakam[m]iskashakakom
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
Shitsaleishdamlomtsahontsi shimuganagontsi
shileimonagontsi
And wears mans smudge and shares mans smell:
the soil
Shiqadsamaldamlomleimoshkilmeishaka
shiqeldomaltoleilmeishaka
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
Shidokamal[l]om shiloqosatomka shitoma
And for all this, nature is never spent;
Denaltsi shilomakdamul

17

There lives the dearest freshness deep down things

Shitsanulnimulnokashid sotateilkok
And though the last lights off the black West went
Ladteilatsikshalmal[l]eg tseilukageil hanakloklats
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs
Shimajkaneilsekmagsomlanakmeg
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
Shedzteilatseilho Xilqodtseil
World broods with warm breast and with ah!
bright wings.
Damlomdenaganal domishkashutsi O! tseilne[k]
katseiltsi

Oh, morning, at the brown

brink eastward, springs
Shimajkaneilsekmagsomlanakmeg

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