lizardus: Inspired by this and the exchange above, I decided to make you guys a thing. (long post warning!) First, we sort the list given to us alphabetically for reference (I added Aaron Tveit and Eddie Redmayne as well). Here: Aaron Alistair Blagden Brammer Donnelly Eddie Fee Fra George Hugh Iwan Killian Lewis Redmayne Skinner Tveit Second. By the original post, „killian donnelly hugh skinner fra fee iwan lewis alistair brammer george blagden“ should translate to „please send help“. However, in an actual language that phrase would not be nowhere near that long. In most languages, simple meanings are conveyed by simple words (love, hate, help, please) and longer words are for more complex meanings (atonement, astonishment, spectacular, determined, worship). Thus actual „please send help“ is far more likely to be „eddie lewis hugh“ or „george tveitmayne“. In building a conlang for a few phrases (like Tolkien’s Black Speech) instead of whole language (like Quenya and Sindarin), we start with very simple terms. We take pronouns for now. (Actually, building a conlang starts with choosing sounds and grammar, but we’ll go with English sounds for now and to hell with grammar) Some languages use pronouns as separates (English: I, you, we). Some use word affixes instead, opting those words out. Some combine both, leaving various options to interpret in (Estonian: I = mina/ma; run = jooksma; I run = (ma) jooksen). Alright, we’ll make this language similar to English, say it’s vaguely related to English. Now, pronouns are generally very short (1-2 syllables). The shortest words in the list are of course „fra“ and „fee“. Question: how does this language convey gender pronouns? English has female, male and inanimate. German has female, male and neutral. Estonian has neutral and inanimate. Some languages don’t bother with female and male and go for „spirit“ and „matter“ instead. In French the word „we“ varies depending on whether „we“ includes males or not. Okay, we’re related to English. So we’ll say that fra = he and fee = she. What is „it“? Do we have „it“? How about we say that the second shortest word hugh is „it“! (We don’t have to have it. But I want to.) There is also another four-letter-word (but two-syllable this time): „iwan“. Hey, idea – how about i = I/me and iwan = we/us („multiple me“)? (Maybe i isn’t pronounced liked our I, but more like in the end of sushi?) Hey, look, we already are developing grammar! „Us“ was formed with suffix  -wan, so the other plural pronouns should also have suffixes. How about „them“? A female group could be feewan and male frawan and a mixed group hughwan. Now, those aren’t good to pronounce. Language forms over time and those words probably have changed. I’m rather certain it’s more like fewan, frawan, huwan. It’s also very likely that our tongues would tire of those wans and decide to drop the ending. So we’ll have fewa, frawa, huwa. (or maybe huwwa, for extra lulz) This gives us a half-completed pronoun table: 1s – i 2s – ? 3s – fra/fee/hugh 1p – iwan 2p – ? 3p – frawa/fewa/huwwa Now, we are missing second person pronouns. Let’s find another short word. Three letters: done. Four letters: done. Five letters: damn, there are many of them. Aaron, Eddie, Lewis, Tveit. Or better, we could choose on the syllable. Which ones have just one syllable (that haven’t been used yet)? George and Tveit. I’ll go with Tveit because why not. 2s = tveit AKA 2p would be tveit + -wan. Tveitwan. Terribly long for a simple pronoun, don’t you think? Oh, hey, let’s figure with sounds changes. In my mouth it tried to morph into „twitwan“, but that’s a tad bit rude in old good English. Let’s try again… waitwan? Weitwan? Whitwan? Whiwan? And from there it kinda evolved to whiwwa. Good. Let’s check the updated table. 1s – i 2s – tveit (I won’t reduce it to whee! because then it would lose the name allusion). 3s – fra/fee/hugh 1p – iwan 2p – whiwwa 3p – frawa/fewa/huwwa Seemingly, tveit and whiwwa have no relation. Don’t fret. Maybe one of them is a borrowing. (For a note, that is NOT how sound change works in real life. In real life, it follows certain rules and exceptions are rare. I am just messing around for lulz in here.) Alright. Concepts. We want to say „please send help“/“I love you“. The original post is far funnier that way, but let’s be logical here. Okay, „I love you“ (minus „love“) is „i ? tveit“ (well, not so different from English!). I randomly picked george for love (because I love George). So „I love you“ would be „i george tveit“. But let’s expand! Let’s translate „please send help“. What do we need for that? Send, verb in second person. Help as noun. Please as adverb, polite request/command. Three pretty simple words. We’d probably also need simple words to represent them in our proto-language. I chose Lewis, Eddie and Aaron for this. Lewis, verb in second person (also dictionary form). Now, in English verbs look the same across all pronouns (except she/he with –s suffix). We can use that here too. So, declination: i lewis, tveit lewis, fra/fee/hugh lewises, iwan lewis, whiwwa lewis, frawa/fewa/huwwa lewis. Damn. Okay, let’s keep going. I went with Eddie for „help“ and Aaron for „please“. Result? (in the same word order English uses) „Please send help“ = „aaron lewis eddie“. Here you go.   I also compiled a handy list. And for your amusement, I decided to include a few more words/phrases.   PRONOUNS: 1s – i 2s – tveit 3s – fra/fee/hugh 1p – iwan 2p – whiwwa 3p – frawa/fewa/huwwa NOUNS Activism/activist – mayne Barricade – donnelly Canine – blagdog (dog = dog) Feline – blagden (cat = den) Government – skinner Help – eddie Love – george Revolution – redmay (from redmayne – revolutioning) VERBS Dying - killian Helping - edes Overthrowing – reddie Revolutioning – redmayne (literally „overthrow activism“) Sending – lewis PHRASES/IDIOMS/EXAMPLE SENTENCES/STUFF I love you – „i george tveit“ Please send help – „aaron lewis eddie“ Please (adverb) – aaron Overthrowing the government – „reddie skinner“, in youth slang „redskin“ or „PATRIAAA!~“ Supporting the revolution without directly participating – „reddie eddie“ („helping with overthrowing“)   I made a thing. Feel free to laugh at how ridiculous this is. And feel free to progress it should you want to for some reason.
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lizardus:

Inspired by this and the exchange above, I decided to make you guys a thing. (long post warning!)

First, we sort the list given to us alphabetically for reference (I added Aaron Tveit and Eddie Redmayne as well). Here:

  • Aaron
  • Alistair
  • Blagden
  • Brammer
  • Donnelly
  • Eddie
  • Fee
  • Fra
  • George
  • Hugh
  • Iwan
  • Killian
  • Lewis
  • Redmayne
  • Skinner
  • Tveit

Second. By the original post, „killian donnelly hugh skinner fra fee iwan lewis alistair brammer george blagden“ should translate to „please send help“. However, in an actual language that phrase would not be nowhere near that long. In most languages, simple meanings are conveyed by simple words (love, hate, help, please) and longer words are for more complex meanings (atonement, astonishment, spectacular, determined, worship). Thus actual „please send help“ is far more likely to be „eddie lewis hugh“ or „george tveitmayne“.

In building a conlang for a few phrases (like Tolkien’s Black Speech) instead of whole language (like Quenya and Sindarin), we start with very simple terms. We take pronouns for now.

(Actually, building a conlang starts with choosing sounds and grammar, but we’ll go with English sounds for now and to hell with grammar)

Some languages use pronouns as separates (English: I, you, we). Some use word affixes instead, opting those words out. Some combine both, leaving various options to interpret in (Estonian: I = mina/ma; run = jooksma; I run = (ma) jooksen). Alright, we’ll make this language similar to English, say it’s vaguely related to English. Now, pronouns are generally very short (1-2 syllables). The shortest words in the list are of course „fra“ and „fee“.

Question: how does this language convey gender pronouns? English has female, male and inanimate. German has female, male and neutral. Estonian has neutral and inanimate. Some languages don’t bother with female and male and go for „spirit“ and „matter“ instead. In French the word „we“ varies depending on whether „we“ includes males or not.

Okay, we’re related to English. So we’ll say that fra = he and fee = she. What is „it“? Do we have „it“? How about we say that the second shortest word hugh is „it“! (We don’t have to have it. But I want to.)

There is also another four-letter-word (but two-syllable this time): „iwan“. Hey, idea – how about i = I/me and iwan = we/us („multiple me“)? (Maybe i isn’t pronounced liked our I, but more like in the end of sushi?)

Hey, look, we already are developing grammar! „Us“ was formed with suffix  -wan, so the other plural pronouns should also have suffixes. How about „them“? A female group could be feewan and male frawan and a mixed group hughwan.

Now, those aren’t good to pronounce. Language forms over time and those words probably have changed. I’m rather certain it’s more like fewan, frawan, huwan. It’s also very likely that our tongues would tire of those wans and decide to drop the ending. So we’ll have fewa, frawa, huwa. (or maybe huwwa, for extra lulz)

This gives us a half-completed pronoun table:

  • 1s – i
  • 2s – ?
  • 3s – fra/fee/hugh
  • 1p – iwan
  • 2p – ?
  • 3p – frawa/fewa/huwwa

Now, we are missing second person pronouns. Let’s find another short word. Three letters: done. Four letters: done. Five letters: damn, there are many of them. Aaron, Eddie, Lewis, Tveit. Or better, we could choose on the syllable. Which ones have just one syllable (that haven’t been used yet)? George and Tveit. I’ll go with Tveit because why not.

2s = tveit

AKA 2p would be tveit + -wan. Tveitwan. Terribly long for a simple pronoun, don’t you think? Oh, hey, let’s figure with sounds changes. In my mouth it tried to morph into „twitwan“, but that’s a tad bit rude in old good English. Let’s try again… waitwan? Weitwan? Whitwan? Whiwan? And from there it kinda evolved to whiwwa. Good. Let’s check the updated table.

  • 1s – i
  • 2s – tveit (I won’t reduce it to whee! because then it would lose the name allusion).
  • 3s – fra/fee/hugh
  • 1p – iwan
  • 2p – whiwwa
  • 3p – frawa/fewa/huwwa

Seemingly, tveit and whiwwa have no relation. Don’t fret. Maybe one of them is a borrowing.

(For a note, that is NOT how sound change works in real life. In real life, it follows certain rules and exceptions are rare. I am just messing around for lulz in here.)

Alright. Concepts. We want to say „please send help“/“I love you“. The original post is far funnier that way, but let’s be logical here.

Okay, „I love you“ (minus „love“) is „i ? tveit“ (well, not so different from English!).

I randomly picked george for love (because I love George). So „I love you“ would be „i george tveit“.

But let’s expand! Let’s translate „please send help“. What do we need for that?

  • Send, verb in second person.
  • Help as noun.
  • Please as adverb, polite request/command.

Three pretty simple words. We’d probably also need simple words to represent them in our proto-language. I chose Lewis, Eddie and Aaron for this.

Lewis, verb in second person (also dictionary form). Now, in English verbs look the same across all pronouns (except she/he with –s suffix). We can use that here too. So, declination: i lewis, tveit lewis, fra/fee/hugh lewises, iwan lewis, whiwwa lewis, frawa/fewa/huwwa lewis.

Damn.

Okay, let’s keep going. I went with Eddie for „help“ and Aaron for „please“. Result? (in the same word order English uses)

„Please send help“ = „aaron lewis eddie“.

Here you go.

 

I also compiled a handy list. And for your amusement, I decided to include a few more words/phrases.

 

PRONOUNS:

  • 1s – i
  • 2s – tveit
  • 3s – fra/fee/hugh
  • 1p – iwan
  • 2p – whiwwa
  • 3p – frawa/fewa/huwwa

NOUNS

  • Activism/activist – mayne
  • Barricade – donnelly
  • Canine – blagdog (dog = dog)
  • Feline – blagden (cat = den)
  • Government – skinner
  • Help – eddie
  • Love – george
  • Revolution – redmay (from redmayne – revolutioning)

VERBS

  • Dying - killian
  • Helping - edes
  • Overthrowing – reddie
  • Revolutioning – redmayne (literally „overthrow activism“)
  • Sending – lewis

PHRASES/IDIOMS/EXAMPLE SENTENCES/STUFF

  • I love you – „i george tveit“
  • Please send help – „aaron lewis eddie“
  • Please (adverb) – aaron
  • Overthrowing the government – „reddie skinner“, in youth slang „redskin“ or „PATRIAAA!~“
  • Supporting the revolution without directly participating – „reddie eddie“ („helping with overthrowing“)

 

I made a thing. Feel free to laugh at how ridiculous this is. And feel free to progress it should you want to for some reason.

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