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"I was very surprised at just how easy you made the whole thing feel... compared to some of the conlang sites I've wandered around, this is the least technical explanation I've seen... and that's a GOOD thing. I was also surprised, and pleased, to begin to feel as though it really was OK to just make it up as I went along, and if I didn't like it, well, I could just change it. The ideas of having to have rules, and then a ton of exceptions to them, and to need a reason why, well, those ideas are pretty hard to let go of. You helped me see that I wasn't really letting go of my organization and details, I was making it my own... and it could be a lot simpler and make more sense then anything that we normally deal with in language. A few words can certainly go a long ways."

-- Shawna Caldwell, new language builder

"Things that surprised me---probably the most important (and amazing) was that most languages are not like English! I admit, that was the main factor that kept me from trying to create a language before this---I kept thinking of English's huge vocabulary (all those synonyms! Eep!), and the grammar's zillion parts and rules and exceptions, and my mind would go blank except for this polite little flashing thought, like the computer notifying you there's been an internal error and it's going to die now, thank you, of “Languages are very fun things and we enjoy using them, of course, but making up one of our own is definitely beyond our abilities. Leave it to the experts” (I talk to myself in the plural, sorry). Hard on the heels of this realization---most languages are not like English---was an even happier realization of “I can do this! And it's tons of fun!” The third surprise was that I like the language I've just come up with---I've named it Brescani---so much that I want to keep developing it until it's as deep as a real language, with an extensive vocabulary and everything else I'd need to use it in the real world."

-- Maigen Turner -- new language builder

About the Author

Holly Lisle has published nearly thirty novels (and counting) with publishers from Penguin and Tor to HarperCollins, Warner, and Baen. She writes fantasy, science fiction, paranormal suspense and the occasional secret project in other genres, maintains a vast website, writes a mostly-regular weblog, Pocket Full of Words, does an irregular podcast, Holly Lisle On Writing, and keeps up this little web store, and she frequently writes with the mandatory cat on one shoulder and the other three glomming around the space heater on the floor. And her family is pretty cool.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter One—Why Create Languages? ........ 2

• A Language Is the Soul of Its People . 3
• Languages Shape Thought . 3
• Languages Create Conflict . 4
• Get Your Supplies Together . 5
• Your Notebook Layout . 6
• Protect Your Work . 8

Chapter Two—The English Issue, From the Language Builder's Perspective ........ 9

Chapter Three—So When You Build A Language, What Do You Build? ........ 13

• Language Creation Steps . 13

Chapter Four—The Beginnings of Created Language: Reductionary Alphabetization ........ 15

• Meeting New Language Sounds . 18
• Time to Get Your Sounds On Paper . 19
• When to Use This Technique . 23
• Finishing the RA Sheet . 23

Chapter Five—Simple Nouns and Proper Names ........ 25

• Creating Gendered Name Suffixes . 26
• Creating Personal Names . 25
• Creating Place Names . 27
• When to Use This Technique . 28
• Finishing Up With Easy Names . 29

Chapter Six—A Better Way: Creating Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives and Adverbs ........ 30

• Breaking Language Into Pieces . 30
• Building Root Words . 31
• Nouning Around . 33
• Juicy Verbs, and Juicier Concepts . 35
• Before we go on... . 38
• Next, Adjectives and Adverbs . 39
• When to Use This Technique . 42
• Final Thoughts on Words . 43

Chapter Seven—Articles: Where English Is Easy ........ 47

• What You Do . 50

Chapter Eight—Creating Plurals and Possessives ........ 51

• Divide and Conquer: Plurals vs. Possessives . 53
• Possessives: Our Collision with Linguistic Insanity . 54
• The Language Builder's Approach . 57

Chapter Nine—The Rest of the Pronouns ........ 59

• Language Shorthand . 59

Chapter Ten—The Case for Cases ........ 72

• Varieties of One-Word Communication . 72
• Using Case to Streamline the Passing of Information . 73
• Using Case To Eliminate the Need For Sentence Order . 75
• Using Case As A Worldbuilding Tool . 78
• Using Case to Add Shades of Meaning (How To Make Yes Mean No) . 80
• Case Can Divide and Conquer . 83
• When To Use This Technique . 85

Chapter Eleven—Conjugating Verbs: Using Your Roots ........ 87

Chapter Twelve—Syntax: How Words Relate to Each Other ........ 94

Chapter Thirteen—The Linguistic Background Sheet, & Why It Will Save Your Sanity ........ 101

Chapter Fourteen—Creating A Writing System for Your Language ........ 105

• In Conclusion . 111
• AUTHOR'S GRANT OF LIMITED REPRODUCTION RIGHTS . 114
• The Grammar Link . 115
• Coming Soon To Shop.HollyLisle.Com . 116
• About the Author . 117