The Quirks Of Language And How To Use Them

Today I am finally going to start discussing something I have been dying to talk about since the beginning of this course and something I have been meaning do to for a very long time know. As I have mentioned before I have always been fascinated with constructed languages, and so it has been my dream for some time know to actually construct my own, and this course has given some of the preliminary knowledge to make that happen. So for today's subject we get to dip our feet into the process of actually constructing a language, and more specifically, the quirky attributes that languages naturally develop. 

              So the idea behind this is that when you are trying to create and constructed language, usually the goal is to fit it into some sort of fantasy world, so you are trying to make a language that seem like it has naturally developed over hundreds or thousands of years. So with this in mind, it’s a good idea to make sure when creating your language to include a fair number of linguistic, grammatical and syntactical quirks. Having grammatical rules that aren't universal, and adding odd exceptions to rules may seem odd at the time, but really adds a sense of depth to your language. A great example of some of these oddities in English is this poem I found. It wonderfully demonstrates how some things in a language just don’t make sense.

               Now as fun as it might be to make an odd and twisted language with conflicting rules, it is also important to show some restraint in a number of areas for a number of reason. firstly if you make you language too convoluted no one will ever be able to learn it or speak it fluently. But more importantly, if you want to make your constructed language realistic it is important to shy away from creating phonetic abstractions. Even though many languages have odd and varied syntactical rules, they almost always have an ironclad set of consistent phonetic sounds. Certain languages doesn't use specific sounds and highly use others, so while it's important to establish which sounds your language will and wont use (a great way to determine this is using the International Phonetic Alphabet) you must then maintain consistency with those sounds. 

               These are just two good examples, in my opinion, of universal linguistic rules and quirks that can really help establish realism in a constructed language. And I can assure you will be incorporated into my own. Which I am excited to say we will start to work on with my next post.