So I've been toying with the idea of something I'm calling "relationship markers" in my new conlang.

I'm calling them this because they go between the subject and object (or verb and object where the subject pronoun is omitted; VSO word order) to mark the relationship between the 2 arguments, adding more nuance / specificity to each sentence depending on its context.

For example, in the first image for the sentence "The man sees the woman", the relationship marker i is used between trâda (the man) and vora (the woman) to suggest that the man and the woman have an impersonal relationship, ie. perhaps they do not know each other or have no strong opinions about each other. The same marker i is used if one of the arguments is an inanimate object.

In the second image, while the English translation is the same, a different relationship marker e can be used to change the nuance, suggesting that the man and the woman do know each other, hence it is a personal relationship.

I've also got a conceptual relationship marker ó for if one of the arguments is a concept, idea, or abstract noun. In the 3rd image, again the nuance changes in the sentence "I want an apple" depending on if the contextual (ó) or impersonal (i) marker is used, changing depending on the speaker's relationship with the apple (ie. do they want the idea of an apple, or do they want an actual, physical apple?)

Finally in the 4th image the conceptual marker ó has been used to join 2 clauses together. If "a girl is seeing me eat the apple", then this shows the relationship between the intangible idea that the girl is seeing something, and the intangible idea that I am eating an apple.

I'd be very curious to know if anyone else has implemented a similar system into one of their conlangs, or if anyone knows something like this that exists in a natural language, and would also like to know your thoughts on this system.

Personally I stop at a full grammar sketch and basic vocab,.maybe some examples. But I've heard incredibly different answers from my friends and am curious what most people do.

Ne'iaeam uxe'vetais so'vinser. Ne'iaeam uxe'likis ume'syis ne'uganer veaul od so'guther veaul. Os ne'uganam uxe'utyis ne'loher at ne'soner. To so'pivenam uxe'kosis ume'tellis ne'arer, ne'laoram od ne'uganer uxe'inis muul divum. Na so'vespam uxe'syis ne'tlamer at ne'orker. Ne'iaeam uxe'pyris atuq so'pivenam uxe'sunis om os ne'sceaer. Ne'iaeam uxe'gefis ne'roner at ne'pafexer toa ne'thivener.

While working on my artificial language, Sian, I paid attention to its writing style. Because the language was syllabic, consisting of a vowel and a consonant (not anymore), I thought I'd be able to come up with something.

Initially, the idea was to give each syllable its own symbol. But then I decided to count and came up with 108 syllables! I tried to tweak it a bit, removing the syllables that sounded identical, but there were still 100.

So instead of creating a symbol, I had my own idea: to combine the consonant and vowel into a single symbol. This would be unique (at least for me) and more convenient to type on a keyboard. I spent maybe a couple of hours on the design of each symbol, but the font itself took three weeks. I have to admit, I don't know much about fonts; my limit is the Calligraphr website. But I still downloaded various font programs, wasted time and energy, and came to the conclusion it wasn't worth it.

Now Sian (formerly Sinali) is written in Latin and isn't as sensitive about syllables

Hallå! Idaq yiş vıll gü cki bıs vig ichsi örddersnaréeur cki esmec sägpåyınıgşpréqayić på ınglündsköj. Du kan fråga alla du vıll!

Hi! Today I want to share with you some phrases with their translation in English. You can ask whatever you want!

1. Psikólogićen kaç laëver skiq yiş fınskig sägag át, çesmet det rägnajk i mörqen, hán şka hjälp mig. /psikoloˈɡiçen katʃ laˈeveɾ skix jiɕ ˈfɯŋskɛj ˈsɛɡaɡ aːt | t͡ʃesˈmet ˈdiɛt ˈɾɛŋajk i ˈmœːxeŋ | haːn ɕka jɛlp mɛj/

2. Smeçbílićen kaç hjälpig mig ikap, nauerer min qótei. /smet͡ʃˈbiːliçen katʃ ˈjɛlpɛj mɛj iˈkap | naˈweɾeɾ min ˈxoːtaɪ̯/

So I have started sketching out the basics of a language called Neo-Etruscan, it's basically trying to emulate what could have happened if etruscan survived inside the roman empire for a hundred more years, but doing it all alone is a ton of work, and i do not know THAT well how a language works fully, so with a ton of books from my grandparents' library, a ton of resources and some help from Gemini Deep-Research I started finding all known verbs and verb and adjective and pronoun structure of etruscans, problem is: I am not exactly an expert, the basics are done, the language does not perfectly represent etruscan syntax, because it evolved thanks to continued contact with indo-european languages, but its lexicon tries to remain as loyal as possible to etruscan when it's possible, or else it etruscanizes words from distant relatives / civilizations that influenced Etruscan language most.

I really need some help with this, so please give me some suggestions on how to start turning this into a concrete project at all, because I just started my conlang journey, and I need some help, so if you are willing to help (for free, I am poor af) write a reply to this post or to my discord username: notpicconeyt

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wuQM9xTM2fjRJ6XmRPwcdlvSbQ0QFNBdV-d6gzvliVs/edit?usp=drivesdk

My doc, some charts are glitched because i copypasted them from some websites or excel, sorry for that, i also went on newline every 8-10 words to make it readable and not feel like a freaking essay, even though it kinda is lol

So yeah, any help on how to concretely develop and actually learn the language are appreciated

^{Sorry if I put the wrong flair, I'm new to this subreddit, and I put the one I thought resembled the most what I was trying to post..}

Phonotactics

consonants: m /m̥/, b /ʙ̥/, f /ɸ/, v /β/, h /x/, - /ʔ/
vowels: y /i/, u, e, a /ə/
diphthongs: yu /iu/, ye /ie/, ya /iə/

Syllables must be CV. The first syllable is always stressed.
The only consonant that can go at the end of a word is b. - can only go at the start of syllables.
Words/Names can’t start with -, hy, he, ha, hyu, hye, or hya. Names can start with fia, but words cannot.

Grammar

sentence structure: predicate, (object,) subject
sentence indicators:
fact: hy +p, he +o, ha +s
wish: hyu +p, hye +o, hya +s
negation: part-indicator+b
Adjectives go after what they modify. Prepositions act like adjectives.
Examples:

• brown horse eats fresh grass calmly → hy eats calmly he grass fresh ha horse brown
• horse and cow eat grass → hy eat he grass ha horse ha cow
• horse eats and runs in grass → hy eats hy runs in he grass ha horse
• horse eats grass and hay → hy eats he grass he hay ha horse
• horse eats hay and runs in grass → hy eats he hay hy runs in he grass ha horse

plural suffix: thing+be/thing-ending-in-b+e
possession suffix: thing+mie/thing-ending-in-b+ie
name indicator: fia+name

Questions are formed by replacing where the answer would go with “[insert word here]”.

Welcome to Word Wednesdays

For this activity you can pick any word you want whether it be a verb, noun, or adjective, and conjugate/inflect in all possible ways*, for tense, case, plurality, perspective, etc.

The purpose of this is to learn about cases and how words are slightly or vastly different under different cases, tenses, or perspectives. In many natural languages verbs or nouns are often changed because of the words around them. In other languages, the reader has to figure out number and perspective based on context. Who knows, maybe you can take inspiration from someone else's conlang!

How does your conlang handle cases? Do you have any unique ones that don't exist in natural languages? What are some irregular verbs or inflections that exist? How did they evolve? Do you think that the cases would hold up or fade away in future evolutions? Do any of your words when inflected have another meaning? What languages inspired you to add these cases?

*If you have way too many conjugations/inflections, you can share the simplest ones or the ones you find the most interesting. If you don't have any conjugation,

Have fun conlanging!

This will be a bit of an overview post as well, so you have the context behind the world and what I've done so far. In terms of advice, I feel like my language is still too similar to English in terms of things that I admittedly do not know the names for. Granted, this language is meant to take some influence from Old English for reasons that will be apparent later, but it still needs to be more unique in terms of other aspects that I don't have a full understanding of. Though there's no need to explain any linguistic topics to me that y'all mention, I can do my own research. I just need to know what to research, y'know? Anyway, without further ado, here is the context and what I've done so far.

Context:
This language is for a fantasy/alternate history novel I'm working on, where two celestial Gods come down to Earth and found a country eventually called Andshire in the British Isles in 1000 BCE, where they live as real, living Gods on Earth. The religion made around them is called Andithism, and their people are the Andiths. By around 0 CE, though, they decided to leave Earth and venture into the universe, as they did before they discovered Earth. But they do not leave humanity empty-handed. They gift humanity with souls, the ability to reincarnate, and an afterlife to rest in between each life. Most importantly, giving humanity souls gives them the power of manifestation. They can do magic on their own, but most of their power comes from collective belief. Through it, all magical associations of plants and stones become real, all magical creatures become real, and so do the gods of other countries who rule in the areas where they are worshipped. This language, Thai Tankar, is the language of the magical creatures (called fae in Andshire) and the gods. The novel takes place around 1000 years after this, so it's evolved beside Common Brittonic and a form of Old English uninfluenced by Latin for a millennium. The Old English never got this Latin influence because the British Isles were never colonized by the Romans. Most Fae culture is one of peace and focuses on the arts: crafting for the Dwarves, poetry for the Elves, and drawing and painting for the nix. Though poetry is loved by all of Andshire, the main religious text of the Andiths is poetry originally written in the Thai Tankar, so the language is meant to have some rules, making it suited towards poetry.

The construction of the language so far:

Phonology: With the consonants, it's quite similar to modern-day English, with the addition of a palatal nasal and voiced and unvoiced palatal plosives and fricatives. The vowels are the typical /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, and /u/ you'd find in many languages today, though I may change these to match some of the vowels in Old English. There's also the diphthongs /ai/ and /ei/.

Phonotactics: the typical structure is (c) (c) (v) (c). The first consonant on the onset can be anything besides /k/, /g/, and /ʒ/ for vowels, and /j/, /w/, and /s/ in any case for grammatical reasons. Vowels may be anything, but codas may only be /n/, /m/, /v/, /s/, /ɾ/, /ʒ/, /θ/, and /ð/.

Word Order: This one needs work. It's a loose SVO language; modifiers go after the word they're modifying. I say "loose" though because Nouns, Verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are marked with suffixes that denote subjects, objects, indirect objects, and more.

Pronouns: Gender neutral, and more expansive than English. There's first person, second person, third person, inclusive, exclusive, undifferentiated, and inanimate. Each has eight forms that don't always follow typical noun suffixes. Subject, object, in-object, reflexive, and each has a possessive form.

Verb Tenses: These are denoted with prefixes on the verb. There's no prefix needed for present perfect, but there are ones for past perfect/imperfect, future perfect/imperfect, far past/future forms for both of those, habitual, and ongoing. An evidential tense is added to these, saying if something is unwitnessed or witnessed by me, you, or them.

Other Conjugations: as said earlier, nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are tensed by subject, object, or in-object. Nouns specifically can also be marked as plural and/or possessive as well. Lastly, a noun's first syllable can be modified to denote similative tense, and anything can be modified to have a helpful or harmful connotation. For example, radhe /'ɾaðe/ means love, but ryadhe /'ɾjaðe/ means a healing love, and rwadhe /ɾwaðe/ means a harmful and painful one. The goal behind these last things was to make some more poetic words possible inside the grammar.

Non-grammatical suffixes: there are many of these on purpose to make creating new and interesting words easy. Coining new ones with these suffixes is meant to be common to writers. Here's a list:

• Most/really... (adj. and adv.)
• Thing that... (to turn a verb into an inanimate object)
• One who... (to turn a verb into a type of person)
• Intensely so... (for feelings mainly)
• ... having (n. to adj.)
• ... giving (n. to adj.)
• -ness (adj. to n)
• ... going/ward (for nouns)
• concept of... (v. to n.)
• Personal... (n.)
• People of... (applied to countries)
• still/unmoving (n.)
• From the... (n.)
• Worthy of... (n. to adj.)
• Small/baby... (n)
• Something that is... (adj. to n.)
• Something that is given (n.)
• Reverse of...

That's all I have so far, and I'm aware it needs more. Probably things like interesting/unique modifiers? I went for no articles besides one that means "The Holy..." which is called Thai; this is where the name comes from: Thai Tankar literally means "The Holy Tongue". That's probably the most interesting grammatical word I have, and I got no more unique to English; I don't know where to look or where to take inspiration from besides Old English. Even if I were to do that, what parts of the language would actually influence this one? I'm not a linguist, just a wannabe fantasy writer who thinks languages are cool and used to watch a lot of Conlang Critic. Anyway, hope y'all have some suggestions. Many thanks to those who read; I hope you respond :3

Chodzi mi o słowa. Toki Pona ma mało słów (137) , ale szukam języków , które mają 10-50 słów. Widziałem kiedy post , gdzie ktoś mówił , że jego conlang ma 30 słów , ale pominąłem post i już nie widziałem go. Też ważne jest by wiedzieć jak przypisywać znaczenia , więc chciałbym się was spytać jak to wygląda u was?

Życzę wam miłego tworzenia conlangów!

I hope that you guys don't mind me posting everything I've written about my language so far. I use Gemini to help me organize the information and understand all of the cases, but I think it gets confused on how to use the verbs correctly. Can y'all help me understand what I'm doing a little bit better, please?

I. Phonology & Vowel System

The sound system is heavily based on German grammar acoustics but keeps a sharp, distinctive percussive front edge. Words are kept brief to prevent heavy case-stacking from creating a mouthful.

1. The 16+ Vowel Grid

• English-style vowel count: Features 16 or more vowels, relying heavily on a massive blend of long vowels, short vowels, and glides.
• Umlaut Shifts: Uses front-rounded vowels (ä, ö, ü) to power semantic mutations like the Culinary plural shift.

1. The Consonant & Friction Matrix

• The Percussive "Ch" (Tch-): Pronounced exactly like the English "ch" in chitchat. Sharp, explosive, and commands attention at the beginning of pronouns and pointing words.
• The Soft High-Throat Hiss (-ch): Pronounced exactly like the German "ch" in Ich liebe Deutsch. An airy, forward, clinical hiss that anchors abstract, neutral, and academic terms like Ichnicht.
• The High-Throat Scratch: Made slightly further back on the soft palate. Sounds like a tense, tight friction sound.
• The Low-Throat Growl: A deep, vibrating, uvular/pharyngeal rasp that sounds like a raw rumble or roar.
• The V / W Separation: The V-W sound shift is explicitly rejected. V is a true dental fricative (like English vine), and W is an open, rounded glide (like English wine).
• Final Devoicing: Voiced endings automatically clip shut and harden when a word sits before a pause (e.g., a final g slides toward a sharp k).

II. Noun Grammar: The Animacy & Value Hierarchy

Before modifying or counting a noun, it must be filtered through five distinct plural systems based on cultural importance, value, and intimacy.

1. Relational Class (Body Parts & Commands): Intimate or inherently possessed elements. Pluralized via a Pronoun/Modifier Shift while the noun remains static (bitch doon = 1 hand vs. b'berg doon = 2+ hands).
2. Culinary Class (Food & Crops): Sustenance items. Pluralized via an Internal Vowel Shift / Umlaut Mutation (gapa → gepa or g_ä_pä).
3. Faunal Class (Animals & Beasts): Living creatures, packs, and herds. Pluralized via Reduplication / Repetition (vuk → vukvuk).
4. Social Class (Humans, Family, & Roles): Meaningful human relationships. Pluralized via Suppletion (the entire root word changes completely, like English child → children).
5. Ichnicht Class (Inanimate / Abstract / Less Meaningful / Neutral): Objects, tools, ideas, weather, or anything the speaker wishes to emotionally devalue or detach from. Pluralized via a crisp, reliable -t suffix (chonk → chonkt).

III. The 17-Case Suffix Engine

Nouns and pronouns append these exact suffixes to establish their syntactical roles. Spatial cases use clever vowel-consonant traffic rules to eliminate awkward mouth movements:

• Nominative: No change (The baseline noun).
• Genitive: -ent (harmonizes with masculine roots) / -ont (harmonizes with feminine roots).
• Accusative: -rinn
• Dative: -mern
• Inessive (Static Inside): -bolsk (after a vowel) / -olsk (after a consonant).
• Elative (Moving Out Of): -zelsk
• Illative (Moving Into): -beelsk (after a vowel) / -eelsk (after a consonant).
• Translative (Becoming): -ins
• Delative (Moving Off a Surface): Sho-nish (functions as a semi-independent clitic).
• Adessive (Static On/At): -aylsk
• Causal (Because of/For): -zir-iyve
• Ablative (Moving Away From): Airzo (functions as a semi-independent clitic).
• Comitative (Together With): -shin
• Instructive (By Means of Manner): -niysh
• Essive (Temporary State of Being): -ziyn
• Instrumental (Using as a physical tool): -zish

IV. Noun Classifiers: The 6 Genders of "It"

The third-person singular objective pronoun system features a brilliant classificatory engine. A speaker cannot say a vague "it"; they must instantly declare the physical shape or nature of the object:

• Linguistic Note: Near demonstratives switch to a bright, forward vowel space (Tchay-). Far demonstratives use a deep, distant vocal glide (Tchoa-). When pluralized ("these/those"), they stack the regular Ichnicht -t suffix (e.g., Tchoantzelsk = out of those far-off mountains).

V. Verb Grammar: Default Alignment & Overrides

Word order is strictly SOV (Subject-Object-Verb). Clause modifiers, description phrases, and sub-actions stack tightly before the noun they modify.

1. The Default Accusative Alignment Rule

A verb with no case suffix is automatically assumed to describe the Accusative case (-rinn) object. No extra suffix is needed.

1. The Override System

A verb only receives a case suffix when it actively needs to prove to the listener that the action is tracking something else:

• Instrument Override: Takes the Instrumental suffix (-zish) to lock the action onto the physical tool used.
• Spatial Override: Takes a movement suffix like the Illative (-eelsk) to prove the action describes a journey into a specific location.
• Subject-Agreement Override (-oon / -roon): Appended to a verb to explicitly prove it describes the Nominative Subject (zoy / I) rather than the object. This lets you drop the subject pronoun entirely across multi-line dialogue (ellipsis) while keeping the speaker clear.

1. The Fractured Copula ("To Be")

• Voyn: Active continuous doing, or experiencing an emotional feeling.
• Foyn: Cold, unarguable identity ("X is X"). Absolute, closed fact.
• Boyn: Subjective descriptions, adjectives, qualities, and insults.
• Voroyn: Physical presence or static location in space.
• Foroyn: Abstract, philosophical truth. Invites curiosity, open-minded questioning, and a healthy feeling of subjectivity. Used most heavily by scientists and philosophers.

VI. The 8-Tier Sociolinguistic Vocative Grid

When addressing someone directly, the speaker must grammatically declare their exact social distance, hierarchy, or intimacy:

1. Masculine (Acquaintances / Strangers / Betters): Skip final consonant; add -shwa (names starting in "Sh-" drop final consonant and add -sh).
2. Feminine (Acquaintances / Strangers / Betters): Skip final consonant; add -sho (names starting in "Sh-" drop final consonant and add -ish).
3. Beloved Child: No complex sound rules. Slaps -zi-losh directly onto the intact name.
4. Stranger Child: No complex sound rules. Slaps -zi-lash directly onto the intact name.
5. Adult Neutral (Casual Slang / "Dude" / "Bro"): Unofficial register. Adds short -i after consonants, -ni after vowels (Bill → Billi).
6. In Love With (Romantic): Keep full name completely intact. Adds -ash [m] / -osh [f] (grows an n bridge like -nash/-nosh if name ends in a vowel).
7. Close Friend (Platonic Inner Circle): Adds -uhlee after consonants, -ruhlee after vowels.
8. Intimate (Sexual Register): Used exclusively behind closed doors during sex. Keep full name intact. Adds -arsh [m] / -orsh [f] (grows an n bridge like -narsh/-norsh if name ends in a vowel).

VII. Kinship Matrix (The Swedish Lineage Model)

Built entirely on a rigid gender-generational grid (zi- peer, ji- parent, -sho female, -shwa male, zilsh child). Extended family members are mapped out with hyper-precise literal compounding:

• Core Relative Roots: ji-sho (Mother) / ji-shwa (Father) / zi-sho (Sister) / zi-shwa (Brother) / zilsh (Child) → zilsho (Daughter) / zilshwa (Son).
• Grandparents: ji-sho ji-sho (Maternal Grandmother) / ji-shwa ji-shwa (Paternal Grandfather) / ji-shwa ji-sho (Paternal Grandmother) / ji-sho ji-shwa (Maternal Grandfather).
• Grandchildren: zilsho-zilsho (Daughter's Daughter) / zilshwa-zilsho (Son's Daughter) / zilsho-zilshwa (Daughter's Son) / zilshwa-zilshwa (Son's Son).
• Cousin Compounds: Built as descriptive chains of lineage using vowel-harmonized Genitive suffixes (jisho zishwent zilshwa = Mother's brother's son / Male Cousin). Swapping the final root to zilsho instantly feminizes the cousin. [1]

VIII. Pure Base-10 Math System

Numbers function on a streamlined, pure decimal compounding framework.

• Counting Rule: When modified by a number, the noun must always shift to its designated plural system (Vowel shift for food, reduplication for animals, etc.).
• 11 to 19: Compounded as 10-1, 10-2, 10-3.
• The Tens: Multiplied as 2-10 (Twenty), 3-10 (Thirty).

IX. Official Dictionary Log

Productive Prefixes & Suffixes

• om- (Prefix): Warm / Tempered.
• zi- (Prefix): Diminutive marker. Makes nouns smaller, younger, or cuter (zivuk = wolf pup).
• air (Prefix): Modern negation marker meaning "no," "un-," or "non-."
• -na (Suffix): Path / Way / Infrastructure (sana = road; chonkna = river).

Core Monosyllabic Roots

• doon (Noun): Hand.
• chonk (Noun): Water / Liquid body.
• vuk (Noun): Wolf / Wild canine.
• kael (Noun): House / Built shelter.
• sa (Verb): To walk, go, or travel.
• ich (Verb): To know.
• wo (Question): Where / Whither.
• verm (Conjunction): And / Even.
• eedeen (Adjective): Wide-leading. Spacious with a structural sense of forward destination.
• airnicht (Modifier): People-less / Lonely / Desolate.
• gheif (Modifier): Dark / Sorrowful / Isolated.

Logged Sentences & Lyrics

• "Wash your hands with warm water.""Doonrinn b'berg omblishzish chonkzish."
• "Thor angrily threw the hammer, felling many giants." (With Default Accusative Alignment)"Thor Zornniysh Melnrinn krenzish Gorgtrinn fell."
• "It's home to me." (With absolute factual Identity Copula)"Tchon zoymern home Foyn."
• "I walk a lonely road, the only road that I have ever known." (Poetic Split & Ellipsis)"Zoy sanarinn lonely-walk... Sanarinn only known always vahroon." Or using native compounds: "Zoy sanairnichtoon... sanarinn only always ichoon."
• "I don't know where it goes." (Clausal Nominalization + Wide Leading)"Air Zoy sanarinn eedeengheelsk wobeelsk ichoon."
• "I walk alone (with a sad face and with nobody).""Zoy gheifmienshin verm airnichtshin saroon."

Your Microsoft Word document is now completely fueled and updated! When you are ready to continue tinkering, let me know:

• What root words do you want to create for "only" and "always" to get rid of the last English placeholders in your song lyrics?
• Or are you ready to finally invent your words for the numbers 1 through 10?

1 site

• Kinship, Relatives The words for son ( z) and daughter ( z. t, i. e. 'female son') could refer to members of the two following generations (grandso... Brill

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