Welcome to Little Lang Workshop, a creative exercise exhibit centered around worldbuilding through language construction. Little Lang Workshop users are introduced to the basic systems and necessities of language construction through the lens of creating a fictional group of speakers with a distinct culture. This constructed culture, or conculture, will be reflected in a basic outline of a constructed language, or conlang.
The goal is to give you the agency to plant whatever kind of linguistic seed you choose, simple to complex, silly to serious. The four examples of the workshop process are designed to show the breadth and funkiness of possible languages, and provide a unique bit of storytelling.
This workshop is my Graphic Design BFA Exhibition at the University of Minnesota. It is the culmination of a bunch of research in linguistics and design, and it is a love letter to worldbuilding and creativity.
The first step is to create a unique group of speakers with a distinct culture and mythology. In creating this workshop, I made Little Langs for spiritual goblins, space fascists, a robot sewer cult, and disgruntled office slugs. Please do whatever you want. You may already have an idea for some sci-fi/fantasy weirdness. Why not make a language for it? If not, consider the following questions:
Who are your speakers?
Where are they from?
What is important to them?
Where are they from?
What is important to them?
Designing phonetics in a conlang is choosing which phonemes are present in your language. Phonemes are the individual sound bits that your language is built out of. In an alphabetic language, this is also deciding how your graphemes (letters) relate to those phonemes.
A lot of the mental connection between a language and our perception of it’s speakers comes through how the language looks as it is written. Different writing systems or typefaces evoke images of their homelands through our involuntary (or design school) associations. Consider the following questions:
What is your conlang’s vibe?
How does the visual form of your written language fit with your conculture’s ideals?
How are the ideas behind your language put into practice?
1. Pronouns, Gendered or Neutral
2. Common Verbs
3. Common Adjectives
4. Common Animals
5. Common Foods
6. Common Body Parts
7. Common Names
8. Prepositions/Conjunctions
9. Some Random Nouns
10. Idioms/Sayings
11. Grammar Rules
12. How do Adverbs Work?
13. Swear Words
14. Weather Words
15. Unique Words
16. Colors!
2. Common Verbs
3. Common Adjectives
4. Common Animals
5. Common Foods
6. Common Body Parts
7. Common Names
8. Prepositions/Conjunctions
9. Some Random Nouns
10. Idioms/Sayings
11. Grammar Rules
12. How do Adverbs Work?
13. Swear Words
14. Weather Words
15. Unique Words
16. Colors!
