The Language Construction Kit

by Mark Rosenfelder

Create plausible and realistic languages for RPGs, fantasy and science fiction, movies or video games, or international communication... or just learn about how languages work from an unusual, light-hearted perspective. The Language Construction Kit on zompist.com has helped a generation of conlangers to understand and create languages. It's expanded here with coverage of semantics and pragmatics, language families, writing systems, and sample wordlists, as well as an annotated sample grammar.

Genres: Linguistics, Nonfiction, Writing, Language, Reference, Research, Unfinished

270 pages, Paperback

First published March 11, 2010

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has a very specialized appeal, to "conlangers" -- people who make up languages as a hobby. The secondary audience would be writers who want to make up a language for a science fiction or fantasy setting. Even if you don't want to create an entire language, like Tolkien's Elvish, this book gives plenty of tips for making your bits of vocabulary and phrases believable.

It also serves as a decent linguistics primer. Rosenfelder covers the basics of phonology, morphology, syntax, orthography, and other linguistic topics. Anyone who has studied linguistics will find this material very introductory, and if you just want to know how to make up a few believable words for your fantasy language, you may skip that part, but it's helpful for those who really want to get into constructing their own languages.

Despite being textbook-like in nature, the LCK is not dry. It contains many linguistic anecdotes, examples from both real and fictional languages of language features of interest, and discussions of common mistakes people make when inventing languages.

As a very specialized toolkit, this is a densely-packed book full of useful stuff. If you have any interest in constructed languages and are wondering whether to buy this book, do. However, if your interest is more in general linguistics, there are better introductory texts out there (though the bibliography in this book is also quite thorough).

[Lynanne Carroll · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're considering ANY book to help in creating a language (however basic or complex), this guide is INCREDIBLE. It's inexpensive and more than worth every penny.

Rosenfelder covers just about everything there is to cover when it comes to language construction...and if he doesn't cover it, he usually leaves a reference for you to go to that does.

My one complaint that isn't even legitimate: It's so thorough. I know, it sounds ridiculous...but I'm serious. I'm a fast language learner (I excelled past my peers in French despite having missed an entire year of the language due to transferring schools; I retained an A+ average in Italian, and my average for Japanese was 102--for two years straight), and I placed 'above average' on the language aptitude test in my sociolinguistics class). Language fascinates me.

Despite this, there were many places that Rosenfelder completely lost me in the mire of complexity. It was a challenge to keep up sometimes!

***Overall
Whether you're just looking to name a bunch of towns/cities on a map for your world or you're out to construct something more ambitious (i.e. an entire language or several languages), this book will help you immensely.

[Jack Pramitte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yinus dula ke ledor elatro drezom. Darash befunu ufibe uzeka eskul dianul omem relofi nelash. Die umane anserio adedan kumon dilam omirakru. Ola zuezey aflesh der enketo. Ekonus ana le surofon ena oziselus. Emel alir olotria onel. Bues fitrish mashazur emos abior oray ilo bekroy sandilen. Eniy dazum noshobler dornia sada foner. Batrer enesh lamenay akle kulole.
Ena dodolo sobu shilazual blimay. Eno benkam olies lios kus bodidon. Lirsay yilas ilis kena elesh emenes. Zesash zea ranabe ari kunemar konde efidam. Derin menash otre ene soyuke. Afles shasol akar ka banuman. Ora muresh bime ileran one isier mol ezodel eyir mes biyin. Uru leyay doka bal mezafor biazamon. Bukash mitru kionay ensifliel shitredur. Kene miblar zede dunel lizu enal daben. Minus iskas deye aruam firne nolor. Luak lay ezum baluinor lokre.
Ano muludra rinel ablotre kre miutrin ashu era olur roskey. Orezo enke buseus shunol nelel sir irenue ni mafi foru blozos eyu kariumar mesh rebir.

[Sina Ghaffari · Rating 5 out of 5]

به نظرم خوندن این کتاب برای هر کسی که به کانلنگینگ علاقه داشته باشه واجبه. نویسنده مفاهیم رو به خوبی توضیح داده و خوندنش احتیاجی به دانش زبان‌شناسی نداره. (اگر هم جاییش قابل درک نباشه با یه سرچ و مطالعهٔ ویکی‌پدیا می‌شه فهمیدش)
برای خوانندهٔ زبان‌شناس هم خالی از لطف نیست و سرنخ‌های خوبی می‌ده.
مهم‌ترین امتیاز این کتاب به کتاب‌های مشابهی که من تابحال دیدم توجهش به معنی‌شناسی و کاربردشناسیه. معمولاً دغدغه‌های اصلی کانلنگرها واج‌شناسی و صرف و نحوه اما این کتاب به خوبی نشون داده که برای ساختن یک کانلنگ خوب نیاز به ساخت یک فرهنگه که استعاره‌های خاص خودش، اصطلاحات خاص خودش، نزاکت خاص خودش، و همچین ظرافت‌های معنایی و کاربردی داشته باشه.

[Katie Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great resource for conlanging - informative, insightful, and well explained. I did think that (especially towards the end) the author focused too much on his own invented languages and lost the purpose of the book: to help others construct their languages, not give an in-depth analysis of his own. The last forty pages was exclusively an explanation of one of the author's languages, which seemed out of place and a little self indulgent. Otherwise, it was a great read.

[joan breval · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author's choice to refer to Black individuals as "blacks" (exactly like that, without even bothering to capitalize) twice in the book is interesting. Of course, it only happens twice, and a lot of text separates the two occurrences, so, fortunately, they were not distracting enough to compel me to put the book down. But while I gave the author the benefit of the doubt the first time, the second instance started feeling like a microaggression. It's dehumanizing and honestly borders on racism. I also sensed a very faint, perhaps restrained, hint of misoginy in the way Rosenfelder chose to exemplify his points at times - but again, nothing overt or substantial enough either to justify an outright accusation on my part or to make the reading experience unbearable. Just noticeable enough to be worth mentioning. Clearly he knows how to water down his wine.

Now, as someone who has recently grown an interest for language construction and in a natural - though unexpected - way, for linguistics, The Language Construction Kit is honestly a godsend. I can't think of a better way to put it.

It starts off accessible enough to not appear daunting but not so accessible that it turns out plain boring, and grows increasingly complex, increasingly fascinating. I picked up this book because I wanted to "construct" a language and didn't know where to start; eventually I was simply captivated by what I was reading. I didn't expect this kit to be so thorough. And though I'm not sure that was the main point (if at all), I am completely convinced me that "language construction" is not simply a "rigid" science as I feel the term construction evokes, but actually an incredibly impressive, frankly thankless activity for one to devote so much time, energy, intellectual capacity to - an art of its own, that is. It just isn't so much construction as it is an act of creation.

Though the literal first paragraph explains how this book "suggests further reading for those who want to know more, and shortcuts for those who want to know less," I strongly recommend sitting through the whole text if your only concern is the prospect of wasting your time.

Even the Kebreni chapter struck me as self-indulgent at first but I'm glad I sat through it anyway as, honestly, even if there were a bit of boasting in intent, I think there was also a genuine will to carry the book's rigor forward and provide the reader with a tangible, short and sweet broken-down illustration of his approach. I found it as pertinent and interesting to sit through as the rest of the material and ultimately think it was a good way of fastening his guide.

[Marco Bizzarri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have a passion for languages, and especially for constructed languages; when I first read the Silmarillion, I delved into the pages explaining the etymologies and the roots of the words, trying to discerns the meaning of the names of the people and of the places.

When I was in the high school and was studying (Ancient) Greek, I enjoyed those passages in the grammar book where it described the indo-european origins of the words, the transformations, the letters which were removed, how Eos and Aurora could derive from the same origin and become two so different words.

I confess, I started reading this book as a gateway to create my own languages for my own stories and role playing game sessions.

This book starts in that way, but it's actually much more. It's a beautiful journey in many aspects of languages, exploring them from different aspects, with the objective of creating a new one, of course, but still trying to give perspective on all those aspects.

The only part which I enjoyed less (and skimmed more) is the actual presentation of one of the languages, the Kebreni, which I found too long for my tastes. Maybe it will have a better taste when I will re-read the book.

At the end there is a rich bibliography to expand the subjects treated, I will look into that to buy some more books.

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very thorough! I will certainly be using it for reference in the future, especially the appendices. I really enjoyed the language facts it imparted as well. Although there were minor errors in Russian/Latin (I can't really speak for other languages), this book is definitely more of a jumping-off point. I'm excited to learn more and make my own language!

[Marcos Ibáñez Gordillo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Su nombre lo dice todo, ¿no? xD

[Karen]

I'm not leaving a starred review of this book, because I did not read it all the way through. I read about the first half before I was absolutely overwhelmed and disappointed by how bogged down I became. The more I read this book, the more I wanted to not make a conlang while simultaneously wanting to make a conlang.

The Language Construction Kit by Mark Rosenfelder claims that it is a book that "is intended for anyone who wants to create artificial languages" (emphasis mine). It is a book packed with tons of information needed to create a language. It details phonetics, morphology, pragmatics, etc. It has everything one would want and more, which I'm thankful for. Once I do start making a language, I'll have a reference to go back to in case I want to spruce it up.

But even though it claims to be written for "anyone," I felt like it wasn't written for me. It felt like it was written for people studying linguistics, not aspiring fiction writers. The explanatory examples of some concepts used languages that I've never studied before, like French and Mandarin. And some of these examples didn't have translations to go with them, as I was supposed to know what it meant.

I understand that it's supposed to be "kit" in the same way a tool kit is a kit, but I was disappointed in regard to how instead of being shown how to use these tools, it felt like I was just told what these tools are and was either expected to know how to use them beforehand or learn how to use them on my own. I get it; there's no hand-holding going on. Rosenfelder didn't say there'd be hand-holding, but...

In a field that is so technical and dense, I just expected a little more guidance, since he appears to be providing some already.

That said, I find it a good, handy reference. But if you're looking for a guide to language creation, this isn't it.

[Yoon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is for people who would like to get started in (or deepen their knowledge of) conlanging (constructed languages). It covers a lot of ground, and as a result, parts of it are probably going to be a little fast-paced if you don't have previous knowledge of linguistics. But Rosenfelder does a pretty good job of going through various topics that will come up in the endeavor: determining the phonology, how to handle transliteration and writing systems, syntax, morphology, semantics, pragmatics, language change and etymology. Technical terms are bolded so that you can look them up for additional information. And at the end there is a sample conlang, which would be useful by itself, but even better is the fact that there is running commentary on design decisions.

The layout of the book could be a little better in a few cases--there are instances where a section header is all by itself at the bottom of the page, and I wish the chart of Japanese syllables hadn't been broken across two pages. But these are relatively minor complaints with a book that has so much useful content. If you want to sample the content before buying, google "language construction kit" and you'll find the online version, which has less content but still has a lot of good stuff.

[Teri · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book looks like so much fun-- a real delight for grammarians and linguists. The author shows you how to create your own languages from scratch. He analyzes snippets of Tolkien's fantasy languages from Lord of the Rings along the way. I wish I'd had a book like this when I was a teenager, when I had the time to play and delve deeply into something like this. The more you know about grammar (and foreign languages), the easier this will be; however, I can see a book like this helping anyone to understand how the constructs of their own language operate. The author breaks it down step by step into manageable chunks. The book appears to have good flow, though I have not used it yet to create a language. The author has made it a tempting project for me to try out, though. A boon for fantasy writers. From the intro:


Decide on the sounds of the language
Create the lexicon
Create the grammar
Design an alphabet
Decide how the alphabet is modified for cursive handwriting
Translate the desired text

This could make for a really interesting homeschooling project for a teen.

[Jimi Olivo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sci-fi or fantasy writer looking to create a realistic and rich linguistic backdrop for your world? You need this book.

[Sarah-louise Raillard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very thorough and informative, though not as accessible as The Art of Language Invention.

[Shannon Cooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first, I was a trifle disappointed in The Language Construction Kit for being little more than a condensed primer of linguistics. Upon finishing it, I'm quite happy with it, and for precisely the same reason.

To create a language, one must first understand how languages are put together. Rosenfelder strips language down and reassembles it before our eyes, installing each new piece and demonstrating the range it can have. He includes a multitude of examples from real world languages as well as his own invented languages. I particularly appreciated that he did not make judgments about bending language in ways that no human language could go. That's rare among linguistic literature, and shows that the basic premise of language creation is paramount throughout.

After finishing the crash course in linguistics, the author delves into one of his own languages in detail, with ample annotations for the reader to understand the why behind the grammar description.

My biggest complaint, honestly, is how overwhelming it all feels. I almost feel like he would have done better to set up a few "minimum" requirements for a conlang, and encourage the reader to build under those constraints. Then he could have introduced some additional complexity, and then more complexity, and more, until the entirety of human language variation was covered. It would have made the subject matter rather easier to digest, and not leave the reader with a sense of paralysis at the end of the book, fearing to move forward because of how much there is to be forgotten.

Paradoxically, it was the same level of depth that made the book an interesting read. I'll be interested to see how his other volumes develop the materials in this one.

[Terence · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've enjoyed following his website for a couple or three years now - http://www.zompist.com/ - and I downloaded/printed the original (much shorter) version of this to aid me in my own conlang forays.
___________________________________________________________

Review will follow as soon as I polish my conlang sufficiently.
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I may have mentioned in passing in other reviews that some of my favorite parts in The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion are the appendices where Tolkien writes about the languages of Middle Earth. As a boy, I would pore over the notes on pronunciation and the index of names, making up words and names for my own use in my own imaginary worlds. Now, my older self has most of Christopher Tolkien’s volumes of his father’s notes, which include the only extensive essay Tolkien pere ever wrote on any of his invented tongues – “Lowdham’s Report on the Adunaic Language,” Sauron Defeated: The History of The Lord of the Rings, Part Four. My older self is thrilled as well that Al Gore invented the Internet because I discovered there the hominin species homo sapiens geekus conlangis - the community of men and women who spend far too much of their free time making up imaginary languages comprising all the elements of the real things.

Mark Rosenfelder’s Language Construction Kit is an Idiot’s Guide to making those imaginary languages.

Part of the audience is the gaming community, particularly those gamemasters who want to create worlds that sound realistic. To that end, Rosenfelder gives some rough-and-ready guidelines for creating word lists and affixes that can be used to make names and short sentences for role-playing purposes. The second half of the book’s audience is the hardcore conlanger who may or may not be creating a language for any reason beyond the pure pleasure of the exercise. For those, he has chapters on sounds, vocabularies, grammar, semantics, pragmatics, language families and writing systems, and an appendix where he presents one of his own invented languages, Kebreni.

I wouldn’t recommend this book for the “casual” conlanger. Not because it wouldn’t be useful but because the author has had a shorter version on his website* for several years and that’s sufficient for someone who wants to avoid the dungeon-exploring party made up of “Boris,” “Bear Who Hates Honey,” “Wanda” and “Presto the Magician” adventuring in “Angland.”

Hardcore conlangers (especially those who are just beginning) should find a wealth of useful information and tips on making their languages more than just English with different words, however. Rosenfelder assumes the reader has a fair knowledge of linguistics but provides a useful bibliography for people who want to catch up. There is one thing that would have made the book better, IMO, and that is a CD with examples of pronunciations. It’s all well and good to describe tongue positions, breathing, and the difference between a high and a low vowel but I have trouble “hearing” them. After years of reading various grammars and linguistics texts, I still can’t easily identify alveolars from alveolar palatals or an affricative from a fricative.

For several years now, I’ve been putzing around with my own conlang, meleke, born as part of an imaginary world originally created for my Dungeons & Dragons buddies back in the day. I have a fairly extensive wordlist and grammar notes but I’ve always had trouble finding a verb system I like. However, under the pressure of writing this review, I have managed to create one that I mostly like and have used it to translate the quintessential translation text for all “serious” conlangers – the Babel Text from Genesis 11:1-9:

Lemmonas osura tanda mava set tulonas tamenna aidar maknar. Rhojir tar si ratha, dennonas khellen shada si han SHINAR, kepsonas tamenna not. Afentonas intar tamenna – Fenathat menna tarmen set sajathat forsai menna disa. Tulonas tamenna nar amnen tarmen set nar bratho tumo. Tisona LORD aprir eserva set ostoro set arthir khellen khoten. Afentona tamen – Sathas tamenna sot. Soterathas tamenna lammas mava sot tanda mava fir nanta. Noyen faffas tamenna shenta ursa. Afentona tamen – Ismaffat set allanaffat tandar taralle. Uprathas tamenna kel afentir intar tamenna. Gatrona LORD atarat alo tar. Duronas arthir tamenna esevra. Apellonas khellen esevra BABEL preset not kadhir LORD glavo tandave alove. Gatrona LORD kar not atarat alo tar.

(Taken from The New English Bible with the Apocrypha: Oxford Study Edition version of The Bible)

It’s still pretty rough – I haven’t developed the language enough to fully capture subtle connotations – and I’m still not entirely happy with the verbs but overall I think it’s coming along nicely. My problem is that I don’t have the patience to stick with it for extended lengths of time; I fiddle around with it for an hour one day, come back a week later, and then let it lay fallow for a few weeks.

But back to the book – This is definitely a highly specialized niche read. If you are a conlanger, I say, “check it out”; if you’re not, shake your head in bemusement, if you must, but devote your reading time to something else.

* The website contains a whole bunch of fascinating articles and not solely anent conlangs. I have especially enjoyed his essays on Asimov's "psychohistory" and his reviews of the entire Foundation series, including the non-Asimovian, and best IMO, Psychohistorical Crisis.

[Jess Mahler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommend for anyone looking to get into conlanging AND just about every fantasy author ever (and many sci-fi authors.)

The beginning contains a brief section on creating a 'naming language' for authors who just want to be able to name cities and towns and mountain ranges in their stories. It gives you enough info to have a coherent-sounding set of names for various features of your word without taking a lot of time or effort.

After that comes the meat of the book, which is a solid introduction to conlanging and lot of good references. Experienced conlangers likely won't find anything new, but may find it useful for charts and reference material. For new conlangers it's a solid intro that covers the basics without getting so in depth to be overwhelming.

As a bonus, it's a LOT cheaper than the standard books on linguistics or conlanging, so less of a commitment for the new conlanger who just wants to get their feet wet.

[Krishna Avendaño]

El libro fundacional de todo conlanger. No fue Tolkien, sino Rosenfelder, a través de zompist.com, cuando este libro ni siquiera se había publicado, el que me acercó al arte de inventar lenguajes. Recuerdo los años 2008 a 2012 como una época agobiante. Entonces mataba las horas diseñando gramáticas absolutamente inservibles para un proyecto que, al parecer, no tiene fin y al que vuelvo intermitentemente. Por el mismo motivo, ese tedio existencial, he vuelto a acercarme en los últimos meses al conlanging.

[Siân · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this in my final year of A Levels. Although it's for conlanging (making up a language ie Elvish or Klingon), I'd say it's a great introduction to getting to know the elements of language itself. It really helped me piece stuff together before I started my degree. It's a gem for those of us who went to standard Anglophone schools where grammar isn't really explained formally or in depth, because linguistic knowledge isn't seen as important - "Everyone speaks English", after all. I've come back to it multiple times and would highly recommend.

[Shiloh Osheen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was thrilled with this, and still am. I read it front to back and added so many sticky notes. As someone who loves world building, constructing languages is really up my alley. This is a great place to start.

You do need to have some idea of what you're doing in the first place, though - this can get dry and heavy. Still, if you want to get started conlanging, couldn't recommend a better book.

[Alexis Albrecht · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is a very good introduction to conlanging. However, I got completely lost when the author started talking too much about the conlags he had already created. I guess that it would have been more productive to compare a contrast actual languages to explain some of the features and choices that are possible.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to get into conlanging, THIS is what to pick up.

Detailed, easy to follow, even easier to reference, and great at pointing you where to go for more information as needed. There’s a reason this is so highly spoke of in the community.

[Vincent Gagnepain · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very in-depth and fascinating look at how to create languages. A must for anyone interested in Conlanging or in World-Building!

[Bryan Witt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating book, but parts are hard for someone who knows basically nothing about linguistics. If you noticed that I shelved it as contains junk, that's because it does.

[Marius Frøisland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good intro to som linguistic and conlang

A quick overview of what you need to know to make a language for worldbuilding. Doing it well looks like it will take a lot of time

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very helpful. I bought it and read it for the first time about 10 years ago, and I keep coming back to it, re-reading some passages. It is really a great resource if you are a language geek.

[Marcas de B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

8/10—Even more so than Peterson's Art of Language Invention, if you are not one who is already invested in the idea of creating languages, or even worldbuilding, this book will provide little in the way of interest or benefit. But for those of us who have been bitten by the same bug that got into Tolkien and the rest, The Language Construction Kit is almost required reading. Every concept is well-explained with clear examples from natural languages, and Rosenfelder provides examples from his own world of Almea and the languages therein (which is itself remarkable in its own complexity and thoroughness), specifically Kebreni. He doesn't just explain concepts and leave it there, he gives the reader inspiration and encouragement through his own conlanging work. One immensely helpful aspect of this is the Further Reading section he gives at book's end, a several page-long repository of books for the reader to go off and read for themselves, chosen to expand and develop the knowledge they gained over the course of reading the LCK. If The Art of Language Invention got the conlanger on their feet, The Language Construction Kit lets them take their first strides...

[Connie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Language Construction Kit, online, is THE resource for "conlangers" (people who make up languages for fun and profit - but you knew that already). I personally can remember printing it out at least twice in my teens. (And holy HECK that was a lot of paper!) Every example mentioned for building your language (firmly based upon actual linguistic concepts - and yes, I think this is a good companion book for an intro to linguistics class) is given with examples from either real-world languages or from some of the author's own conlangs.

So why buy the book when you can get the kit for free?

Well, first off, if you've ever visited the LCK online, you should support the guy who created it. How? By buying the book.

Secondly - and somewhat more importantly - this isn't just a reprint of the online version. It's expanded (there's a whole new FASCINATING section on semantics, for example) and it's convenient to have on your desk.

So why only four stars?

No fault of the author's, but the formatting was a bit odd. Sometimes a section header would appear as the last line on a page, or a line would be spaced v e r y s t r a n g e l y, and that made it hard to read. The formatting issues are *not* his fault, but they *did* require me to re-read more often than I'd like because they made it hard to understand some things wherever they occurred.

[Catrine · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Language Construction Kit is simply a must-have for anyone starting out in conlanging. The web resource is really useful, so I had some doubts whether it was actually necessary to buy the book as well, but I couldn't resist. I was not disappointed at all.

The book is well written, clear and concise, with plenty of examples. It also manages to touch upon an impressive number of topics. As I have studied linguistics for seven years I doubted that it would have much use for me beyond learning how to apply what I already know to creating languages, but I was wrong again. I have learnt a lot. Particularly the chapter on pragmatics was really interesting - it's not a subject I encountered much in my studies.

But don't get me wrong, you don't have to be a linguist to use this book at all. It will be an advantage of course, but things are explained really well, and the author includes resources for further reading. I definitely recommend it!

[Jacob Edwards · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rosenfelder created a very dense but moderately helpful guide here. I enjoyed reading through it, but overall found it less helpful than David J Petersons attempt at the same concept.
The expanse of information available makes it worthy of deeper study and rereading, but I found that often some of the larger core concepts to conlanging were somewhat skimmed in order to get the deeper cuts, which overall I felt diluted the helpfulness of the book. Peterson doesn’t have as many explored concepts, but what he does explore is more comprehensive and gives you a larger knowledge base to then explore further.
I also didn’t particularly enjoy his exceptionally long language breakdown at the end. With it taking up almost a fifth of the book it was more overhwhelming than anything and should’ve been supplemental reading recommended at the end for those who need it.
Overall though, still helpful and worth reading if this is something that you’re into!