User blog comment:Dairhenien/Developing Vocabulary/@comment-8669-20120405120554

You're not kidding about the difficulty of creating a logographic script. Chances are I will create a generator in much the same way I've done for vocabulary, at least until I've decided what meanings the radicals have. Still, it's quite the daunting prospect, and one that will be nearly impossible to represent on a computer. Hey, so long as it's fun, right? :)

The middle class language I'm doing will be built on a different base, but will use vocabulary from my current language for a prestige register--sort of like Norman French words on top of the Anglo Saxon in English. It's also a bit of a cheat--I can focus on new grammar, which is the part I like, and reuse a bunch of vocabulary with only minimal sound changes. :)

In looking through Kihā́mmic, I don't see anything that particularly jumps out as artificial. To the contrary, it looks very well realized, with enough irregularity and variation to make it appear like it could have evolved that way. My only comment would be that, given a hundred years or so, the case system is poised for consolidation. For example, Since the vowels only differ by a single feature, and in an unstressed syllable, I can easly see the distinction disappearing in speech, if not in writing. This is not a criticism, by the way. The fact that it's possible to discuss what sound changes might occur does not mean that it's artificial now.

Interestingly enough, I don't even use the languages a lot in my stories. Whenever my POV character speaks a language fluently, that language is represented by English. If he or she is fluent in more than one language, then I will change up my sentence structure in English to match the grammar of the "actual" language. It makes a shift in the way the writing sounds, and gives some flavor, without impeding the reader's comprehension.

When a character doesn't know a language, that's when we see it on the page with no translation. If they're learning it, then I will show the conlang, and have the character gloss it for us, as if they're translating it in their own head--just like you do when you're not yet fluent in a language.

Here's my rule for myself--I want the way I write the story to serve the story. If I develop a language with a 10,000 word vocabulary and three sentences make it into the story, that's fine, so long as the story is stronger for it. If anyone cares to go deeper, the depth is there.