Board Thread:Linguistics/@comment-24276027-20131211172613/@comment-5643714-20131211185528

If you have no problem with the language being completely a priori, I'm going to show you how I make words relatively fast (when you get used to it), just as a tip.

So, you need this conlang word generator and the random.org number generator, which is on the front page.

You need to be very specific with the word generator. You can't just put letters in and generate, the words will look completely out-of-this-world, stupid and unpronounceable. You need to have your phonotactics rights. For example, say you have the phonotactics (C)(L)V(C)(S). (L) is for liquids (l, r), and (S) is for sibilants (s, z, etc.). Then you say liquids can only occur after certain types of consonants, like plosives. So, in addition to the base letters, you also have to put the individual consonant clusters in, like 'pl, bl, kl, gl, pr, br, tr, dr, kr, gr'. You have to put these in the 'Single consonant' category, because they are the onset. For the nucleus V, put both pure vowels and diphthongs in the 'Single vowel' category, do not bother with the 'doubled vowels' category, just pretend it doesn't exist. This also allows you to make the pure vowels more common than the diphthongs. Now, for the sibilants, say you allow any non-sibilant consonant to before after the sibilant. You have to put these clusters, like 'ms, ns, ps, ds, vs', etc., in the 'doubled consonant' category, because they are the coda. Next up, in the 'patterns' section, you can control phonotactical rules. Start off by choosing 'Consonant + vowel + consonant' as the only syllable pattern. If you follow the rule (C)(L), you need to choose the 'specific consonant(s)' option in 'The last letter of a word is...'. Here, remove the (C)(L) onsets (bl, pl, etc.) from 'SINGLE last-letter vowel(s)', because, the onset, of course, can't end the word. Moving on, you come to the 'syllables' section. Here, when it asks you 'How are FIRST syllables constructed?', remove all constructions that include 'multi-consonants', because codas can't start the word. Now you can generate the words. Only look at the single-syllable generations, completely ignore the rest.

Now, to not have every word as Consonant + vowel + consonant, this is where Random.org comes in. Make a numbered list of every single possible phonotactical combination. Say this is your list:

1. CLVCS

2. CVCS

3. CLVC

4. CVC

5. CLV

6. VCS

7. CV

8. VC

9. V

In the number generator, put 1 in Min and 9 in Max. It will generate a number between 1 and 9. At this point, you decide how many syllables your word shall be on. Say it's three; you generate three numbers. Say they are 4, 9 and 6. Or, if you don't allow vowel sequences, replace 6 with something that doesn't start with a vowel, like 2. So the word's phonotactics will be CVC-V-CVCS. Now, you simply take the proper phonotactical single-syllable words you generated and put them together into a word. That's it.