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. Revised edition.
The Language Construction Kit
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Book Description
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Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Mark Rosenfelder is a conlanger and author, creator of zompist.com.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I bought this book because I want to make distinctive names in a variety of made-up languages for my Pathfinder (like D&D 3.5) game. The author's website (zompist) appears to have been around for quite a while, and seems well connected and well respected, but for some reason I had never come across it. I found it at a good time though; just days before his book was released. The website has a lot of good information, but the book is better because it is more of everything on the website. The website is more like an overview, but this goes into detail, and I got a lot more out of the book form of the material than I did his website. The information on how humans make sounds is quite possibly the missing link I needed to go from the ideas I have in my head into actual written examples of a made up language.
In addition to being a very practical guide to help me create interesting sounding names, the book is just fun to read overall. The author seems to know a little bit about a whole lot of languages, and it's fun to read about the subtle little nuances that exist that I've never noticed.
In addition to being a very practical guide to help me create interesting sounding names, the book is just fun to read overall. The author seems to know a little bit about a whole lot of languages, and it's fun to read about the subtle little nuances that exist that I've never noticed.
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
By Ulyyf
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
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.
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.
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
By Andre Bosch
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Mark Rosenfelder gives very good advice in this book - it covers everything a language constructer needs.
I mostly bought the book not only for that purpose but also to learn more about the linguistic concepts the book covered. It is extremely useful in this purpose - it explains very complex concepts VERY well, at least to an amateur linguist like myself.
Rosenfelder makes good use of examples, which is key in his explanations. However, I think some of it still could have been done in a bit more detail - some of the more complex grammatical concepts lack examples or examples from real languages. The author should also add more detail into the diversity of the concepts - for instance, with verbs or nouns, he lists an interesting array of possibilities for inflections, but the list is not very extensive. This is especially true of the concepts he explored in less detail. One point in particular I thought would have been well-suited to an expansion was a bit in the section on pragmatics. He mentions by way of an example the extreme difference in the way the Apache language made its speakers think. It was a very good example of just how diverse human language can be from the languages we in the West are used to. More examples of this would help conlangers to open their minds and their ability to see all the possibilities. Another favourite was a point about a language he appears to have invented just for the book, called Eteodäole. His single example had me thinking for days.
He gives a reasonable explanation of phonetics, brilliant sections on grammar, semantics and pragmatics, and his section on his own conlang Kebreni, while somewhat confusing and long, was interesting and helpful. (It is also very good for readers to check out his other languages on his website - as well as the other resources he recommends.) Included was a list of recommended basic lexicon items for conlangers - a useful feature.
I also found the book generally captivating, especially the semantics and pragmatics section. They are both very entertaining sections that broadens our understanding and appreciation of all languages. And it makes you think.
And for people who are constructing languages, you need not look further than this book (or perhaps its recommended resources as well). I'd say that for a slightly practiced conlanger, the book could well assist you in creating a language that is vastly better than many of those used in certain fiction.
[PS: I would love to hear Rosenfelder's take on Na'vi from Avatar - but I can almost predict what he might say!]
I mostly bought the book not only for that purpose but also to learn more about the linguistic concepts the book covered. It is extremely useful in this purpose - it explains very complex concepts VERY well, at least to an amateur linguist like myself.
Rosenfelder makes good use of examples, which is key in his explanations. However, I think some of it still could have been done in a bit more detail - some of the more complex grammatical concepts lack examples or examples from real languages. The author should also add more detail into the diversity of the concepts - for instance, with verbs or nouns, he lists an interesting array of possibilities for inflections, but the list is not very extensive. This is especially true of the concepts he explored in less detail. One point in particular I thought would have been well-suited to an expansion was a bit in the section on pragmatics. He mentions by way of an example the extreme difference in the way the Apache language made its speakers think. It was a very good example of just how diverse human language can be from the languages we in the West are used to. More examples of this would help conlangers to open their minds and their ability to see all the possibilities. Another favourite was a point about a language he appears to have invented just for the book, called Eteodäole. His single example had me thinking for days.
He gives a reasonable explanation of phonetics, brilliant sections on grammar, semantics and pragmatics, and his section on his own conlang Kebreni, while somewhat confusing and long, was interesting and helpful. (It is also very good for readers to check out his other languages on his website - as well as the other resources he recommends.) Included was a list of recommended basic lexicon items for conlangers - a useful feature.
I also found the book generally captivating, especially the semantics and pragmatics section. They are both very entertaining sections that broadens our understanding and appreciation of all languages. And it makes you think.
And for people who are constructing languages, you need not look further than this book (or perhaps its recommended resources as well). I'd say that for a slightly practiced conlanger, the book could well assist you in creating a language that is vastly better than many of those used in certain fiction.
[PS: I would love to hear Rosenfelder's take on Na'vi from Avatar - but I can almost predict what he might say!]
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
good book for introducing linguistics
This book is for creating languages. It contains a lot of linguistic information and could help in a linguistics course, as you get to practice creating a language while learning... Read more
Published 25 days ago by mariachi
1.0 out of 5 stars
Mark Rosenfelder knows almost nothing about how important the usage of...
Mark Rosenfelder knows almost nothing about how important the usage of words is. In English it is totally accepted to say "hold a meeting" but in Japanese it is not accepted to say... Read more
Published 3 months ago by you
4.0 out of 5 stars
an excellent resource
I've been playing around with made-up languages - my own and those created by others - since I was very young. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Suleiman the Spiffy
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good For Conlangers or Amateur Linguists
As someone who has been conlanging for a couple years, I'd of course heard of the LCK. If you've read the online version, you'll definitely notice that some text was directly... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Brandon
4.0 out of 5 stars
the mentat must be a generalist
Many a text on linguistics is written by a specialist for a specialist to read. Such books can quickly take off into difficult terminology, used to explain a challenging concept... Read more
Published 5 months ago by CP
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fun Book
I probably wouldn't have bought it if it was any more expensive. It's not a linguistics book, but it is a cool book on conlanging (the process of creating fake languages). Read more
Published 5 months ago by Leah F.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic and informative
This is a fascinating beginner book for linguistics. It not only goes over the basics, but also give tips for how to make your language interesting. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Mayhem
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very interesting and worthwhile
This book is based on the thesis that if someone wants to construct a language, whether for a work of fiction or any other purpose, he should be aware of how "real" languages work. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Bruce R. Gilson
4.0 out of 5 stars
one of the better language books I've seen
I ordered this book not because of a huge interest in RPGs or fantasy/sci-fi writing (which I admittedly don't have) but beacuse of my fascination with languages, real or... Read more
Published 8 months ago by S.W.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great reference for creating your own language
I'm working on my own language, inspired by reading Science Fiction books with their own languages. It's a great starting point for language creation.
Published 16 months ago by S P Cox
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