Conlang/Beginner/Glossary

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	Conlang
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Even though we've tried to keep the jargon to a minimum in the Beginner section, we've still introduced a few basic conlanging terms, and a few basic linguistics terms. Here we list those terms — plus a scattering of others that might be handy to see defined at this point, even though they either haven't been mentioned yet, or were only mentioned in passing. Take a moment to look through these lists. Right now, they're still short enough that you can reasonably read through the whole of each list.

Contents 1 Conlanging terms (in alphabetical order) 2 Linguistics terms (in alphabetical order)

[edit] Conlanging terms (in alphabetical order)

A posteriori 

Of a feature, borrowed from natural languages rather than invented. Of a conlang, mostly composed of a posteriori features.

A priori 

Of a feature, invented rather than borrowed from natural languages. Of a conlang, mostly composed of a priori features.

Altlang 

Alternative history language. An artlang meant to be what some historical natlang would have evolved into in some alternative history.

Artlang 

Artistic language. A conlang created as art.

Auxlang 

Auxiliary language. A conlang meant as a common second language for people with different native languages.

Conlang 

Constructed language. A language deliberately invented by someone.

Diachronic 

Of a conlang, having its own internal fictional history.

Engelang 

Engineered language. A conlang designed to meet objective criteria.

Euroclone 

An auxlang whose vocabulary is entirely Indo-European, often entirely Romance.

Fauxlang 

Fictional auxlang. A supposed auxlang created by a character in a fictional setting.

IAL 

International Auxillary Language. An auxlang intended for use on an international scale. Auxlangs are almost always IALs, to the point where the two terms are often treated as synonyms.

Loglang 

Logical language. A conlang based on formal logic.

Natlang 

Natural language. A human language that occurred naturally, as opposed to a conlang.

Relex 

A conlang that too closely imitates a pre-existing language. Shortened from relexification.

Synchronic 

Of a conlang, not diachronic.

[edit] Linguistics terms (in alphabetical order)

Adjective 

A word that modifies a noun.

Adverb 

A word that modifies any part of language except a noun — verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, clauses, sentences.

Affix 

A word-part that attaches to words and modifies their meaning.

Case 

Of a noun, its syntactic role in the sentence.

Circumposition 

A pair of words that mark the beginning and end of a modifying phrase.

Evidentiality 

Of a verb, how the speaker knows the action happened.

Gender 

A way of classifying nouns into groups.

Grammar 

The study of the rules governing the use of a given language.

Mood 

Of a verb, the possibility and necessity of the verb — whether it happens, might happen, can happen, is commanded to happen, etc.

Morphology 

The study of the internal structure of words.

Noun 

A word that denotes a thing (concrete or abstract).

Number 

Of a noun, how many of the noun there are.

Object 

A part of a sentence that specifies a thing secondarily involved in the action of the verb. One of the three main parts of a sentence.

Orthography 

The correct way of using a specific writing system to write the language.

Person 

Of a noun, how it relates to the speaker and the audience.

Phonetics 

The study of the sounds of human speech.

Phonology 

The study of the sound system of a specific language.

Postposition 

A word that marks the end of a modifying phrase.

Pragmatics 

The study of the ability of natural language speakers to communicate more than what is explicitly stated.

Preposition 

A word that marks the start of a modifying phrase.

Semantics 

Aspects of meaning, as expressed in language or other systems of signs.

Subject 

The part of a sentence that specifies the thing that the sentence is primarily about. One of the three main parts of a sentence.

Syntax 

The study of how words are arranged into sentences.

Tense 

Of a verb, when the action happens — past, present, future, etc.

Verb 

1. A word that denotes action performed by or on a thing (sometimes, the trivial action of being).

2. The part of a sentence that specifies the central action of the sentence. One of the three main parts of a sentence.

Voice 

Of a verb, which participant in the action is the subject — whether the subject does the action, has the action done to it, or does it to itself.

Next: Intermediate