Conlang Workshop 2: The Sounds of Your Conlang
by Jam Ham
The Sounds of Your Conlang
Phonetics, consonants and vowels
Phonology, phoemes, and sound systems
Phonotactics and allophony
Intonation, stress, tone and length
The next step to building your own conlang: defining its sound inventory!
Jam Ham’s personal conlang – a look into its sound inventory
Task #2: Develop Your Conlang's Sounds!
For this week, please come up with a phonological inventory (the consonant and vowel phonemes) for your conlang!
For the task, please mention what phonemic sounds your conlang exhibits. If you don't know IPA, that's perfectly fine! You can simply compare certain sounds to that of existing languages (e.g. Sound X sounds like German ch). If you do know some IPA OR are willing to learn, however, I would recommend coming up with consonant and vowel charts displaying the phonemes of your language.
Also examine the sound systems of the languages you’re taking inspiration from (if applicable). Look up the phonemic inventories of what languages you are inspired by, and as an extra challenge, you can try to include at least one speech sound that you wouldn't expect in your natlang inspos!
If you would like to, also mention any of the following:
Phonotactic rules - e.g. How is a syllable structured in your conlang?
Can consonant clusters exist? If so, what are its constraints?
Can diphthongs / adjacent vowels exist in your language?
Can your syllables end in a coda?
Allophonic rules - e.g. How can certain phonemes be pronounced differently in your conlang depending on its environment (where it is in a syllable or in proximity to other phonemes)?
Prosodic features - e.g. Does syllable stress influence meaning? Does your conlang have tone? What does intonation look like?
Here are also some helpful links for you to learn or use the IPA in case you need it:
Interactive IPA Chart (IPA chart with audio recordings of each speech sound!): https://www.ipachart.com/
Online IPA Keyboard: https://ipa.typeit.org/full/
Consonant pronunciation tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olM1mm66YPw
Vowel pronunciation tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpR5GdKXpGc