How does one create a language? Are there any kits, or information sites that have good, reliable instructions on languages?

I used something called a language construction kit, but it doesn't cover the whole development of a language. So my languages lack portions that would increase their usability. Any tips would be appreciated!


Commander V

Lol! I never really used a kit. I suppose you could just call my language gibberish!!
I just thought up sounds I wanted to be used a lot, the kind of dialect I wanted it to have and (Usually while I was lying in my bed, wishing I could go to sleep) I would collaborate sounds in the most word-like way and - Wallah! - you have an elvish word! (Or a magical word or something XD) - pokes around in her story to look for her magical words -
hmmmm...
Aha!! Cėruthĩen brȃeŗdi, viĉryyň tric okk Đrrgpōŧőĵ. Sethϣhên kii dro, ϔάaftõü.
You will have to wait till I write the part of the story where Viarri finds out what it means.
That probably didn't help...
- toodles off to find something else to do -

I don't know if you've found this site already, but it has a wealth of information in its three chapters entitled "the basics", "the grammar" and "writing it down".

I've heard from a linguist friend of mine that coming up with vocabulary is the last thing you should do--after phoneme constraints, grammar and everything else--but this guy seems to recommend developing grammar and vocab kinda side by side.


On a vaguely related note...
beet bit bait bet bat but bought boat boot! Vowels are fun!

This might be a help.

Both sides of that issue have a point. If you start creating vocabulary before you're finished with the grammar etc., you can run into trouble---you don't want to decide that "blahblah" means "a random word", then later decide that nouns can't end in vowel sounds or aspirations, for example. But on the other hand, it's really, and unnecessarily, hard to design a language's grammar, syntax, etc., without having any vocabulary to use in examples (unless you're taking a computer scientist's or mathematician's approach to designing a programming language).

Hmm...that's something to think about... I started making my language out of "gibberish" and am starting to run into this problem now.