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Has anyone created a conlang using logograms?

Posted: 2012-07-15, 18:45
by kroen
Has anyone created a conlang using logograms as a writing system? This is the only conlang that I would find really interesting, as I'm fascinated with chinese characters. I'm curious to know whether anyone has created/is creating a conlang using custom-made lolograms. Yes, you need knowledge in unicode and even then no one online could see them, but you could still post it as an image. Alternatively, one could use chinese characters that are no longer in use. There are over 50,000 charcaters, and an average chinese person knows less than 10,000. Some may know twice, maybe even thrice as much, but that still leaves a plethora of unused characters. What do you think of this prospect?

Re: Has anyone created a conlang using lolograms?

Posted: 2012-07-15, 19:49
by Dormouse559
Unless you're asking about writing systems that look like this: :) idk :wink: :P lolwut :oops: :roll: :mrgreen: :? , I'm sure you mean "logograms".

Here's a link to Tapissary, which is quite beautiful; it was originally inspired by American Sign Language

Another really good logographic script can be found in the first and some of the following posts of this thread on the ZBB.

Re: Has anyone created a conlang using lolograms?

Posted: 2012-07-15, 20:11
by kroen
Oops, mistyped it :oops:

Also tnx for the links. Pretty interesting stuff.

Too bad I don't have any skill in making these, otherwise I would totally create logographic conlang.

Re: Has anyone created a conlang using logograms?

Posted: 2012-07-16, 18:14
by Ciarán12
I toyed with the idea, but it would be too much work and I prefer to use scripts I can type in. I did however come up with a conlang that uses Japanese Kanji. The languages purpose was to help me learn the readings for the Japanese symbols. I used the kanji and their 'on' readings, but I created my own grammar for the language. That way it had all the fun of being a conlang, but with a practical benefit!

Re: Has anyone created a conlang using logograms?

Posted: 2012-07-16, 18:39
by kroen
The next best thing after using logograms for a conlang, imo, would be to invent your own alphabet. Much less work, and also much less boring than using the latin alphabet or any other existing alphabet for that matter.

Btw, what do you think of this alphabet? someone created it to be used with Na'vi. Didn't really take off, but it's still cool and alien looking. http://www.skyknowledge.com/nav.htm

Re: Has anyone created a conlang using logograms?

Posted: 2012-07-16, 18:46
by Ciarán12
kroen wrote:Btw, what do you think of this alphabet? someone created it to be used with Na'vi. Didn't really take off, but it's still cool and alien looking. http://www.skyknowledge.com/nav.htm


Nice alphabet. Looks kind of like Burmese to me.

Re: Has anyone created a conlang using logograms?

Posted: 2012-07-16, 19:15
by linguoboy
kroen wrote:The next best thing after using logograms for a conlang, imo, would be to invent your own alphabet. Much less work, and also much less boring than using the latin alphabet or any other existing alphabet for that matter.

But also more of a barrier to entry to anyone else interested in learning about your conlang.

Conscriptery is really its own specialised are of interest. You can practice it without ever doing a shred of conlanging. Just look at all the alternative scripts which have been created to write English, for instance.

Re: Has anyone created a conlang using logograms?

Posted: 2012-07-16, 19:26
by Ciarán12
linguoboy wrote:But also more of a barrier to entry to anyone else interested in learning about your conlang.

That's another reason why I don't use them.

linguoboy wrote:Conscriptery is really its own specialised are of interest. You can practice it without ever doing a shred of conlanging. Just look at all the alternative scripts which have been created to write English, for instance.


Indeed, I used to invent my own scripts for English long before I ever thought about creating conlangs.

Re: Has anyone created a conlang using logograms?

Posted: 2012-07-16, 19:45
by kroen
I wonder why no one uses hangul for their conlangs? by far the coolest existing alphabet imo. And if the sounds don't fit, you can alway allocate new sounds to the letters.

Re: Has anyone created a conlang using logograms?

Posted: 2012-07-16, 19:59
by linguoboy
kroen wrote:I wonder why no one uses hangul for their conlangs?

I wonder why you can't do a basic websearch. Google "hangul" and "conlang", and this pops up on the first page of results: http://wiki.langwiki.info/Conlang:Saitlaa.

I know of at least two other conlangs with a (mixed) Han'geul script thanks to lurking on other fora: Rangyayo and Yondae'eo. (Do you need me to provide links or do you think you can Google those successfully yourself?)

Re: Has anyone created a conlang using logograms?

Posted: 2012-07-16, 20:16
by razlem
kroen wrote:I wonder why no one uses hangul for their conlangs? by far the coolest existing alphabet imo. And if the sounds don't fit, you can alway allocate new sounds to the letters.


Some do, and there are also ones that use full Sinitic characters. But the majority use Latin scripts to make it easier to type.

Re: Has anyone created a conlang using logograms?

Posted: 2012-07-19, 14:14
by Kēwēkamē
*hides in corner* sorryIhaven'tbeenaroundinawhileI'vebeenactiveontheCBBandmayormaynothavesortofcompletelyforgottenaboutthissitepleasedon'tkillme

HyPry uses logograms. Lots of logograms. (And two alphabets and a syllabary, but that's another story.) Example here: http://i.imgur.com/ZXvK5.jpg

Re: Has anyone created a conlang using logograms?

Posted: 2012-07-19, 14:25
by Plaas
I tried once, when I was in China, but I never worked it out. It was based on Chinese, so there were radicals needed to build a whole logogram, apart from a set of elementary characters that had meanings like "human being", "animal", "place to live in" that were combined with radicals to make the definitions more specific. It was meant for an isolating language, Muarang, that I worked out later; the only grammar of that language is written in Dutch.

Re: Has anyone created a conlang using lolograms?

Posted: 2012-07-19, 15:22
by ling
Dormouse559 wrote:Here's a link to Tapissary, which is quite beautiful; it was originally inspired by American Sign Language

Interesting.

Some are clearly derived from Chinese. The character for "game" is Chinese 技 (skill). And the character for "ground" is 地 (ground, earth).

Re: Has anyone created a conlang using logograms?

Posted: 2012-07-19, 16:05
by Dormouse559
Yeah, there's a page on that website that shows the sources for the glyphs. Some of those sources include natlang scripts.

Re: Has anyone created a conlang using logograms?

Posted: 2020-04-06, 4:10
by LordComrade
I'm gradually making a mysterious ancient language for my fanfiction Calamity that uses logographic carvings, it intentionally doesn't have a name for itself but is called Lamiren by everyone in this fictional universe.

Re: Has anyone created a conlang using logograms?

Posted: 2020-08-01, 15:58
by Emandir
As a matter of fact, my "new" conlang (still a WIP) is supposed to be logographic but I still don't have designed any logogram yet. It's intended to be completely logographic, as opposed to Chinese that uses "phonetic" (phonemic?) symbols. You can imagine the amount of work that's ahead of me (not sure if I'll have enough time to complete it, though :wink:)
Anyway, I'll probably post something about this conlang (that has a peculiar syntax) sooner or later...

Re: Has anyone created a conlang using logograms?

Posted: 2020-08-01, 18:18
by Dormouse559
Emandir wrote:As a matter of fact, my "new" conlang (still a WIP) is supposed to be logographic but I still don't have designed any logogram yet. It's intended to be completely logographic, as opposed to Chinese that uses "phonetic" (phonemic?) symbols. You can imagine the amount of work that's ahead of me (not sure if I'll have enough time to complete it, though :wink:)
Anyway, I'll probably post something about this conlang (that has a peculiar syntax) sooner or later...

Hey there, Emandir! Ça fait un bail ! Logographic scripts certainly take a lot of time, but time doesn't mean as much these days :P I'd be quite interested to see what you come up with.