This chapter focuses on language variation and change. It discusses criteria used to distinguish dialects and languages, discusses standard and vernacular dialects, and previews various types of dialectal variation, including geolects, genderlects and sociolects. In addition, it examines language change and the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that are conducive to it. This chapter also addresses aspects of variation and change in Esperanto, Lojban and Tolkien’s Elvish languages. In addition, it provides conlanging practice and a set of guided questions to incorporate aspects of variation in a conlang, and exemplifies dialectal variation and historical change in the Salt language.

This chapter summarizes the conlanging process described throughout the book and provides suggestions on how to continue to build a conlang, including composing and translating fictional texts, and developing vocabulary and grammar further. It also discusses the extent to which conlangs need to be consistent with patterns attested in natural languages and provides a full translation and gloss of a fictional text for the Salt language.

This chapter focuses on written systems. It introduces logographic, semiographic and phonographic scripts, including alphabets, abjads, abugidas, and syllabaries, and provides a short account of the origin of writing. This chapter also exemplifies noteworthy conscripts and discusses the connection between writing, the fictional world, and the phonological and morphological structure of a language. In addition, it provides conlanging practice, provides you with a blueprint that will facilitate the design of an original conscript for a conlang, and introduces the writing system of the Salt language.

This chapter focuses on verbal morphology, in particular, agreement and so-called TAM, i.e., tense, aspect and mood/modality. It provides conlanging practice, a set of guided questions to develop the verbal morphology of a conlang, and describes the verbal morphology of the Salt language

This chapter focuses on the development of vocalic inventories in conlanging. It introduces speech sounds and their transcription using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) in contrast to romanization. It describes how vowels are pronounced, classified and organized in contrastive sets in languages. This chapter also offers suggestions on how to choose vowels for a conlang, includes a set of guided questions to facilitate this task and provides conlanging practice. This chapter also describes the vocalic inventory of the Salt language and includes a list of resources and references to explore further.

While spoken languages rely on the oral-aural language modality, there are languages that are based on manual-visual and tactile modalities; these are discussed in this chapter. This chapter also addresses communication channels, from modal speech found in all spoken languages, to whistled, hum, musical and yell speech. In addition, this chapter introduces communication in non-human species, including plants, animals and aliens. It also provides conlanging practice, a set of guided questions to facilitate the incorporation of communication channels and language modalities in a conlang, and presents some information of communication channels in the Salt language.

This chapter focuses on how to develop consonant inventories in conlanging. It describes consonant pronunciation, their classification and how they are organized in contrastive sets in languages. This chapter offers suggestions on how to choose consonants for a conlang, including a consideration of phono-aesthetics. It also includes a set of guided questions to facilitate this task and provides conlanging practice. In addition, this chapter describes the consonants of the Salt language.

This chapter focuses on how to combine vowels and consonants into syllables. It discusses the organization of syllables into nucleus, onsets and codas, the basics of syllabification, and how languages syllabify words. This chapter also considers restrictions in sound combination (phonotactics). In addition, this chapter provides a set of guided questions to facilitate the development of syllable structure and phonotactics in your conlang, offers conlanging practice, and describes the syllable structure and the phonotactics of the Salt language

This chapter discusses world-building in the realm of fantasy and science fiction and its connection to conlanging. It explores the connections between language and culture and offers suggestions and a set of guided questions to build a fictional world associated with your conlang. This chapter also covers fictional maps and texts and introduces the fictional realm and a short text connected to the Salt language, a conlang that will be developed throughout the book. The chapter ends with a list of resources and references to explore further.

This chapter focuses on ways to expand the conlang lexicon further by considering aspects of semantics (word and sentence meaning) such as denotation, connotation, polysemy, metaphor and the development of word networks (semantic fields). It also discusses words whose meaning depends on personal, social, spatial, temporal and textual contexts (pragmatics). This chapter also provides conlanging practice, offers a step-by-step guide to expand your lexicon taking into consideration various semantic and pragmatic aspects, and illustrates semantic and pragmatic aspects of the Salt language.

This chapter centers around inflectional morphology, used to convey grammatical meaning, particularly in connection to nouns and other nominal elements. It addresses ways in which natlangs vary morphologically, including using infixes and circumfixes, which are relatively unusual in languages. This chapter also explores ways in which languages express number, gender and case morphologically, and it introduces glossing, a set of conventions used to indicate word structure and meaning. In addition, this chapter provides conlanging practice, includes a set of guided questions to facilitate building the nominal morphology in a conlang, and outlines the basics of nominal morphology in the Salt language.