This chapter explores the transformative role of knowledge and technology in Europe’s economic history, with a special focus on the Industrial Revolution. It examines how the transfer of scientific and technological knowledge contributed to economic growth and convergence between European countries. The chapter highlights the role of education, institutional frameworks and innovation in facilitating the diffusion of technology across borders. It also considers the factors that limited convergence, such as disparities in institutional and educational development. By tracing the evolution of technological and scientific advancements, the chapter provides insight into the processes that allowed Europe to lead global economic development during the Industrial Revolution and beyond.

This chapter explores the globalization of factor markets, particularly focusing on capital and labour, and how international monetary regimes have influenced these markets throughout European history. It discusses the evolution of capital markets and the role of different monetary systems, such as the gold standard and Bretton Woods, in facilitating cross-border capital mobility. The chapter also examines the impact of migration on labour markets, exploring how the movement of people has shaped economic outcomes in Europe. It highlights the benefits of globalization, such as increased efficiency and economic integration, while also acknowledging the challenges, including inequality and labour market disruptions.

This chapter examines the historical evolution of trade and globalization in Europe, focusing on the forces that have shaped trade patterns over time. It explores the impact of technological advancements, such as improvements in transportation and communication, as well as the influence of political decisions on trade policy, including cycles of protectionism and free trade. The chapter also discusses the economic benefits and challenges of globalization, analysing how trade has contributed to economic growth while also creating winners and losers within and between countries. The chapter argues that while globalization has generally increased economic efficiency, its effects have been unevenly distributed.

This chapter introduces strategies for building new words from existing pieces in the language. The first section introduces the concept of lexical gaps, some of which may be filled by expanding the lexicon using word-formation processes. The second and third sections discuss the two most common word-formation processes, compounding and derivation. The fourth section introduces conversion and semantic extension, which are methods for expanding a lexicon without creating new word forms. The chapter ends with a discussion on borrowing (though borrowing will not be appropriate for every conlang). By the end of this chapter, you will expand the vocabulary of your conlang to include words that have been derived and/or compounded and will consider how you might expand the definitions of existing words to include new meanings.

This chapter begins the focus on grammar, which includes all the information (or “rules”) necessary to generate new, meaningful utterances in a language. The basic introduction provided in this chapter provides the foundation you will need for all the upcoming chapters. The first and second sections introduce major concepts like grammatical form, grammatical function, word order, and headedness. The third section provides a sample walkthrough of how to work with linguistic data sets to analyze a language’s grammatical patterns, a skill that is useful for conlangers to develop a stronger understanding of grammatical structures. The fourth section models the decision-making process you will follow as you make initial decisions about your conlang’s grammar.

Verbs are typically the most grammatically complicated and diverse constituents within any clause structure. The information presented in this chapter is not intended to be an exhaustive resource; rather, my goal is to introduce foundational concepts that can support your own research of additional features. The first section introduces tense and aspect, two key types of inflections that occur with verbs, and mood and evidential marking are introduced in the second section. The third section explores negation strategies and auxiliary verbs, while the fourth dives into valency-changing inflections, including the passive voice. By the end of this chapter, you will have made decisions about marking verbs in clause structures and will be able to translate basic clauses into your language.

This chapter focuses on the art of translation now that you have enough components inyour language to begin using it to express a variety of concepts and ideas. The first section introduces general translation practices, discussing the importance of translating an intended meaning rather than substituting one language’s words for another. The second section provides examples of how you can use translation as an exercise of language expansion, creating new vocabulary and constructions as needed to communicate a particular meaning. At the end of this chapter, you will be asked to translate a short text into your conlang and to write an original text in your language to showcase your language and its features.

You have used IPA to document your language’s words and their features, but this chapter introduces other options for writing your conlang, beginning with a brief overview of different types of writing systems. The second section introduces romanization strategies, which utilize standard keyboard characters to represent sounds in a language. The third section discusses how you can adapt an existing orthography to your conlang, provided it makes sense for your speakers to have access to that existing orthography. Finally, the fourth section discusses the process of creating a unique orthography if that is the direction you want to take for your language. By the end of this chapter, you will decide how you might romanize your language and whether you will use an orthography to represent the written form of your language.

The focus of this chapter is on sounds. The chapter begins with an introduction to the International Phonetic Alphabet to show how you can represent sounds with written symbols. The discussion turns to phonetic features of sounds and how they are connected to physical features of human anatomy. The second section focuses on the production and features of consonant sounds while the third section explores vowels and their features. The final section discusses how to create a balanced sound inventory when selecting sounds for your language. By the end of this chapter, you will select the consonant and vowel sounds you want to incorporate in your conlang.