Jordan Fay

ambulatorterrae:

One of my current projects is this (yet unnamed) conlang.  There’s a handful of ideas and philosophies behind its creation, but the main point and the simplest explanation thereof are that the vocal chords are never used, and there are no vowels per se.

In a way, this theoretical language is halfway between a sign language and a spoken language because, as there is no pitch of voice and, because emotion is difficult to convey with only consonants, approximants and clicks, the listener must pay very close attention to the speaker’s face and body.  

The writing system is IPA, but simplified and modified.  Apostrophes are used instead to show where a syllable ends or begins, and upside-down consonants show that the breath is being inhaled, as opposed to representing a completely different sound as in regular IPA.

Though the vowel letters “a” and “i” are used, “a” just represents breath being let out, not necessarily producing the “a” vowel sound, and “i” represents this semi-whistling noise similar to /ɕ/ for which I haven’t yet found a symbol.  

The main grammatical influences are American Sign Language and Toki Pona and, like these two languages, all of the words have multiple meanings, giving it a very compact lexicon, though its number of words will be much closer to that of Toki Pona than ASL.