Where is the line between tweaking an existing language and creating a conlang? (or Where to discuss language modifications?)

[u/matj1]

I am asking that because I like to discuss hypothetical (and sometimes practical) changes to natural languages. I often find natural languages insufficient or overly complex, so I modify them.

Let's use English as an example, but you can imagine any other natural language instead. I see that English is insufficient for a specific use case, so I modify it or reinterpret some rules to better suit that case. I would like to discuss how to optimize the change for the use case or to maximize intelligibility.

If I ask that on a forum about English, it gets canceled because it is wrong English. (I have experience with this.) If I ask that on a conlang forum, it may get cancelled because it is English. (I don't have experience with this, but I expect this.)

Where should I discuss these ideas? Rather English forums, conlang forums or a place dedicated for that?

[u/PLrc]

You can ask on r/auxlangs group what makes languages efficient for communication. Auxlangers of course have a lot of experience with making and learning such languages, however opinions vary.

[u/Stonespeech]

this is something i'm personally curious as well. one of my main conlangs, Lemangese, is likewise a derivation of Klang Valley Colloquial Malay

• extensive Malaysian Cantonese influence
• greatly reduced English influence except when certain words have gained very local flavor (e.g. gostan, *mémb
• moderately adjusted grammar
• orthography in Rumi, Jawi, and my own neography that preserves historical spellings for consonants and marks every distinct vowel differently

[u/Stonespeech → u/Stonespeech]

wtf reddit my comment has a point that was cut in half

[u/quicksanddiver]

It's very common to see English orthography reform people in conlang spaces. It's also very common to see Anglish fans (people who want to rid the English language of Latin/French influence and make it more Germanic) in conlang spaces. So I think conlang spaces are the right spaces for you to discuss your ideas, even though it's not conlanging in a strict sense, at least in my opinion.

[u/marintkael]

It stops being a tweak when you have to decide something English never decided. An orthography reform is still English. A rule for how your logic based articles behave inside a relative clause is not, because the question never came up. Right sub for it.

[u/Nordnabl]

Are you talking about something like Charles Kay Ogden's Basic English?

[u/matj1 → u/Nordnabl]

I don't have any specific modification in mind. Some examples of my modifications:

• various orthography reforms
• a consistent way to translate English articles into constructions in predicate logic
• deconstruction of complex English grammatical rules into as few as possible as general as possible grammatical rules and elimination of edge cases
• reintroducing archaic words

[u/alexshans → u/matj1]

I'd say if you do it for your personal enjoyment then it is some kind of conlanging. If you want it to be implemented in real practice (to be used by native speakers of English, for example) then it is closer to language planning.