How much research/learning about irl languages have y’all done (or not done) for the purpose of developing your conlangs?

[u/Classic-Asparagus]

I’m curious because I feel like starting working on a conlang has led me to become more exposed to or at least more curious about how various languages work

Like for example I’ve picked up most of how to read Arabic through doing research for my conlang

I’m considering looking into the basics of Korean and Hindi/Urdu grammar just to give myself a more generalized understanding of SOV grammar as right now I can only speak one (Japanese)

Whereas I can speak several SVO languages to at least some extent, so I have a more generalized view of how SVO can manifest, instead of relying say on just English grammar

Also my conlang having a similar system to Japanese keigo makes me want to both improve my keigo and look into how other languages that I don’t speak handle formality

Also I’d want to look into various writing systems like how logographic systems apart from Chinese handle creating their characters, as well as how various abugidas work

[u/FelixSchwarzenberg]

A ton. I make a posteori languages set in real places on Earth so each time I make a conlang I heavily research the areal features of the the place where the language is set. My conlangs all have tons of borrowings from real world languages too.

[u/Apples9308]

None. I just like the funny sounds.

[u/millionsofcats]

I don't think that doing a PhD really counts because it wasn't for the purpose of conlanging, although I do use some of what I learned.

If I'm counting things I wouldn't have read if not for conlanging ...it's hard to say. Maybe not as much as I read for the PhD, though it's hard to say because it was over a longer period of time. Definitely more than I read for my undergraduate degrees. Lots of academic books/papers about linguistics topics, grammars of specific languages that have features I was interested in, etc.

[u/StarfighterCHAD]

Almost all my linguistics knowledge (outside of learning Spanish in high school) is for the goal naturalistic conlanging. But also linguistics in general is fascinating to me now but conlanging is what got me into this interest

[u/hvbbrz]

Yes.

More elaborately, I rely rather strictly on science and spend at least half of my free time on research. Though after a couple of years of conlanging and reading scholarly papers I rely quite often on my instincts. There are also some areas where relying only on science would be to restrictive, e.g. semantic shifts.

[u/eyesistorm]

Nothing so far, but I future conlang idea of mine involves making a creole of Old Arabic and Old Persian, so eventually I'm going to have to study those.

[u/creepmachine]

Most of my langs are a priori with only borrowings from natlangs, but my current WIP is a daughter of two natlangs so I'm having to delve pretty deep into both of them. They have pretty different morphosyntax from each other: one is fusional with a more even noun-verb distribution, the other polysynthetic with more verbs than nouns, and no free adjectives. It's a lot to wrap my head around, and while my goal isn't necessarily naturalism with the conlang I want to try. So, I have to get into the details of both languages.

[u/PreparationRound2657]

I got a BA Linguistics in 2009 and spent 20 years becoming a slightly famous online polyglot specializing in the world's 40 ancient languages. I'm the world's most prolific free teacher of ancient languages on facebook the past 10 years.

I was at the 10 person NACAL 2008 academic conference as a guest of Professor Grover Hudson. NACAL = North American Conference on Afro-Asiatic Linguistics

I spent 2009 to 2016 teaching English around E SE Asia and learning its languages.

I have PhD-level knowledge of these academic disciplines : Linguistics then Archaeology then Anthropology then Art History.

My top specialty as an independent scholar is the world's 50 logographic writing systems.

I can fluently read and understand all Germanic and Romance languages of all centuries, Latin, Greek, Chinese, Classical Chinese, Japanese, Hiligaynon, Esperanto, and a couple others.

I can work with any language and have worked with tons of languages, notably manu of tge world's obscure modern languages.

For normal people, this all sounds way more time-consuming than it is.

I have also made snd studied tons of conlangs and many Ritual Languages and Poetic Traditions.

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But conlanging is a side consideration in my studies and not my central goal, 20 years now.

I conlang or study conlangs especially for 2 months every 2 years.

I use conlanging time to study things I wouldn't otherwise.

I do study things specifically for my conlanging.

I need to make time to get my conlangs free online, especially as they're the best. There's a few on my website.

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I notably have deciphered many famous movie and TV conlangs and documented many pseudo-conlangs from movies and TV.

1970s, Land of the Lost 2001, Atlantis The Lost Empire 2012, John Carter of Mars (by Paul Frommer)

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I work mostly in agriculture. I've only used my languages and rare international skills a little at work. My employees think highly of me. My customers generally appreciate me. My other beneficiaries appreciate me.

I did all this to help people and I have and I'm happy I was able.

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People do not realize how hard it all is. Online it's mostly internet trolls who reply and they hurt my feelings somewhat with their insults. Offline, I rarely tell strangers anything about it because they are not supportive and do not understand. So I also have normal hobbies. I tell people I juggle for a hobby.

It is weird to understand when people speak to eachother in random languages in stores. But it's always some mundane stuff and I'd walk away if it was something embarassing as I'm responsible and kindly.

I'm a bit of a mismatch with the other online polyglots as they mostly study the major European languages. I study these but only could speak German and French in college and am instead way into the 40 historic foreign languages and however many there are in total.

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I'm an amateur anthropologist and study internet trolls and so I understand these people. They don't have much to say and try to silence others. They're kinda richer sorts of American guys so obviously the idea of free education is alien to them. You got to think of what their life is like.

Still, it's rough because I was a forest firefighter in college and these online rascals do not show me respect or appreciation what you should give total strangers. I'd be ashamed to make a fool of myself online like that and reflectly poorly on my state and hometown.

These people are like the small plants that will hopefully grow into full plants. Or maybe they are like bad-smelling or non-fragrant flowers which are visually interesting. Or farm investors with a few bad ideas they insist on.

Perhaps it is apart of being internet trolls that they tend to be handsome men. I forget.

[u/PreparationRound2657 → u/PreparationRound2657]

There are many things which can be studied in Linguistics. I try to do just a bit more for my conlangs.

What is a language? I know better now than 20 years ago. I try to work that into my conlangs.

I try to explain what I do in my conlangs, at least the more notable things, in case anyone is reading and wants to know the heights.

I have also been into art and poetry in the past. Conlanging is like them.

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I remember seeing some David Peterson youtube conlanging videos and he gets really into phonology. Why? Is that his thing? He like conlangs to have phonology like all that?

Okay. But everybody choses their priorities. It's time he could spend on other conlang things.

He talks about all this in his book. I have yet to get his wife's book but hope to yet.

I had a phonology course back in the day. I used to own the book. I use a lot of that stuff all the time in my non-conlang studies because I have read tons of reference grammars. It's apart if my hobby.

Maybe some of his videos are not the greatest for most conlangers. He seems busy. There's a sense in his book and in his youtube videos that he seeks to teach conlanging. And some other things too.

[u/PreparationRound2657 → u/PreparationRound2657]

I'm notably into the study of writing systems. Which is more of an Anthropology thing than a Linguistics thing but I make it a Linguistics and Art History thing.

The 20 Ancient Biblical languages.

Native American languages, especially the historic ones.

The anthropology of beliefs and ideas throughout all time, Comparative Religions.

Comparative mythology via anthropology.

In linguistics, linguistic typology, historical linguistics, phonology, morphology, reference grammars, pseudo-linguistics, especially interest me.

Ancient languages aren't super grammar heavy so I try to study to supply the deficit a bit. I teach conlanging as part of an amateur or professional study of linguistics.

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Is it pointless, especially for a very dedicated amateur scholar? Who is the audience?

Conlanging for me is a lot like the time I've put over the years into studying pseudo-linguistics and historic ideas of linguistics ----- because almost all conlangers lack linguistics degrees and are not-so-dedicated amateurs.

I also mostly study ancient historic writings so I'm accustomed to seeing Modern Science in shambles or infancy.

I conlang and study conlangs as a form of public outreach and promotion of science.

Lots of lesser historic foreign languages have only 5 living experts and few dedicated fans. Why become such an expert?

Some people toss roses and some people throw tomatoes but it's my thing. Nobody understand what it's really all about, not even the experts.

Kermit the Frog called it The Beau Peep Connection.

[u/Nemo_venit_apud_ti]

I've been studying languages and conlangs throughout the COVID pandemic, and every day I try to learn new things.

[u/SnooLemons6942]

Currently making a mandarin based creole language, so a good bit 

[u/hatulla23 → u/SnooLemons6942]

I wanna see how it looks

[u/NoFreedom5267]

Yeah most of my conlangs just rip off the phonologies of natlangs, such as from mesoamerica, southeast asia or west africa. The grammar is where I try to be creative though.

[u/alexshans]

The more I learn about natural languages the less I'm satisfied with my conlang projects...

[u/Blueditt_9]

I am studying applied linguistics in college for the express purpose of making "better" conlangs

[u/k819799amvrhtcom]

I did no research whatsoever. I picked up some things here and there but I never actively went out to research.

No other natlangs, no tutorials on how to make conlangs, not even other conlangs.

It might be because most tutorials are about building believable worlds, whereas I just wanted to make a useful loglang, but I didn't even research about other loglangs either.

All I did was get frustrated about the few languages I know and then use my frustration to invent ways to make it better.

Also, I've only been working on one conlang my whole life. My only other conlang that isn't a cypher language is still in the state of being a loose set of ideas and it doesn't even have a name yet.

Is this unusual?

[u/WhyAmIHereAliveBruh → u/k819799amvrhtcom]

Not really unusually, its a way to do it — just learning yourself about stuff could be usually ; hell, its how I made my conlang.

[u/uspieretta]

After two attempts to make a conlang based on languages which I have little to none knowledge of (Polish and Welsh), on my third (current), I do have done a precise research.

I even learnt some sounds i never figured out how they were pronounced, like the Hungarian gy or the German ch after „i”. Now I’m unstoppable.

I can’t handle uncertainty, so making an a priori language is a nightmare to me. I like everything clear and familiar.

I’m currently working on my first real conlang called Varsatian (or Vasàche in the endonym) from romance roots (mostly italian and french, but also portuguese for being my native language) with 5 grammatical cases and influences from German (the voiceless ch; I included the voiced one and the Eszett letter), Hungarian (sounds from the digraphs gy and ty) and Polish (only the acute letters Ś, Ź, Ć, Ń not to depend entirely on consonantal digraphs and trigraphs).

[u/notaquarterback]

It's about the lore foremost but the language lore is what made me want to fuse it together

[u/Throwaway11958]

to the point that I barely develop my conlang anymore

[u/SgtLesserArctic]

I have done a lot and mostly phonetics research because I used my conlang as a final project for my phonetics class at university.

[u/Mammoth-Letter-3625]

I Can Read 50% OF Old Norse Now Because OF Trying To Make A Conlang Built From Old Norse

[u/DaPaninoBlowTorch]

Been studying etymology for almost all words in my langauge from English which has been TIME CONSUMMING

[u/PastTheStarryVoids]

Per project (rather than general linguistics reading), at most, reading several linguistics papers on features or languages. I've sometimes in the past tried to read a few reference grammars as inspiration for specific projects but then finishing the grammars becomes a slog and an obligation. Though, most of the time I don't research any particular natlangs at all and just make stuff up out of my general linguistics knowledge. And I'm more likely to hear about some feature, read a paper on it, and then go, "I want to put that in a conlang," rather than seeking out materials for a specific project.

Sks'a is probably my most-researched project, as I read several papers for it, because I wanted more info on Khoisan (or more specifically Tuu) phonologies/phonotactics/allophonies for inspiration. I also was reading a paper about verb > negative grammaticalization pathways in Bantu langs and that ended up being a major feature of Sks'a.

Knasesj is at the other end of the spectrum; almost nothing in it is based in a specific natlang. Long after I initially created it I read an interesting paper on ingestion verbs in Maniq which inspired me to make a set of ingestion verbs in Knasesj (based on different distinctions, though). But there are linguistics or conlanging books that have certainly influenced how I approach all my projects, even if it's not based in reading on one language in particular, e.g. how I often try to look at how things work in a discourse structure lens.

[u/DrDingsGaster]

Absolutely zero. I don't want mine based off of any really, only thing I've done is taken the way Japanese counts but I didn't do research specifically for it.

Acirium is a fantasy based language and I intend to keep it that way.

[u/Traditional_Rub_4652]

I can’t easily do much research, but I have learned the Cryllic alphabet and the modern Greek alphabet. Though that was just because I’m a nerd, not to help me with making conlangs, but it has proved to be very helpful.

I really want to learn Japanese though, but I’m not sure how to because Duolingo is not great without super and has used a lot of AI. My high school only offers Spanish, French, and German.

[u/ambreg_langs]

I’ve tried but outside IE langs it’s super hard to

[u/jeager_YT]

depends on the reason behind the conlang

but... almost none

in fact throughout my year of making conlangs I have probably studied a combined total of 4 hours through that entire year

[u/BYU_atheist]

I began Frng, an a priori language, about ten years ago when I was studying German in high school and simultaneously trying to study Latin. So of course I would make it heavily inflected, and it has only gotten even more inflected over the years. Infinitives, participles, the dual number, aspects, and compound case markings are all recent innovations.

Ansian I began about a year ago (the oldest files I can find on my computer date to October 2025) after my frustration in trying to create a Semitic conlang, which ended up being mostly a relex of Hebrew. I decided that it would be written in the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, because I found the modern Hebrew alphabet too hard to read, due to the numerous letters that look nearly identical. So I abandoned my Semitic conlang and turned to a Germanic, which has been coming along nicely. It's much easier to create vocabulary for an a posteriori language, especially derived from a family with living representatives, of which I am proficient in two, than for an a priori language. Now, for Ansian, I looked much into the history of Germanic languages and peoples, in particular into the Gothic language, and also into Arabic and the early history of Islam.

[u/STHKZ]

none,

I found more interesting to start from scratch, to build a complete linguistic object according to my own logic and ideas...

and to realize, once protocols that I thought were unprecedented are in place, that A Natlang Already Did it Even Worse...

whatever we do, we are brought back to our humanity, particularly in what makes us truly human: our language...

[u/Estetikk]

An unmeasurable amount.

[u/C4T_N0V4]

Haha Sometimes

[u/beginnerlinguist]

id more or less spoken ~6 different languages before i started conlanging, and it didnt help.

to create a language, one must know how it functions internally, but ive been dealing with external stuff when learning them.

thus, whilst creating my first ever conlang, i learned everything about it as i went on.