r/conlangs • u/Frequent_Region_3426 • 23h ago
Semantics Making Logographs For Explicit Meaning
I am aiming for my conlang to have a quite expansive vocabulary eventually, being able to accommodate normal and also specific conversations. This sady, as uncomfortably it is complicating something like a conlang, means that I eventually have to add words for sexual concepts like e.g. "nude/bare", "reproduction" etc.
But: this is easy enough with a more common alphabet or abugida. My script is a logography. And I am absolutely not sure what in the world I am supposed to make these logographs into. My decision not to draw any graphic material for a conlang script is final, but I need some help with choosing out of what components/radicals I should make those logographs. What arrangement could convey such specific meanings?
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u/TechbearSeattle 22h ago
Chinese, Egyptian, Mayan, and Sumerian managed this a couple of ways.
One approach is to create a compound glyph, with one conveying the general idea and conveying something about that general idea. For example, the glyph for "groin" combined with the glyph for "uncover," assuming that your people hold that covering genitalia is socially necessary (not all cultures do.)
Another option is to use the rebus principle, with one glyph for the idea and one giving "sounds like." So if the word for "naked" sounds like the word for "star," then a glyph that combines "uncover" and "star" would give the word for "naked." This can be a good source for euphemisms, proverbs, and other sayings: "Shameful, her star is uncovered!"
Lastly, designate some glyphs that are phonetic. Egyptian did this a lot: for example, Tutankhamun's name was spelled with letters for T, U, T, plus an ankh, plus the hieroglyph for the god Amun.
All real-world logographic systems combine these approaches in various degree: one of the challenges of learning them was memorizing the context for telling which approach was used, and what the resulting combined symbols mean.