Zompist.com is a
website
A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and W ...
created by Mark Rosenfelder a.k.a. Zompist, a
conlanger. It features essays on
comics
a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...
,
politics
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...
,
language
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...
, and
science
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence ...
, as well as a detailed description of Rosenfelder's
constructed world,
Almea. The website is also the home of ''The Language Construction Kit'', Rosenfelder's article introducing new conlangers to the hobby.
Many features of the site have been noted by the press, including its culture tests, humorous excerpts from phrase books, its collection of numbers in over 5000 languages, and ''The Language Construction Kit''.
The Language Construction Kit
''The Language Construction Kit'' was originally a collection of
HTML
The HyperText Markup Language or HTML is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It can be assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and scripting languages such as JavaS ...
documents written by Rosenfelder and hosted at Zompist.com intended to be a guide for making
constructed language
A constructed language (sometimes called a conlang) is a language whose phonology, grammar, and vocabulary, instead of having developed naturally, are consciously devised for some purpose, which may include being devised for a work of fiction. ...
s. The LCK proceeds from the simplest aspects of language upward, starting with
phonology
Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
and
writing system
A writing system is a method of visually representing verbal communication, based on a script and a set of rules regulating its use. While both writing and speech are useful in conveying messages, writing differs in also being a reliable fo ...
s, moving on to
word
A word is a basic element of language that carries an objective or practical meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no conse ...
s, going through the complexities of
grammar
In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraints, a field that includes doma ...
, and ending with an overview of
register
Register or registration may refer to:
Arts entertainment, and media Music
* Register (music), the relative "height" or range of a note, melody, part, instrument, etc.
* ''Register'', a 2017 album by Travis Miller
* Registration (organ), th ...
s and
dialect
The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena:
One usage refers to a variety of a language that is ...
s. This sensible progression, as well as the warnings against common oversights, frequent use of examples from
natural language
In neuropsychology, linguistics, and philosophy of language, a natural language or ordinary language is any language that has evolved naturally in humans through use and repetition without conscious planning or premeditation. Natural languages ...
s, and healthy dose of
humor
Humour (Commonwealth English) or humor (American English) is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humoral medicine of the ancient Greeks, which taught that the balance of fluids in ...
, has earned the LCK its popular and respected status among the
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, p ...
conlanging
community
A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, t ...
. It has been translated into
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
,
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
,
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
, and
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
by fans, and came out in book form in March 2010. Rosenfelder has published several follow-up works: ''Advanced Language Construction'' and ''The Conlanger's Lexipedia'', which get into more detail on certain aspects of conlanging, and ''The Planet Construction Kit'', which is geared towards creating whole fantasy worlds. In 2015, Rosenfelder published the ''China Construction Kit.''
The Zompist Bulletin Board
The website has a corresponding
bulletin board
A bulletin board (pinboard, pin board, noticeboard, or notice board in British English) is a surface intended for the posting of public messages, for example, to advertise items wanted or for sale, announce events, or provide information. B ...
, formerly hosted with
SpinnWebe
SpinnWebe was the personal website of Greg Galcik, also known as "spinn." It gathered the most fame as the home of the Dysfunctional Family Circus, which ran in the late 1990s. Additionally, the site was the showcase for a number of Galcik's ot ...
but now with its own domain at www.verduria.org. The Zompist Bulletin Board (often abbreviated ''ZBB'') is an online forum created for the purpose of discussing
conlangs,
conworld
Worldbuilding is the process of constructing a world, originally an imaginary one, sometimes associated with a fictional universe. Developing an imaginary setting with coherent qualities such as a history, geography, and ecology is a key task fo ...
s, and Mark Rosenfelder's own constructed world, ''Almea''. Members of the board share and showcase their own conlangs and conworlds, as well as discuss aspects of the world's languages.
Almea
''Almea'' is a fictional world constructed by Mark Rosenfelder, which Zompist.com is mainly dedicated to. It is populated by several races, known as the ''Thinking Kinds''. The Thinking kinds include the humans, the ''ktuvoks'' (swamp mammals with reptile characteristics considered demons by most Almean humans), the ''iliî'' (singular form ''iliu'', ancient wise aquatic race, playing a role similar to elves in Tolkien's mythos), the ''flaids'' (said to be 'friendly but insane'), the ''elcari'' (hard-working mountain dwellers comparable to Tolkien's dwarves), and the ''icëlani'' (more primitive relatives of humans). Almea's main continent, Ereláe, has several nations, including Verduria, which is the most detailed and closest Almean counterpart to real-life countries, Dhekhnam, which is a ktuvok empire (meaning that humans function as slaves to the ''ktuvoks'' there), Xurno, a nation ruled by artists, and Skouras, a detailed maritime nation.
Ereláe also has a detailed historical atlas, which was inspired by the New Penguin Historical Atlases. In addition to the various atlases and languages, there is also a wiki called the Almeopedia, which works as an encyclopedic reference. The part of the website devoted to Almea, Virtual Verduria, also includes a range of stories and guides to various subjects, including drawing and maps.
Languages of Almea described on the website include:
*
Verdurian
Verdurian (''soa Sfahe'', "the Speech") is a constructed language created by Mark Rosenfelder, first published in 1995 and hosted at his website, Zompist.com.
Verdurian is a fictional language, which in Rosenfelder's constructed world is spoke ...
*Ismaîn
*Barakhinei
*Caďinor
*Sarroc
*Cuêzi
*Axunašin
*Xurnese
*Proto-Eastern
*Kebreni
*Munkhâshi
*Wede:i
*Old Skourene
*Elkarîl
*Flaidish
*Uyseʔ
*Lé
*Dhekhnami
*Obenzayet
*Bhöɣetan
*Šɯk
Most words in those languages have etymologies, being derived from proto-languages (like Proto-Eastern above) by means of sound changes, and are given historical backgrounds, resulting in the presence of loan-words.
See also
*
Langmaker
References
External links
*
Zompist Bulletin Board
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zompist.Com
Constructed languages resources
Internet forums
Linguistics websites
Linguistics databases
Numerals