Three Lesser-Known Tools for Lexicon-Building in
Your Conlang
Author: John Quijada
MS Date: 03-28-2017
FL Date: 05-01-2017
FL Number: FL-000044-00
Citation: Quijada, John. 2017. «Three Lesser-Known Tools
for Lexicon-Building in Your Conlang.» FL-
000044-00, Fiat Lingua,
Copyright: © 2017 John Quijada. This work is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Fiat Lingua is produced and maintained by the Language Creation Society (LCS). For more information
about the LCS, visit http://www.conlang.org/
Three Lesser-Known Tools for Lexicon-Building in Your Conlang
While there are some conlangers whose favorite part of language-construction is developing the lexicon
for their language, many others see lexicon-building as a tedious necessity. Consequently, the process of
lexicon-building may sometimes be carried out less meticulously than other components of one’s conlang.
Nevertheless, the process of lexicon-building can become more interesting, even fun, if one is aware of
the various methods available for word-formation in a language beyond the obvious “thinking up” a
lexeme in a one-to-one correspondence with a word from real-world languages. Of particular interest are
those methods associated with diachronic/historical contexts. For the conlanger who has labored to design
a historical/diachronic context for their conlang’s development over time (perhaps involving archaic
versions of the language, a parent language, a family of related languages, or geographically-nearby
languages as sources of word-borrowing), several common processes of word-formation are available.
These methods will be familiar to anyone who has taken a historical linguistics course or has more than a
superficial knowledge of etymological principles. For example:
Direct borrowings (loanwords): where a word or phrase is taken directly from a foreign language with
its meaning (and often its spelling) retained, the only accommodation being that the pronunciation is
modified to fit the borrowing language’s phonological constraints. English examples include tête-à-tête,
je ne sais quoi, zeitgeist, and schadenfreude. A more complex example is our word decal, shortened
from the original decalcomania, an anglicized form of the French word decalcomanie.
Sometimes, not only the pronunciation, but the orthography of the borrowed word is also normalized, so
that the source language is no longer transparent. An English example is whiskey, a shortened form of
whiskeybae, whose original spelling was usquebaugh, borrowed from Gaelic uiscebeatha ‘water of life.’
Borrowings with semantic shift: Far more common is the borrowing of words from other languages
with a shift in meaning. English is replete with such borrowings, e.g., muscle (from Latin musculus
‘mouse’), slogan (from Scots slogorne ‘battle cry’), casserole (a French word meaning ‘saucepan’), futon
(a Japanese word for ‘bedclothes/bedding’). English words often shift their meanings when borrowed
into other languages, e.g., Spanish el smoking ‘the smoking jacket’, Italian il camping ‘the campground’,
French les waters ‘the toilet, the lavatory’.
Calques: Like a loanword, except that the foreign word or phrase is translated morpheme-by-morpheme
into the new language. The English word ‘skyscraper’ has been borrowed as a calque into several other
European languages, e.g., French gratte-ciel (literally “(it) scrapes-sky”), German Wokendratzer (‘cloud-
scraper’), and Spanish rascacielos (“(it) scrapes skies”). As for calques in English, the word ‘loanword’
itself is an example, borrowed and directly translated from German Lehnwort.
Blendings: Otherwise known as portmanteau words, formed by morphologically and phonologically
merging two words, along with their meanings. Contemporary examples in English include Frankenfood,
pixel (‘picture’ + ‘element’), and staycation.
Conversions: Also known as functional shift, where a word’s grammatical function (part of speech) is
changed. For example, English commonly transforms nouns into verbs, e.g., to accessorize, to party, to
gaslight.
Doublets and Triplets: English has many pairs or even trios of words with subtle (or not-so-subtle)
differences in meanings whose origins were derived from the same source at different times. In English,
the source of the first word is often Norman French, while the source of the second word is the same word
borrowed later from standard Central French or even Latin. Examples are cattle, chattel, and capital, all
derived (the first two respectively via Norman French and Central French) from Latin capitalis ‘of the
head’) and similarly captain, chief, and chef, each derived at various times either directly or indirectly
(through French) from Latin caput ‘head’. Another such triplet is fidelity, faithfulness and fealty.
In English, many legal terms are essentially listings of semantic doublets, one term being derived from
Anglo-Saxon, the other from Norman French, originally so that the meaning of a legal document would
be understood by those both educated and otherwise. Examples include aid and abet, all and sundry,
deem and consider, fit and proper, have and to hold, terms and conditions, son and heir, last will and
testament. Examples of triplets include ordered, adjudged, and decreed; and cancel, annul and set aside.
Three Lesser-Known But Potentially Fascinating Tools for Word-Formation
In addition to the above-described processes, there are several lesser-known tools for word-formation that
many neophyte or even journeyman conlangers who have not studied linguistics formally may be un-
aware of. Three such tools are the use of folk-etymology, back-formation, and phono-semantic
matching. These three processes of word formation can prove to be a fascinating source for building
your lexicon. The remainder of this article will respectively examine these three tools of word-formation
in natural language, so that you can consider how you might utilize such processes when building your
conlang’s lexicon.
Folk Etymology
Folk etymology refers to words or short phrases in a language being derived by false etymological
assumptions. This may involve a change in either the morphological form of a word and/or its pronun-
ciation, or may simply involve a popular but false belief among a language’s speakers regarding the
etymology of a word. The phenomenon is essentially a reflection of ignorance on the part of speakers,
driven by a psychological need to alter what are otherwise incomprehensible words, so that they take on a
semblance of meaning.
Folk etymology is most often found in regard to foreign borrowings, learned words, old-fashioned/archaic
words, scientific names, and place-names. The following are examples, mostly from English:
female: from French femelle (a diminutive of femme), phonologically analogized to male by semantic
association
penthouse: from Middle English pentis, in turn from Norman French pentiz ‘attached building’ which
came from Latin appendicium ‘appendage’. The second syllable was analogized to house.
crayfish: the second syllable phonologically analogized to fish from Middle English crevis, in turn from
Norman French creveis ‘crayfish’
chaise lounge: from French chaise longue ‘long chair’ phonologically (or orthographically?) analogized
to lounge based on its function.
hammock: from Spanish hamaca. While the English word shows no folk-etymology, the German form
Hängematte, Dutch hangmat, and Swedish hängmatta all literally meaning ‘hang(ing) mat’ as folk-
etymologized based on shape and function.
kitty-corner: derived from cater-corner. The latter word involves an unfamiliar form cater-, whereas
the former allows for the suggestion of a cat’s furtive movements.
Step-father, step-sister, etc.: the prefix is popularly assumed to be the same step as in the phrase “one
step removed from…”, but in fact goes back to an archaic English word meaning “bereaved.”
bonfire: often assumed to refer to a “good fire” from French bon ‘good’, but in fact derives from bone-
fire, referring to the common practice up to the 19th century of burning old bones as fuel. Here, the
phonological influence of the /nf/ consonant cluster has shortened the long o so that the word ‘bone’ has
taken on the appearance of French bon.
woodchuck: from Algonquian otchek ‘groundhog’, where the two syllables have been morphed to the
closest-sounding English words that bear a seemingly relevant meaning. (Thus giving rise to the popular
children’s rhyme “How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?”
Consider folk-etymology as a source for such rhymes and limericks in your own conlang/conculture.)
bridegroom: All native English speakers understand the verbal meaning of groom, while those familiar
with horses also understand the word to refer to a caretaker of horses. So the folk etymology here would
entail a man who either grooms the bride or provides care for her horses. The historical derivation is
more complex: the Anglo-Saxon form was brydguma (from bryd ‘bride’ + guma ‘man’) which became
Middle English bridgome. The word gome became obsolete by the end of the Middle English period, so
that the word came to be popularly changed to grome ‘serving lad’, whose meaning narrowed over time to
refer to a ‘servant who cares for horses.’
BBaacckk–FFoorrmmaattiioonn
Back-formation, also known as juncture loss or juncture metanalysis, refers to the creation of neologisms
in a language when the speakers of a language utilize their awareness of its morphological rules to
transform an existing word into a previously-unavailable form or part of speech. An example is pea, a
singular form created from the older English collective plural form pease.
Many English verb forms have been created out of misinterpreting the final syllable of a word as being a
suffix, when it is actually not. This is common when words ending in -er, -ar, and -or are misinterpreted
as having an agentive suffix. Examples:
burgle: derived from non-agentive burglar.
peddle: derived from non-agentive peddler.
lech: derived from non-agentive lecher.
escalate: derived from non-agentive escalator.
sculpt: derived from non-agentive sculptor.
The words swindle, edit, hawk, orate, and sculpt are similarly derived.
Similar to burgle and the other forms above, English has many newly-minted words created when
speakers interpret a word as containing a “root” that doesn’t actually exist:
diagnose: a verb form created from the word diagnosis.
surveil: a verb form created from the word surveillance.
diagnose: a verb form created from the word diagnosis.
peeve: derived from peevish.
Other words similarly derived by stripping away what are perceived as affixes are afflict, laze, liaise,
televize, revise, donate, lase, and jell.
What is notable is that these neologisms often fill a void in the language, where speakers sense a seeming
lack of a desired form, usually a verb form, and use their innate knowledge of their language’s morphol-
ogy to fill that void.
Note also that many back-formations never gain long-term legitimacy. So, while forms such as elocute,
enthuse, evolute, aggress, attrit, evanesce, and frivol are attested in various writings, they have yet to
enter English as truly acceptable forms.
And before the reader assumes that any Latinate noun ending in -tion or -sion is fair game for back-
formation, it should be noted that many such words already come with historically-supplied verb forms
traceable back to Latin or French, e.g., administer, delimit, interpret, register, revolt.
Misinterpretation of morpheme boundaries in foreign borrowings
Another (and perhaps more interesting) form of back-formation occurs when speakers create neologisms
based on misinterpreted morpheme boundaries. This is especially common with foreign borrowings. For
example:
In English, words like veggieburger have been been derived from hamburger based on the false assump-
tion that the latter word described a “burger” made from ham, when, in fact, the word comes from
German Hamburg + er, where the primary morpheme is a geographical reference.
Our words apron and umpire were originally Middle English napron and noumpere, where the initial n
was commonly heard as being part of a preceding indefinite article a(n). The reverse of this process
occurred with Middle English an eute, now Modern English ‘a newt’.
The Persian word for the game of chess, shatranj, is an entertaining example. To Persian speakers this is
“a hundred worries” (a fitting name for chess!) based on shat ‘hundred’ + ranj ‘worry’, derived from
Sanskrit chaturanga ‘chess’.
Some loanwords in Bantu languages have been misinterpreted by speakers as beginning with a Bantu
class/number prefix. An example is the Swahili word kitabu ‘book’ borrowed from Arabic kitābun.
Because the initial syllable of the word ki- corresponds to a common Swahili singular noun-class marker,
the root of the word is seen as -tabu, thus the plural takes the standard plural marker vi- for that noun-
class, giving vitabu ‘books’.
Similarly, I recall once reading that the English word ‘bartender’ was borrowed into a certain Bantu
language (I don’t recall which one) as a plural form batenda ‘bartenders’, given that the prefix ba- is a
plural marker, thus giving rise to the corresponding singular form matenda ‘bartender’.
A different error is seen with Arabic loanwords in European languages, where the definite article al- ‘the’
is assumed to be part of the noun itself, e.g., English alcove, algebra, alchemy, albacore, albatross,
alfalfa, alcohol, Spanish alcalde, etc.
Phono-Semantic Matching
Phono-semantic matching refers to phonetically camouflaging foreign borrowings to look like native
words. This phenomenon is popular in languages whose speakers are wary of the encroachment of
foreign words, yet need new words to express new ideas and phenomena introduced via cross-cultural
contact. The following are examples from Icelandic, a language whose construction of phono-semantic
matches are actually overseen by a government agency:
páfagaukur ‘parrot’, derived from páfa ‘pope’ + gaukur ‘cuckoo’ to camouflage the Danish source word
papegøje ‘parrot’
eyðni ‘AIDS’ derived from eyða ‘destroy’ + -ni [nominalizer]
brokkál ‘broccoli’, derived from brok ‘cotton grass’ + kál ‘a plant from the genus Brassica’ to comou-
flage the English (and ultimately the Italian) source word
tækni ‘technology; technique’, derived from tæki ‘tool’ + -ni [nomin-alizer] to camouflage the Danish
source word teknik
An example from Mandarin Chinese is léidá ‘radar’ (literally: ‘thunder’ + ‘reach’), while an example
from English is the previously mentioned woodchuck (
