Zompist.com
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Zompist.com, also called The Metaverse, is a website created by Mark Rosenfelder, a conlanger. It features essays on comics, politics, language, and science, as well as a detailed description of Rosenfelder's conworld, Almea. The website is also the home of the Language Construction Kit, Rosenfelder's article introducing new conlangers to the hobby.
Some other notable features of the site include "Bob's Comics Reviews" ([1]), "Numbers from 1 to 10 in Over 4500 Languages" ([2]) — one of the largest collections of number words in existence — and the FAQ for the newsgroup sci.lang ([3]).
Contents |
[edit] Language Construction Kit
The Language Construction Kit is a collection of HTML documents written by Rosenfelder and hosted at Zompist.com intended to be a guide for making constructed languages. The Kit proceeds from the simplest aspects of language upward, starting with phonology and writing systems, moving on to words, going through the complexities of grammar, and ending with an overview of registers and dialects. This sensible progression, as well as the warnings against common oversights, frequent use of examples from natural languages, and healthy dose of humor, has earned the Kit its popular and respected status among the Internet conlanging community. It has been translated into Portuguese and Italian by fans.
Another resource, similar to Rosenfelder's Language Construction Kit and partly inspired by it, is How To Create a Language by Pablo Flores.
[edit] The Zompist Bulletin Board
The website also has its own bulletin board, which for bandwidth purposes is actually hosted with SpinnWebe.
The Zompist Bboard (often abbreviated as the ZBB) is an online forum created for the purpose of linguistic discussion, conlangs, conworlds, and Mark Rosenfelder's own constructed world, Almea. Members of the board typically share and showcase their own conlangs and conworlds, as well as discussing aspects of the world's languages. Although small in comparison to other forums it is generally known throughout the conlanging community. The Zompist Bboard is a popular center for those who are new to conlanging, or have prior experience, but have not found those who share the same interests. The board has various ranks, the names of which are based on Mark Rosenfelder's Verdurian language.
