CONLANGING: DIALECT RPG

 

Dialect is a structured language creation game, where you start out with an imaginary,  isolated population of speakers whose environment / situation leads to linguistic drift. 

Players take turns to create words and use them in conversation over the course of three rounds, known as ages (where some significant event happens that changes the course of your evolving dialect.)

In structure and gameplay, it reminds me somewhat of Fiasco, but with a cooperative feel, rather than an agonistic one. There is a tradition within the conlanging of gamefying language creation.

Finding this game has put me in mind of Langmaker by Jeffrey Henning. The book is a compilation of articles written on the Zompist.com site. The articles are written from the hobbyist point-of-view, with a popular linguistics bent. There are articles about taxonomies of conlangs, the history of conlanging (e.g., Hildegard von Bingen, J.R.R. Tolkien, etc.), a variety of sample conlangs.

But most relevant in this context, it includes some examples of language games one can play to exercise your creative and linguistic faculties to create or prepare you to create your own conlang. Examples of language games and thought experiements include: Dublex, Fith, Ilish, Intermythic (similar concept to the TNG episode "Darmok"), etc.

Grades: I've read Langmaker all-the-way through multiple times. I absolutely love its playful, playing-with-language approach. And based on my reading of the Dialect rule book and how I imagine its gameplay with interested player, I give both a solid A.