Category: Tutorials

I invented an alien accent by ear, then had to reverse-engineer the grammar that would naturally produce it. When Vylaraian pickpocket Lari said “I’s tryin’ t’ be you friend,” I wasn’t thinking about linguistics—just making her sound right. But months later, writing a reader magnet, I needed actual Vylaraian words. I couldn’t just make up random phonemes. The accent was data. Every “mistake” was evidence. “You bag” instead of “your bag” revealed possessive suffixes, not separate pronouns. “I is” pointed to unconjugated verbs and VSO word order. Consistent “th” to “d” shifts showed missing phonemes. The patterns weren’t random—they described interference from a complete linguistic system. Traditional conlangs work top-down: grammar first, then dialogue. I went bottom-up: dialogue that sounded authentic, then discovered the grammar hiding inside it. The accent became a skeleton key, unlocking an entire alien language.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​