inglisk

Inglisk is a constructed language created by language hobbyists as a demonstration of contemporary conlang design. The term does not refer to a real-world language, and usage of the name varies across texts. Inglisk is intended as a neutral example of how morphology, syntax, and lexicon can be organized to explore linguistic ideas.

The language's phonology is compact, drawing on Western European phoneme inventories. It typically includes five vowels and about two dozen consonants, with a simple distinction between voiceless and voiced stops. Stress is usually on the penultimate syllable. Inglisk texts are written with the Latin alphabet, with diacritics used to mark vowel quality when needed.

Grammar: Inglisk uses a moderately synthetic grammar with both agglutinative and fusional elements. Nouns mark number and case, while verbs encode tense, aspect, mood, and evidentiality. The default word order is subject–verb–object, but the morphology provides enough flexibility for varied word order to emphasize different elements.

Lexicon and derivation: Core vocabulary is derived from English and other European languages as a starting point, with regular affixes to form new terms. The lexicon also includes neologisms created to illustrate specific semantic relationships, and a small set of borrowed forms from fictional or constructed-culture sources.

Usage and community: Inglisk has a small online community of hobbyists who publish grammars, dictionaries, and sample texts. The language is used for conworldbuilding, linguistic experiments, and role-playing games, and its resources are typically shared under permissive licenses to encourage learning and experimentation.