Who can do this?
Owners and co-authors with the right permissions create languages, words, rules and phonetic patterns, edit them, delete them and restore them. Guests do not see languages.
Languages and conlang
Under “Languages” you maintain constructed languages with words, grammar notes and phonetic patterns.
What is it for?
Elvish, Klingon, a language for your own people: constructed languages need order. Under “Languages”, you create a lexicon, a set of grammar rules and phonetic pattern notes for each language. A word has a meaning, a word type, a pronunciation and, optionally, a word stem that points to another word of the same language.
The grammar rules and the phonetic pattern notes are purely documentation. Illumentis does not generate any grammar from them. Instead, the Illuminatio Engine uses your lexicon: it compares a new word with the letter sequences of the existing words and flags it if it mostly sounds unfamiliar. This is a hint to think about, not an error.
For the pronunciation, you can attach a recording made with the microphone. It is stored together with the word. The “Languages” module must be switched on in the project settings.
How it works
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In the project settings, under “Modules”, switch on the “Languages” module.
What you see afterwards: The “Languages” area is available in the project.
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Choose “New language” and enter a name. Optionally, assign a faction in the detail view.
What you see afterwards: The detail view shows “Lexicon”, “Grammar rules” and “Phonetic pattern notes”.
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Choose “Add word” and enter “Word”, “Meaning” and, if needed, “Word type”, “Pronunciation/phonetics” and “Word stem (etymology)”.
What you see afterwards: The word appears in the lexicon.
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Choose “Add rule” and enter a “Category” and the “Rule text”.
What you see afterwards: The rule appears in the grammar rules.
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Choose “Add pattern” to note a phonetic pattern.
What you see afterwards: The note appears under “Phonetic pattern notes”.
Your data
Languages, lexicon, rules and phonetic patterns belong to the project and are backed up and exported with it. The browser uploads a recording of the pronunciation, and Illumentis stores it with the word. You delete it with “Delete recording”. A language in the trash is kept for 30 days.
Limits
By default, a project can hold at most 1 language, 20 lexicon entries, 8 grammar rules and 3 phonetic patterns unless the project owner has a Studio subscription. The operators can change these values; Illumentis tells you the value that currently applies in the app once you reach the limit. The phonetic pattern check skips languages with fewer than 8 words. The engine does not read the phonetic pattern notes. A word is at most 255 characters long.
Frequently asked questions
When does the engine flag a word?
When at least half of its two-letter sequences and at least half of its three-letter sequences do not occur in any other word of the language. It skips languages with fewer than 8 words, so that not every new word stands out in the early phase.
Why does the browser ask for the microphone?
With “Record pronunciation”, you record the pronunciation of a word. The browser needs your permission for this. If you deny it, Illumentis reports “Microphone access is not possible”.
Does the engine check my grammar rules?
No. Grammar rules and phonetic pattern notes are plain text for documentation. The engine only works with the words in the lexicon.