The Language Construction Kit

"This set of webpages (what's a set of webpages? a webchapter?) is intended for anyone who wants to create artificial languages— for a fantasy or an alien world, as a hobby, as an interlanguage. It presents linguistically sound methods for creating naturalistic languages— which can be reversed to create non-naturalistic languages. It suggests further reading for those who want to know more, and shortcuts for those who want to know less.
—Mark Rosenfelder"

Explore the kit here: http://zompist.com/kit.html

Starting the year with a little philosophy...

Where does the meaning of a word come from? Plato believed all things derive their meaning from a metaphysical realm of perfect forms and ideas. Diogenes, a cynic who lived in a barrel, refutes him quite well:

"Plato was discoursing on his theory of ideas and, pointing to the cups on the table before him, said while there are many cups in the world, there is only one `idea' of a cup, and this cupness precedes the existence of all particular cups.
"I can see the cup on the table," interupted Diogenes, "but I can't see the `cupness'".
"That's because you have the eyes to see the cup," said Plato, "but", tapping his head with his forefinger, "you don't have the intellect with which to comprehend `cupness'."
Diogenes walked up to the table, examined a cup and, looking inside, asked, "Is it empty?"
Plato nodded.
"Where is the `emptiness' which precedes this empty cup?" asked Diogenes.
Plato allowed himself a few moments to collect his thoughts, but Diogenes reached over and, tapping Plato's head with his finger, said "I think you will find here is the `emptiness'."

What language do pirates speak?

Answer: the Pitkern language.

In 1789, a bunch of pirates settled on a remote island in Tahiti. They couldn't communicate too well with the natives, so they made up their own language - a creole mixture of 18th century English and Tahitian. Pitkern has survived to the modern days and currently boasts around a hundred speakers. Arrr, matey. Happy new yeARRR!

Examples (source: Wikipedia.)

Whata way ye?	How are you?
About ye gwen?	Where are you going?
You gwen whihi up suppa?	Are you going to cook supper?
I nor believe.	I don't think so.
Ye like-a sum whettles?	Would you like some food?
Do' mine.	It doesn't matter.
Wa sing yourley doing?	What are you doing? What are you up to?
I se gwen ah big shep.	I'm going to the ship.
Humuch shep corl ya?	How often do ships come here?
Cooshoo!	Good!

Happy Holidays!

Bioengineered singing mouse developing language?

From the article: Researchers at the University of Osaka accidentally removed a mouse's ability to squeak; as a result it tweets like a bird. Scientists believe that this may be allowing the mouse to develop a simple language.

More here:http://www.examiner.com/technology-in-national/bioengineered-singing-mouse-developing-language