Secret Conlang for Spies

[storyteller232]

So I recently got back into a conlanging kick so to speak. I had first gotten into it working on a fantasy novel, but had switched genres and settings so a conlang wasn't necessary. So I picked of Mark's books again for the first time in a couple years (I have all three of the language ones plus the planet construction kit) and inspired by the code talkers of the WWs thought "what about a conlang to act as secret code, rather than some obscure language not many speak." So i was thinking, what would the characteristics and features of this language have to be to both act as an effective auxlang, but also not be so easy to figure out that it wouldn't be effective as a secret code.

For the premise of this scenario. The "spy ring" that would be using it would be americans, their allies, and isreali's. So it would be native english speakers, the romance languages and some speakers of Hebrew.

Here are the ideas I've brainstormed so far; my apologies, again i just picked up The Language Construction Kit again for the first time in a few years, so i may not be using the right terms:

• I realize that the first requirement to make a "secret" auxlang would be to...not post the grammar and lexicon online for anyone to read and be able to translate stuff with, but since this isn't for real and I want feedback so we'll just ignore the first

• A phonology that isn't too funky, more addition by subtraction and maybe some added sounds but no clicks or anything like that.

• A sentence order other than SVO, as I've been thinking this out, OSV has been catching my eye. Again this is just brainstorming stage

• Conjugations of verbs like spanish so the ending, rather than separate words denotes person and tense

• More grammatical tenses, like non-past, non-future. Like a teacher asking a parent or a groupmate "has johnny been doing his work?" and the
  answer "Johnny is (he wasn't) doing his work."

• Nothing too crazy for an alphabet, maybe just stick with a Romanization of the sounds, or base it off a similar enough alphabet, like base it off the Cyrillic alphabet

• For genders, maybe instead of masculine and feminine, i do it by whether the thing is organic, inorganic and the third would be for non-phisycal things like the word for "word" would be this "gender."

That's what I've brainstormed so far, no phonology or roots or anything yet. What other characteristics and features and things should i consider?

[Ares Land]

Is this an alternate-WW2 scenario? Or is it set some time after?

If so, an interesting idea would be to consider involving Tolkien himself.
He lived pretty much in the right place, at the right time, was known as a linguist and was recruited for Bletchley Park:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews ... h-spy.html

[storyteller232]

Is this an alternate-WW2 scenario? Or is it set some time after?

Neither, it's not for any book or anything, just my personal use. The setting would be modern day. It's just the inspiration for the conlang and a hypothetical set of circumstances to provide I guess you would say the needs for the conlang. I'm just creating this for the fun of it, and here are the hypothetical circumstances I came up with for the "need for it" that I decided on.

If so, an interesting idea would be to consider involving Tolkien himself.
He lived pretty much in the right place, at the right time, was known as a linguist and was recruited for Bletchley Park:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews ... h-spy.html

I will have to check that out.

[storyteller232]

I am starting on the phonology. I think that is safe, whatever the discussions of how to form the other parts come out.

[bbbosborne]

i'd suggest an extensive evidential system.

also, if you're planning on varying the sentence order, maybe vary it with different sentence types, instead of just one general rule? for example, if you have an intransitive verb, you could have it always be verb-initial to put emphasis on the action, which I think spies would want.

[xxx]

languages especially con are too long to implement (too long to build and too long to learn) and too easy to drill (too many sources accesible) ... nothing beats a code for spies ...

[Ares Land]

languages especially con are too long to implement (too long to build and too long to learn) and too easy to drill (too many sources accesible) ... nothing beats a code for spies ...

Languages have worked out fairly well in warfare. An advantage is that you can't do much with cryptoanalysis.
Restricting the vocabulary, and keeping grammatical rules simple, you can build and teach a language fairly quickly. You'll have a limited set of things to talk about, which helps.
That's what Navajo code-talkers did, by the way: they actually used code-words, taken from random words, and didn't bother with grammar. The Japanese did secure a native speaker, who couldn't understand a word of the code: to him, it was just a bunch of random words.

What actually helped:

• Unfamiliar sounds. Navajo was great for this. (It's really hard for speakers of an European language to follow Navajo along, even with the transcription. You can try this for yourself, there are great videos on Youtube). Here a conlang would be at a disadvantage -- even if you deliberately design a non-European phonology, the speakers will mess it up or misunderstand.
• No resources available; Navajo was unwritten and there probably wasn't much in terms of reference materials back then. Here a conlang would have the advantage.
• No familiar cognates. Ditto, you can design the language's lexicon pretty much the way you want.
• Few native speakers. With a conlang, speakers are de facto members of the conspiracy

The real problem though? Once the enemy captures or turns a speaker, the language is useless as a code.
What you could do, though, is use the language for non-vital communications, and codes built on top of that language, changing regularly, for the most important stuff.

[Emily]

Can you clarify a little who the intended speakers are? Is it primarily English- and Hebrew-speakers, with some Romance speakers as secondary, or are the Hebrew speakers secondary? And which Romance languages? This influences the phonology.

Assuming it's primarily English and Hebrew speakers, I'd start with:
/p b t d k g/
/ts tʃ/
/f v s z ʃ x h/
/m n l j r/
/a e i o u/

I'm having a hell of a time finding phonotactics for Hebrew, but I think it's safe to go with a maximal CCVC (allowable opening clusters: s + m/n/l/j/r; p/b/t/d/k/g/ts/tʃ/f/v/s/z/ʃ/x + r; p/b/k/g/f/s/ʃ/x + l; C + j).

But if Romance speakers take priority over Hebrew speakers in the design, this phonology would change (and it also matters which Romance languages are involved).

[Travis B.]

English speakers should rule out /ts/ and /x/ as phonemes.

[bbbosborne]

English speakers should rule out /ts/ and /x/ as phonemes.

or make /x~h/.

[Travis B.]

Actually, the conbination of English, Hebrew, and Romance speakers should specify a single stop series of /p t k/ because English-speakers often hear initial, stressed onset, and final [p t k] as /b d g/ due to English /p t k/ being aspirated initially and at the start of stressed onsets and preglottalized, glottalized, or unreleased finally or postvocalically in general - whereas Romance consistently does not aspirate or preglottalize/glottalize /p t k/.

[alynnidalar]

I dunno, I think /ts/ is one of the easier "foreign" phonemes for an English speaker to pick up. /x/ is certainly trickier, though.

[Travis B.]

I used to hear German initial /ts/ as [s], distinguished from German initial /z/ by voicing alone.

[bbbosborne]

I dunno, I think /ts/ is one of the easier "foreign" phonemes for an English speaker to pick up. /x/ is certainly trickier, though.

agreed. /x/ was extremely hard for me to pick up, and /ts/ was no problem.

[Travis B.]

I on the other hand found it easy to learn to pronounce [x] and still tend to hear initial [ts] and [s] as the same sound. However, learning to pronounce German /x/ (which really should be called /ç/) was trickier because I had to learn how to pronounce the allophone [ç] in isolation (because my native English only has it in the cluster [çj] and not in isolation).

[xxx]

the more difficult will be to found two people speaking a same conlang (which are made to not communicate using words)...

[storyteller232]

So i am abandoning this train of thought for a new personal artlang/stealthlang; 70% artlang and 30% stealthlang...aka yeah it's to give myself some privacy to write down my thoughts, but mostly it's just for fun and i don't really care and would probably think it cool if someone took the time to learn it. That being said, i guess i wasn't even thinking spy ring for this thread but more for a secret society. Will be posting what i have developed for the new conlang soon in a new thread. Working title for it is "hansenese" aka my last name + ese. look for a thread with that in the title.

[Xwtek]

I know it is abandoned, but I can't resist commenting. I suggesting using Proximal-Verb-Obviative word order. Proximal-Obviative doesn't sound strange (That's how I use passive voice) and it even helps in transmissing communicaton (As less information is lost when truncated).