Picking Sounds

 When creating a language, you have to have a set of sounds! How else are you supposed to communicate? Well, you actually don't need sounds.You could make a sign language, a written language, etc.
 But, most likely you're creating a spoken, or oral, language.
 When picking the sounds for your language, you'll want to make them fit the purpose of the language like I said in my previous page. You can see a chart of all possible sounds a human can make on the IPA, or International Phonetic Alphabet.
 But don't just go picking random sounds from this chart! You want to get sounds, that first of all you can pronounce, and second of all that you like! Why would you pick a gutteral sounding phoneme, when you hate gutteral languages?
 Also, you may have a hard time reading the IPA.
 When first looking at it, you'll see a bunch of random symbols, weird words on the side and bottom, different cells, etc. This can be very confusing, and you won't have any idea what sounds you're getting if you can't read the IPA.
 Check out my page on the IPA, where I teach you this very important charts purpose, how to read it, and more!
 Back on topic, sounds tend to come in voiced and unvoiced pairs. What's the difference between voiced and unvoiced you ask? Let me tell you!
 Put your hand on tyour throat, and say these words, "Bob, Bob, Bob, Bob."
 You should be able to feel your voicebox or neck vibrating on the "b" sounds. Now say the words, "Pop, Pop, Pop, Pop." You won't feel the vibrating.
 This is because "b" is a voiced consonant, and "p" is the unvoiced form. "p" and "b" are actually the exact same sound, one is just voiced and the other voiced.
 Again, sounds tend to come in voiced and unvoiced pairs. If there is an "f" in a language, there tends to be a "v," and so on.
 Keep in mind, human languages tend to have pairs of voiced and unvoiced consonants. Marc Okrand, the creator of Klingon, knew that aliens were supposed to be speaking the language, so he made lots of sounds without a voiced/unvoiced counterpart! Cleaver!
 Another thing to keep in mind when picking the sounds for your language is that the chart you see, the IPA, is not just one chart! The one we have been talking about are the pulmonic consonants, or the ones that use your lungs to make the sounds.
 If you are choking, you can't talk because your lungs are needed to make these sounds, but there is a chart of non-pulmonic consonants, ones that can be made whilst holding your breath!
 The normal non-pulmonic consonants are clicks, ejectives, and implosives.
 Clicks are sounds when you put one part in your mouth against another, build pressure, and release. You probably have used one of the clicks before, even though we don't have non-pulmonic sounds in English. The "tsk, tsk." sound you make, is a click (well, it could not be, but it probably is!). There are many other clicks, and you can hear the sound samples for them if you like!
 Ejectives are simply unvoiced consonants, whilst holding your breath. I'm sure you've heard these before, as ejectives are the main sounds a beatboxer uses!
 Just try holding your breath, and making the "t" sound. Be careful not to turn it into a click!
 Finally, we have the most confusing non-pulmonic consonants, the implosives. I still don't fully understand these guys, but I have a basic understanding of them. Basically, ejectives are made pushing air out, without using your lungs of course. Implosives are made by sucking air in, without using your lungs again.
 Now, ejectives have to be unvoiced. It's literally impossible to make a voiced ejective sound. An implosive has to be voiced. Again, it's impossible to make an unvoiced implosive sound.
 And, the moment I've been stalling, how to make an implosive. Have you ever made that sound thats in the cartoons, where you chug down water, like gulping, and your throat seems to move up and down? No. WHY? WHY? Well, if you have, you're one step closer to making an implosive. Just hold your breath, then try and make the "b" sound, while breathing in, without using your lungs.

Just listen to a sound simple to get the basic idea.