#Lexiconga

[lexiconga]

New Domain, Same App

Due to unforeseen circumstances, Lexiconga's domain name has been changed to https://lexiconga.com. While I prefer the old lexicon.ga address, I don't believe I'm going to be able to reclaim the domain for a while as control of the .ga registrar is being settled (though I'll definitely be on the lookout for it!).

The Lexiconga app remains exactly the same, and you can use your same login credentials to access your same dictionaries if you created an account.

Recovering Local-Only Dictionaries

If you did not create an account and your dictionary is only saved locally, there may still be a way to get your dictionary and import it back into lexiconga.com! Unfortunately, this will only work if you have been using Lexiconga on a browser that can access its Developer Tools.

1. Visit https://lexicon.ga

The page will either look weird and say "You are OFFLINE" OR your browser will say something like "This site can’t be reached. lexicon.ga’s server IP address could not be found." This is fine.

2. Right click the page and click "Inspect" from the menu

This will bring up the Developer Tools in most browsers that use Chromium or Firefox.

3. Click the "Application" tab and find "Local Storage" in the sidebar

At the top of the developer tools are tabs. Sometimes "Application" can be hidden within a button double arrows.

4. Copy & save the data

All your dictionary data and settings are stored in local storage. Make note of the key names and copy the JSON data into a text file.

5. Paste the data into lexiconga.com

Repeat steps 2 and 3 on the new domain, and when you see the empty local storage data, double-click in the key area and type the key of the data (either "settings" or "dictionary"), then in the value area, paste the data you copied eariler.

6. Refresh the page and continue as normal

If you did it correctly, your old dictionary should appear immediately as if nothing ever happened!

Please let me know if you run into any issues with this process, but if you copy and paste precisely, it shouldn't be any trouble.

[meirlinjar]

Lexiconga dictionary for Jınışoyu

[ryvaling]

hey! this is chance & here’s this week’s prompt. what websites or resources do you use while you write or develop a character/story? what do you think of them and would you recommend them?

I don't use a lot of resources or websites. Mostly, I use the Joplin notes app to store all my worldbuilding-related notes. I also use Lexiconga for the dictionary of my conlang. Occasionally I use behindthename, wiktionary, and fantasynamegenerators for naming characters. Sometimes I read springhole, though I mostly just read it for funsies. The worldbuilding stackexchange is also a pretty good resource. I'd easily recommend Joplin and Lexiconga, they're very good.

[gobahai]

Whoa, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted here! But what with the huge Lexiconga update, I figured now would be a good time to revisit Gobahai, update the dictionary to take advantage of the new features, and finally think about the alphasyllabary again!

This time, I’m going for a much simpler approach: using the characters that 'Oayhàoù used for its characters as a starting point, I came up with pieces representing the different phonetic sounds that could be organized together in predictable ways to construct syllables. This is inspired by a horrifyingly incomplete understanding of the writing system that Korean uses, but hey, it works for this case!

Depending on the direction that any “tails” or other features of the first phoneme’s character might be pointing, the organization has 4 different orientations, pictured with the 4 boxes. Using this, you always know what the first sound is and what the following sounds are just by looking! This way, I don’t have to build out each and every different symbol in the alphasyllabary; I just build them instead!

Now I just have to fill out the vocabulary of the language a bit more and come up with interesting sentences that would be worth writing... The first step to take is probably to finish the conlang syntax test sentence list, but that’s gonna take a while. Oh well, I guess I’ll just work on that and update if I come up with anything interesting along the way!

[thecrazyworldbuilder]

I might try to learn code so I can make useful stuff like

Word Mutation Generator (for creating vaguely familiar names out of input data. E.g. you write "Cheese" and the generator gives you a given amount of mutated words similar to it: "Cheisse", "Czaaszen" & "Cuiss")

Conlang Dictionary Compiler (like Lexiconga sort of).

Advanced Markov Namegen (like on SamCodes but with more options, like excluding multiple letters at once, separatedly, or vice versa, including them separatedly, as well as controlling the degree of similarity in the "Similar To" option)

Cryptolangs, of course. Making custom rule strings, custom rules like "replace final E with Ar or something.

[aerial-jace]

Lexiconga and ConWorkShop!

I have made a ConWorkShop and Lexiconga page for my Rito conlang! Go check it out!

https://conworkshop.com/dictionary.php

http://lexicon.ga/370

[zirka-language]

From now on, all future updates about Lexiconga will be entered at this link. Sorry if you liked my little posts here, but it’s time Lexiconga updates got a home of their own. I’ll still post about and link to the new updates, but I won’t elaborate much about them here—the elaboration will be there.

[lexiconga]

Lexiconga's domain name (lexicon.ga) is currently broken because of some problem with the domain name registrar (Freenom.com). I don't know when the registrar will resolve the issue, but if it is not resolved within a couple more days, I'll be looking for other solutions. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause!

You can rest assured that your dictionary data is still safe if you have a Lexiconga account! Please contact me if you want me to send you your data, but I'm hoping that the problem will be resolved before too long and it will be usable as normal.

If you do not have an account, it may still be possible for you to retrieve your dictionary from your browser. Please let me know if you need instructions, and I'll write a post on how to get your data!

[lexiconga]

Lexiconga is now fully ad-free

I've been wanting to remove Lexiconga's advertisements for a while now, and I finally got a chance to do it today! The ads were essentially only there in the first place to 1) advertise my other personal projects, 2) give friends free exposure for cool things they did, and 3) to see if anyone else would be willing to help me pay for Lexiconga's hosting in exchange for exposure. Ultimately, they just ended up being an annoyance that didn't help anybody at all, which is the opposite of Lexiconga's purpose.

So I've finally just removed them wholesale.

That being said, I'm still hosting Lexiconga entirely on my own dollar, and while it's not that much of a burden for me, I would love to know that other people also like Lexiconga and want it to stay online! I know people use it and enjoy it (including myself), but I'd love to get some kind of monetary thank-you every now and again.

That sounded a little ominous... Let me say here and now in case I haven't before:

I intend to keep Lexiconga online for as long as I possibly can, hopefully indefinitely!

I make enough money from my day job to keep it online, but it would be a dream come true if Lexiconga could support its own costs from donations! It might also motivate me to work on that backlog of new features that I've been setting aside for a while now...

Anyway, if you want to donate, first of all thank you! You can do that using the "Support Lexiconga" button in the site footer on https://lexicon.ga, which will take you to LibraPay, but there are also other links on that page to other popular services (BuyMeACoffee & Ko-fi) as well.

Thanks so much for your support, and I hope you enjoy the new ad-free Lexiconga experience!

Love, Robbie (a.k.a. the developer)

[lexiconga]

Important Warning for Safari Users

Hey there Lexiconga users! If you use the Safari browser on any Apple devices (the default engine for iOS, iPad, and MacBook) and you've been relying on Lexiconga's offline mode (i.e. you don't have an account), then you should make an export of your dictionary AS SOON AS POSSIBLE and start using a different browser for Lexiconga. Or you can create an account to make sure your data is saved on our server.

If I'm scaring you, then that's Apple's fault. According to this post back in March that I completely missed until today, Apple has been working toward updating their Safari browser in a few good ways and one very questionable way: Safari will automatically remove local data from your browser if you haven't used the site in 7 days. Included in this list is the common browser storage called "localStorage," which Lexiconga exclusively uses to store offline data.

Which means that if 1) you don't have an account, 2) you're using Safari, and 3) you don't use Lexiconga at least once per week, your dictionary will disappear unless you're regularly exporting it to make backups.

(Making an account will make sure that your dictionary(/ies) are safely stored in our database so that even if Safari clears your data, you can just log in to get it back again.)

This is extremely frustrating because I really like Safari otherwise! I made Lexiconga offline-first because I didn't want to force people to create accounts just to use the tool. But if you're not already using a different browser that will keep your localStorage where you put it (like Firefox), then your Lexiconga dictionary is not safe unless you're making backups or/and have an account.

One irritating and dangerous caveat is that on iOS, all browsers use the Safari engine and are just styled differently! Just because your iPhone or iPad's browser is called Firefox or Chrome (confusingly) doesn't mean that you're exempt—it's Safari under the hood. On a MacBook, you're fine—Firefox and Other browsers actually are different than Safari—but iOS forces developers to use Safari as their browser engine. This may change someday, but as far as I know, Safari is still the only browser engine for iOS.

Anyway, everyone else who's not using Safari should be fine. Just keep an eye out for updates to your browser that restrict, reduce, or remove localStorage specifically if you want to keep using Lexiconga. I'll be trying to research better solutions for those of you who want to avoid creating an account, but for now, please just be sure to make regular backups if you don't have an account!

Happy conlanging,

- Robbie

[lexiconga]

Helpful Word Lists

Helpful Word Lists

I periodically search for helpful word lists to use when I'm starting (or picking back up) a constructed language (English words, specifically, because that's my native language), and I've found several helpful ones over the years. If you're getting started on a new conlang or maybe you're stuck on what words your language might need, try checking out some of these lists to help get you going. Most of them are split up by either part of speech or "type" of word, so they're great resources:

The Swadesh List

The Swadesh List is a list of about 100 words/concepts used for linguistic comparison named after Morris Swadesh. It's a very handy list that's helpful for getting started on building your conlang's lexicon, but 100 words is really not very many words. The famous toki pona conlang (Wikipedia link, or here's a more useful website if you're interested in learning it) has about 120 "official" words, and even then, many words do double duty (or more) to get a full breadth of concepts across! (Please note: this is not a criticism of toki pona in the slightest—most of my conlangs aim to be as streamlined as toki pona...and fail.)

Basic English

Basic English is an auxlang designed by Charles Ogden in 1925 to simplify English down to its most essential words for communication. Putting aside criticisms of the auxlang, it's a very useful list of anywhere from 850–2000 words to help get a good idea of words that you might want to include in your conlang! Apparently, the 2000-word Basic English list and "Voice of America's Special English 1500 word list" are all that's used for Wikipedia's nifty Simple English translation of their articles.

Word Frequency List(s)

Wikipedia has a list of the top 100 most common English words, and they do the great courtesy of separating them by part of speech on the page! As I said before, while this is very helpful, 100 is a pretty small collection of words. You can find other larger word lists from random sites, but the ones I've seen don't separate the list by part of speech, which is not particularly helpful for conlanging...

I recently hit the jackpot in my search for word lists when I found https://www.wordfrequency.info, where they provide the top 5000 words from the Corpus of Contemporary American English in order of frequency AND by part of speech! The whole list can be found on that site here: https://www.wordfrequency.info/free.asp?s=y and here is an archive link to the free page just in case it ever gets lost to time.

5000 words is a lot to sift through, but I'm planning on going through and grouping similar words for my own use and sharing it here. This may not be useful to everyone, but as I mentioned earlier, most of my conlangs aim to emulate toki pona's simplicity and small number of words, so combining words with similar meanings is something I end up doing anyway.

A Conlanger’s Thesaurus

Soon after posting this, I was made aware of this very handy document that was originally posted in 2014 and was updated January 2020 called A Conlanger’s Thesaurus by William S. Annis (here’s a direct link to PDF). The document is particularly helpful because it includes notes and helpful details in addition to just the raw words!

-----------

If you have other word lists that you've found useful or you have similar word lists for other languages that will help non-English-speaking conlangers get started on their lexicons, please send them my way by either replying to this post or sending a message here or here!

[lexiconga]

I just finally made the last updates needed for wave 2 of the new Lexiconga features to be ready to launch! I'm going to be testing a few more things to make sure it all works correctly and won't cause problems.

The upcoming New Features: Wave 2 update includes 3 new fields and the ability to create and use templates for your Details fields on your words! The new fields are the much-anticipated Etymology, Related Words, and Principal Parts fields! Lexiconga will automatically link to any existing words in your dictionary to words that you enter in the Etymology and Related Words fields!

In addition to these new features, there is also a collection of improvements and fixes that will come, so I hope you're as excited as I am for it to go live!

[lexiconga]

How to Use Custom Fonts on Lexiconga

The first wave of new features has arrived, and with it comes the ability to add custom CSS styling to your dictionaries! This tutorial will walk you through how to set up your dictionary’s CSS to use a custom font on your word entries.

That’s right, if you’ve put the time into creating a special font for your conscript, you can utilize Lexiconga’s new features to show your script in your dictionary right now!

Read on for step-by-step instructions!

Non-Public Dictionaries

If you’re only using Lexiconga locally and not sharing your dictionary publicly, then you’ve got the easiest setup possible! All you need to do is make sure your font is installed on your computer, then you can add the following to your Custom Styling field:

.orthographic-translation {   font-family: “Your Font’s Name”; }

That’s it! If you typed the font’s name correctly and it’s installed on your computer, all of the words and references to words should now be using that font!

Public Dictionaries

So you’ve got a conscript you want to share with the world. That’s pretty cool! Unfortunately, it’s a little bit trickier to get your custom conscript font to show up in other people’s browsers. But don’t worry, the following is a step-by-step guide on exactly what you need to do to get your font online and visible for anyone viewing your Lexiconga dictionary!

Step 1: Create a GitHub Account

If you’re not a programmer, you might be wondering what good this could possibly do you, but don’t worry, it’s helpful in several ways in addition to giving you a way to add suggestions or report issues for Lexiconga!

The main benefit (and the reason this tutorial works) is that GitHub provides a service called “GitHub Pages”, which is free website hosting for anyone with an account. After finishing this tutorial, if you want to set up a website for yourself or your conlang, you can do that with some HTML and CSS skills!

Step 2: Create a New Repository

“Repository” is the name for a project on GitHub, and it’s where all of your files live. Click the + sign in the top right corner and choose “New repository” from the menu:

You’ll need to give your repository a name in the field circled below. This can be anything, but it should ideally be something that can be easily typed into the URL bar of your browser, then click the green “Create repository” button, where the arrow is pointing below:

Step 3: Upload Your Font

After your repository is created, the first thing you’ll see is a bunch of scary-looking information. If you’re not a programmer, you can ignore this unless you really want to learn how to use Git. The thing you’re looking to click on this first page is “upload an existing file”, circled below:

This will take you to a place where you can either choose the file from your computer or simply drag it into the drop zone specified on the page. Make sure your font’s file name does not have spaces in it! Replacing spaces with dashes makes it much easier to type. Find your conscript font (ideally in a TTF format, though OTF will also work) and move it into the page. Once it’s uploaded, click the green “Comit changes” button at the bottom of the screen, optionally making a note about the file you’re uploading in the fields above it:

Step 4: Set up GitHub Pages

After your file is uploaded, you’ll see it in the project page as the only file there (circled below). From there, click the “Settings” button near the top of the page, where the arrow is pointing below:

You’ll land on the settings page, pictured below, where there are lots of settings that don’t matter for this tutorial. Scroll way down until you reach the “GitHub Pages” section:

When you reach the “GitHub Pages” section, click the drop-down button labeled “None” under the “Source” label (circled below) and choose “master”, marked with the arrow below:

The page will refresh, placing you back at the top of the Settings page. Scroll back down and you’ll find your GitHub Pages project URL in the spot circled below. If follows the format “https://your-username.github.io/repository-name”. Copy the URL shown on that page and take note of the file name of your font from the project page:

Step 5: Set Your Font in Lexiconga

Finally, head on over to Lexiconga. Click the Edit button for the dictionary you want to add the font to and go to the “Settings” tab. From there, edit the “Custom Styling” field like so, replacing the “url()” text with your project’s URL and font file name specified above:

The CSS in the above picture (so you can copy and paste it to help with modifying it) is:

@font-face {   font-family: “My Conscript”;   src: url(https://your-username.github.io/repository-name/conlang-font.ttf); } .orthographic-translation {   font-family: “My Conscript”; }

The “.orthographic-translation” CSS class applies the specified styling to all word names and word references in the dictionary description and word details.

Lastly, click “Save & Close” to see the result:

And that’s all there is to it! If you set your dictionary to be public and share the link, people viewing it should see the conscrpt font just like you’re seeing it!

Last Note: Orthographic Translations

The new update also adds a feature that enables swapping certain letters for other letters in word names and references. The field is on the Details tab when you click Edit, labeled “Translations” underneath the “Orthography” section. If your font uses special Unicode characters to represent letters other than the ones on your keyboard, you can set up the Translations to change an easy-to-type romanization of your words into the characters your font needs to display correctly. If your spelling is consistent enough, you should be able to use this to display everything just right!

Enjoy!

We hope this tutorial has been helpful, and we hope you enjoy the new features in Lexiconga!

Please let us know if you run into any issues and we’ll try to help you figure out how to get it set up! And please submit any problems with Lexiconga that you might find to the Issues page, along with any suggestions or requests that you’d like to see in Lexiconga in the future!

[lexiconga]

Minor Quality of Life Updates

I noticed that a couple of small things were missing in Lexiconga as I was working on some Lexember stuff, so I went ahead and added them. They are:

Tone IPA characters were missing from the IPA Chart

Field sizes were too small to correctly display some diacritics

Word reference were not linking from "Notes" fields in the Details tab

I also fixed a couple of things earlier this month when I shared Lexiconga on Reddit:

Dark mode's white "shadows" were very distracting

The footer covered Save buttons on some shorter screens

I hope these minor fixes make your time with Lexiconga a little bit nicer!

[lexiconga]

Advertisers Wanted

Ok hold on, hear me out! Nobody hates ads more than us, but with a free platform, ads are the only way to keep Lexiconga on quality hardware (which it frankly hasn't been on for a couple years now). Another reason we need ads is that we’re not going to be implementing a paid subscription service after all—those features will all be free!

We're sick of Google ads and we want nothing to do with Google tracking anymore, so we're looking to set up an advertising program with real people. We're hoping that we can get adverts that people using Lexiconga might actually care about—things like books, conlanging or writing tools, games, or any other things that conlangers might enjoy. When we release the new version of Lexiconga, we're going to be removing Google and hopefully showing manually curated (and therefore better) ads. The ads will be fully text-only with a single link to the advertised site/product/whatever to be as non-invasive as possible.

If you'd like to apply to put an advertisement up on Lexiconga, contact us at ads@lexicon.ga with the subject line “Lexiconga Ad”, and we can negotiate a locked-in discounted price for displaying a text ad for you. Once the new version of Lexiconga goes online (we’re aiming for July 1), there will be an advertising page that will list rates, so contact us before launch for the best prices!

If you know people trying to spread the word about their cool new project, please let them know that we’re looking to help them spread the word, too!

[lexiconga]

Lexiconga 2.0 is now Live!

When you go to http://lexicon.ga now, you will be treated to the new Lexiconga, rewritten from the ground up! If you’ve used Lexiconga in the past, you will see a message saying that your dictionary will be migrated to the new HTTPS version of the website, and after that, you’ll be able to use Lexiconga normally again! After doing that migration, you can change any bookmarks you have to https://lexicon.ga for a nice, more secure experience!

Check out the Updates page to see everything that has changed, and please report any issues you might have to the Issues page! To get a refresher or to learn how to use Lexiconga, click the “Help” button at the bottom of the screen to open a guide on how to use Lexiconga!

And as an added bonus, after you’ve visited Lexiconga’s new version, you can visit it even if you lose internet connection—offline mode is included in this new version!

Happy conlanging!