<p>One way, while working on paper is to divide things into multiple sheets, making sure to have plenty of extra space at the bottom of dictionary sheets, or alternatively grouping things via e.g. semantic field to not run into the alphabetisation issue to quite the same extent (though this can have the issue that the semantic field of some items might not be easily determineable).</p>

<p>You can also use a computer program to manage your vocabulary, which offers the benefits of easy searchability and ordering. A simple spreadsheet program of your choosing is enough to work in a lot of cases, and otherwise there is the possibility of using actual vocabulary management programs. There are several free ones availible, both conlang-specific ones such as <a href="https://draquet.github.io/PolyGlot/" rel="noreferrer">Polyglot</a> (which also has a bunch of other functionality for organising a bunch of other conlanging-related stuff) or one developed for natlangs but still useful for conlangs, such as <a href="https://software.sil.org/fieldworks/" rel="noreferrer">SIL FieldWorks</a> (which is quite powerful but has a bit of a learning curve).</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-03-06T18:26:54.457Z
2018-03-06T18:26:54.457Z
Gufferdk
<p>To add to Gufferdk's answer, Mark Rosenfelder in <a href="http://www.zompist.com/kit.html" rel="noreferrer"><em>The Language Construction Kit</em></a> (online version) mentions the use of index cards (as professional dictionary makers used to do in the past) as well as a technique with two-columned pages:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>You can keep a dictionary in alphabetical order by maintaining two columns and just writing in one. New words get placed in the second column. When it starts to get unreadable, it’s time to make a new edition. Index cards work too, with less rewriting.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>If you don't mind sharing your lexicon with the entire world, there are also free online services such as <a href="https://conworkshop.com/" rel="noreferrer">ConWorkShop</a> or <a href="http://anthologi.ca/" rel="noreferrer">Anthologica</a> where you can manage your own dictionaries.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-03-07T17:27:34.067Z
In my experience (which admittedly is somewhat old, so things might have changed), CWS' dictionary management tools had a bit of an issue where they to a significant extent encouraged (not explicitly, but in the way they were designed) making what is commonly known as relexes, and not particularly well-suited for those situations where one word, either conlang or metalanguage(English), corresponded partially with a whole host of words or phrases in the other.
Gufferdk
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-03-06T19:31:05.247Z
2018-03-06T19:31:05.247Z
Renato Montes
<p>With pen and paper: Use <strong>index cards</strong></p>

<p>You need two sets of index cards, one ordered alphabetically in the conlang, the other ordered alphabetically in your native language.</p>

<p>You can use index cards of different colour to retrieve, e.g., roots or basic words. </p>

<p>The index cards take up some space, but 10k of them are still managable.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-03-07T09:58:24.630Z
2018-03-07T09:58:24.630Z
Sir Cornflakes
<p>One of the easiest ways is a simple document in your favorite word processor:</p>

<p>hawarççomtar, [hawarçç- +omtar] n.C. dancer<br>
hawarrôs, [*wel-] n.N. the will, desire; attachment<br>
hawartomar, [wartam &lt; *wert-] n.N. spiritual awakening, spiritual awareness<br>
hawatam, [*wed-] D vb. sing<br>
hawatar, [*wed-] n.N. poison, medicine; saga<br>
hawatôs, [hawatam] n.N. song<br>
hawecam, [*aug-] D vb. add; grow (mid)<br>
hawehham, [*aukwh-] A vb. cook something (w. acc.); cook for someone (w. dat.)</p>

<p>Whatever etymological or grammatical information you feel like adding can be easily inserted. It's easy to insert new words or simply add them to the end of the list and have the software sort the whole thing alphabetically.</p>

<p>One great advantage of doing it this way is that it's a trivial matter of formatting for print should you ever desire to have a printed copy of your dictionary or grammar book.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-03-10T19:33:56.977Z
If you're going to do it with a computer, it'd be better to use one of the tools designed for the purpose. If, for whatever reason, you're going to insist on doing it with an office suite, I'd use the spreadsheet program, not the word processor, as most spreadsheets these days have at least rudimentary database management capabilities, such as sorting and filtering.
Jeff Zeitlin
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-03-11T01:03:36.703Z
De gustibus. I prefer using the word processor for the simple fact that I don't have to deal with a spreadsheet. I happen to like looking at a page, be it dictionary or grammar or texts, that looks like a book: all nicely formatted and print ready. I've never needed any sorting and filtering any fancier than a simple word search, so don't need the functionality that the spreadsheet offers. And the spreadsheet lacks the style, layout and formatting capabilities that I need.
elemtilas
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-03-06T23:20:44.457Z
2018-03-06T23:20:44.457Z
elemtilas
<p>I use multiple sources for Lortho. For the most part, my notes are all kept on Google Docs and its lexicon is stored in Google Spreadsheets. For the display portion of the language I use three different websites: <a href="https://linguifex.com/wiki/Lortho" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Linguifex</a>, <a href="https://www.frathwiki.com/Lortho" rel="nofollow noreferrer">FrathWiki</a>, and <a href="http://conworkshop.info/view_language.php?l=LTH" rel="nofollow noreferrer">ConWorkShop</a>. In addition, I created a challenge on Twitter and Instagram called <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/lextreme2018" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Lextreme2018</a> which keeps track of all my new lexemes for the year and the progress of Lortho's script. As I add a new word with the challenge, I also make it a point to add the new word in both the Google Spreadsheet as well as on ConWorkShop. That way I have my dictionary stored in two separate places should one decide to go belly-up.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-03-07T14:38:43.107Z
2018-03-07T14:38:43.107Z
Brian Bourque
<p>I would suggest recording them in an Access Database or something of the like.  You can make a table for each part of speech.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-03-06T22:34:43.653Z
2018-03-06T22:34:43.653Z
Karlomanio
<p>At the moment I have my fictional language written down in a notebook, but as the vocabulary increases its becoming harder and harder to find words.</p>

<p>I am adding new words all the time, so writing them in alphabetical order doesn't last long.  </p>

<p>How can I keep a track of this language and still be able to find the words I need?  </p>

<p><strong>Edit</strong>: I have seen this question has been marked as a possible duplicate, but it is different as I am also open to paper-and-pencil methods.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-03-07T02:51:09.160Z
Possible duplicate of [Are there any good programs out there to help when constructing languages?](https://conlang.stackexchange.com/questions/250/are-there-any-good-programs-out-there-to-help-when-constructing-languages)
curiousdannii
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-03-10T19:31:21.780Z
Frankly, I really can't see doing this 'by hand'; I think that things will get _out_ of hand much too quickly - as you've seemingly discovered. If you _insist_ on a 'by hand' method, the best I can suggest is a box of index cards, one word (or word stem) per card. But even that gets a bit tough to manage after not really very many words.
Jeff Zeitlin
<conlang-creation><vocabulary><tools>
How to keep track of a language?
# How to keep track of a language?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-03-06)

At the moment I have my fictional language written down in a notebook, but as the vocabulary increases its becoming harder and harder to find words.

I am adding new words all the time, so writing them in alphabetical order doesn't last long.

How can I keep a track of this language and still be able to find the words I need?

**Edit**: I have seen this question has been marked as a possible duplicate, but it is different as I am also open to paper-and-pencil methods.

**Tags:** conlang-creation, vocabulary, tools

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Possible duplicate of [Are there any good programs out there to help when constructing languages?](https://conlang.stackexchange.com/questions/250/are-there-any-good-programs-out-there-to-help-when-constructing-languages)  
> **username_2**: Frankly, I really can't see doing this 'by hand'; I think that things will get _out_ of hand much too quickly - as you've seemingly discovered. If you _insist_ on a 'by hand' method, the best I can suggest is a box of index cards, one word (or word stem) per card. But even that gets a bit tough to manage after not really very many words.  

---

## 6 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2018-03-06. Score: 8

One way, while working on paper is to divide things into multiple sheets, making sure to have plenty of extra space at the bottom of dictionary sheets, or alternatively grouping things via e.g. semantic field to not run into the alphabetisation issue to quite the same extent (though this can have the issue that the semantic field of some items might not be easily determineable).

You can also use a computer program to manage your vocabulary, which offers the benefits of easy searchability and ordering. A simple spreadsheet program of your choosing is enough to work in a lot of cases, and otherwise there is the possibility of using actual vocabulary management programs. There are several free ones availible, both conlang-specific ones such as [Polyglot](https://draquet.github.io/PolyGlot/) (which also has a bunch of other functionality for organising a bunch of other conlanging-related stuff) or one developed for natlangs but still useful for conlangs, such as [SIL FieldWorks](https://software.sil.org/fieldworks/) (which is quite powerful but has a bit of a learning curve).


---

### Answer by username_4 on 2018-03-06. Score: 7

To add to username_3's answer, Mark Rosenfelder in [*The Language Construction Kit*](http://www.zompist.com/kit.html) (online version) mentions the use of index cards (as professional dictionary makers used to do in the past) as well as a technique with two-columned pages:

> You can keep a dictionary in alphabetical order by maintaining two columns and just writing in one. New words get placed in the second column. When it starts to get unreadable, it’s time to make a new edition. Index cards work too, with less rewriting.

If you don't mind sharing your lexicon with the entire world, there are also free online services such as [ConWorkShop](https://conworkshop.com/) or [Anthologica](http://anthologi.ca/) where you can manage your own dictionaries.

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: In my experience (which admittedly is somewhat old, so things might have changed), CWS' dictionary management tools had a bit of an issue where they to a significant extent encouraged (not explicitly, but in the way they were designed) making what is commonly known as relexes, and not particularly well-suited for those situations where one word, either conlang or metalanguage(English), corresponded partially with a whole host of words or phrases in the other.  

---

### Answer by username_5 on 2018-03-07. Score: 4

With pen and paper: Use **index cards**

You need two sets of index cards, one ordered alphabetically in the conlang, the other ordered alphabetically in your native language.

You can use index cards of different colour to retrieve, e.g., roots or basic words.

The index cards take up some space, but 10k of them are still managable.


---

### Answer by username_6 on 2018-03-06. Score: 4

One of the easiest ways is a simple document in your favorite word processor:

hawarççomtar, [hawarçç- +omtar] n.C. dancer  
hawarrôs, [\*wel-] n.N. the will, desire; attachment  
hawartomar, [wartam < \*wert-] n.N. spiritual awakening, spiritual awareness  
hawatam, [\*wed-] D vb. sing  
hawatar, [\*wed-] n.N. poison, medicine; saga  
hawatôs, [hawatam] n.N. song  
hawecam, [\*aug-] D vb. add; grow (mid)  
hawehham, [\*aukwh-] A vb. cook something (w. acc.); cook for someone (w. dat.)

Whatever etymological or grammatical information you feel like adding can be easily inserted. It's easy to insert new words or simply add them to the end of the list and have the software sort the whole thing alphabetically.

One great advantage of doing it this way is that it's a trivial matter of formatting for print should you ever desire to have a printed copy of your dictionary or grammar book.

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: If you're going to do it with a computer, it'd be better to use one of the tools designed for the purpose. If, for whatever reason, you're going to insist on doing it with an office suite, I'd use the spreadsheet program, not the word processor, as most spreadsheets these days have at least rudimentary database management capabilities, such as sorting and filtering.  
> **username_6**: De gustibus. I prefer using the word processor for the simple fact that I don't have to deal with a spreadsheet. I happen to like looking at a page, be it dictionary or grammar or texts, that looks like a book: all nicely formatted and print ready. I've never needed any sorting and filtering any fancier than a simple word search, so don't need the functionality that the spreadsheet offers. And the spreadsheet lacks the style, layout and formatting capabilities that I need.  

---

### Answer by username_7 on 2018-03-07. Score: 1

I use multiple sources for Lortho. For the most part, my notes are all kept on Google Docs and its lexicon is stored in Google Spreadsheets. For the display portion of the language I use three different websites: [Linguifex](https://linguifex.com/wiki/Lortho), [FrathWiki](https://www.frathwiki.com/Lortho), and [ConWorkShop](http://conworkshop.info/view_language.php?l=LTH). In addition, I created a challenge on Twitter and Instagram called [Lextreme2018](https://twitter.com/hashtag/lextreme2018) which keeps track of all my new lexemes for the year and the progress of Lortho's script. As I add a new word with the challenge, I also make it a point to add the new word in both the Google Spreadsheet as well as on ConWorkShop. That way I have my dictionary stored in two separate places should one decide to go belly-up.


---

### Answer by username_8 on 2018-03-06. Score: 0

I would suggest recording them in an Access Database or something of the like. You can make a table for each part of speech.


---

