<p>First a in this form brand new fact from natural languages: All natural languages are of approximately the same efficiency despite their quite noticeable differences (some languages are spoken at a rather fast pace in syllables per second, but than the information content of a syllable is lower than in other languages that are spoken more slowly). The reference is <a href="https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/9/eaaw2594" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Christophe Coupé, Yoon Oh, Dan Dediu, and François Pellegrino, Different languages, similar encoding efficiency: Comparable information rates across the human communicative niche</a> and they give a value of <code>39 ± 5 bit/s</code>.</p>

<p>So you can expect that a naturalistic constructed language will fall in about the same range; maybe somewhat less efficient, because it is difficult to get things just right by construction that have been optimised by language evolution over a long time.</p>

<p>For completely symbolic languages, look up the term <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasigraphy" rel="nofollow noreferrer">pasigraphy</a> and take a glimpse on some systems that have already been invented.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-09-25T05:29:01.343Z
Pasigraphy is perfect for what I need. Looking at the example of Blissymbols for the sentence "I want to go to the cinema.", I can definitely see creating something like that for my language. Now, I just have to figure out how to use ligatures to add modifiers to my characters. :P
Alexis Evelyn
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-09-24T12:07:03.507Z
2019-09-24T12:07:03.507Z
Sir Cornflakes
<p>I plan on having some ambiguity for stuff like wordplay (and to make the language feel natural). By efficient, I mean the language takes up little space on the document it is conveying information on.</p>

<p>The idea is the language would be "alien" or "magical" as I am planning on using this language I am making in my game for magical symbols. I plan on eventually adding a spoken equivalent of it later, but I am not concerned about that now. It is also going to be part of the lore of my game, so the naturalness of the language helps a lot (so it can have a history to it).</p>

<p>The wordplay can be used to have magical mishaps from using a similar, but wrong word. The last thing I plan on adding is since it is a magic based language, I only need to have one symbol per word.</p>

<p>The idea behind the grammatical structure would convey:
<code>Subject, Verb, Action</code>. I would then use adjectives to modify the meaning of the subject, action, or verb. However, I don't know if I am going to include articles in the languages, but that depends on how I make the characters for the subjects, verbs, and actions.</p>

<p>This is not meant to be a romance language as its purpose is for use in spells and potion recipes.</p>

<p><strong>I guess what I am asking for is how to make the language use grammar and structure that can be read and written efficiently. How would I make grammar and language structure that can be read and written efficiently?</strong></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-09-24T02:55:32.120Z
If by "efficiency" you only mean least characters, then what sort of answer are you looking for other than "invent a logographic writing system"?
curiousdannii
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-09-24T06:40:33.943Z
I assume by "Action" you mean "Object"? An action is usually expressed through the verb.
Oliver Mason
<grammar><ambiguity><language-structure>
How would I make an efficient, written, language while still providing the least ambiguity that is reasonable?
# How would I make an efficient, written, language while still providing the least ambiguity that is reasonable?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-09-24)

I plan on having some ambiguity for stuff like wordplay (and to make the language feel natural). By efficient, I mean the language takes up little space on the document it is conveying information on.

The idea is the language would be "alien" or "magical" as I am planning on using this language I am making in my game for magical symbols. I plan on eventually adding a spoken equivalent of it later, but I am not concerned about that now. It is also going to be part of the lore of my game, so the naturalness of the language helps a lot (so it can have a history to it).

The wordplay can be used to have magical mishaps from using a similar, but wrong word. The last thing I plan on adding is since it is a magic based language, I only need to have one symbol per word.

The idea behind the grammatical structure would convey:
`Subject, Verb, Action`. I would then use adjectives to modify the meaning of the subject, action, or verb. However, I don't know if I am going to include articles in the languages, but that depends on how I make the characters for the subjects, verbs, and actions.

This is not meant to be a romance language as its purpose is for use in spells and potion recipes.

**I guess what I am asking for is how to make the language use grammar and structure that can be read and written efficiently. How would I make grammar and language structure that can be read and written efficiently?**

**Tags:** grammar, ambiguity, language-structure

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: If by "efficiency" you only mean least characters, then what sort of answer are you looking for other than "invent a logographic writing system"?  
> **username_2**: I assume by "Action" you mean "Object"? An action is usually expressed through the verb.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2019-09-24. Score: 1 | Accepted answer

First a in this form brand new fact from natural languages: All natural languages are of approximately the same efficiency despite their quite noticeable differences (some languages are spoken at a rather fast pace in syllables per second, but than the information content of a syllable is lower than in other languages that are spoken more slowly). The reference is [Christophe Coupé, Yoon Oh, Dan Dediu, and François Pellegrino, Different languages, similar encoding efficiency: Comparable information rates across the human communicative niche](https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/9/eaaw2594) and they give a value of `39 ± 5 bit/s`.

So you can expect that a naturalistic constructed language will fall in about the same range; maybe somewhat less efficient, because it is difficult to get things just right by construction that have been optimised by language evolution over a long time.

For completely symbolic languages, look up the term [pasigraphy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasigraphy) and take a glimpse on some systems that have already been invented.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Pasigraphy is perfect for what I need. Looking at the example of Blissymbols for the sentence "I want to go to the cinema.", I can definitely see creating something like that for my language. Now, I just have to figure out how to use ligatures to add modifiers to my characters. :P  

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