I’m going to kick off Blaugust 2026 with a week of conlang posts, salvaged from archives of my defunct Langmaker website. I’ll start with my very first conlang, as Mark “Zompist” Rosenfelder recently shared some artistic juvenilia on his Patreon.

I invented my first language in 1982, and I called it Karklak, the Gnome Tongue. It was the language of the gnomes of the land of Wundrian. The impetus for inventing the language was reading an article in Dragon magazine that discussed inventing Old Dwarvish (or was it an article on Orcish?).

I didn’t type Karklak up on my TRS-80 and save it on cassette tape, but handwrote the language on index cards. I had two sets of cards: one for English to Karklak, and one for Karklak to English. The language never enjoyed any greater existence than those cards, which I’ve saved, being an inveterate packrat.

I’m disappointed I didn’t include the word bree-yark, a coinage by Gary Gygax in The Keep on the Borderlands, the only adventure module I’d played at the time, where PCs are told that it means “we surrender” while the DM is told it means “hey, rube!”

Nothing remains of the grammar but memories. It was crude and simplistic. The language was VSO because the Dragon article, adhering to a strong form of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, said orcs would be action oriented and dwarves would be possession oriented (OSV). A “gender” system that was used for nouns and their adjectives had two genders: d., defensive; o., offensive. Verbs and adverbs used this same “gender” system.

Here’s the language as it existed in 1982, typos, formatting inconsistencies and all.

aberk n. chain mail, tunic of chain mail [FA hauberk, tunic of chain mail < N hauberc] d.
ak conj. that
alk adj. each [OE aellc] 
arsk adj./adv./n. harsh/harshly/harshness [FA harsk < N.] o.
ban n. warlord [Serbo-Croatian.] o.
barg d.o. prep. her, their, them (o. darg) d.
baron n. baron [FA < N.] o.
barrad n. rabbit d.
beel pn. she, they (feminine) d.
begrinnen v. to begin [ME beginnen < OE bigannan] o.
bik adv. where
bon v. – irregular bon/bobon/bobun/bon to be – will be, would be (future tense)
bran n. friend, ally d.
brazzen v. to retreat (from) d.
bregden v. to throw, to turn [OE bregdan.] o.
brekken v. to break (from < M.E. BREKEN < O.E. BRECAN) o.
bren v. to be (present tense) [GT barren < OE aron]
brog pn. you (all) (o. krog) d.
dal adj./adv. fine
dar art./pn. – d.o. prep. the, your, you, a, an (o. kar) d.
dar– prefix short, little 
darg d.o. prep. his, their, him, them (o. karg) d.
darg d.o. prep. her, their, her, them (d. barg) o.
dargid n. master d.
dark adj./n. dark [ME derk < OE deorc] o.
darkrozzel n. little staff (condescendingly: dangerous little staff) d.
dergrin v. to harness (as in war), to disturb [OE hergian] o.
dez n. lie d.
dezzen v. to lie d.
do pn. I, we (o. ko) d.
dor n. door [ME dor < OE duru] d.
drak n. battle o.
drakken v. to battle o.
drakkenzax n. battle-axe o.
drakon n. dragon [FA dragon < N.] o.
dren v. to be – was, were (past tense)
dujon n. hilt of a dagger [A dudgeon < FA dogeon < N.] d.
dunor n. thunder; Thunor, God of Thunder; hammer [GT < OA thunor.] o.
dunorkrik n. crossbow [GT dunor, thunder + krik, bow.] o.
durk n. dirk [Sc.] o.
durkken v. to attack or stab with a dirk o.
gar n. hurling spear [OA.] o.
grad n. death o.
gradden v. to die o.
grank n. hour d.
grev n. leg armor [FA greve < N or GT greve < OA reof.] d.
grokken v. to know (word history: from “grok”) o.
gron n. gate d.
gronken v. to forget d.
kadd n. a caldron [Backformation < kaddron] o.
kaddron v. to cook (esp. in a kettle cauldron) o.
karg prep. d.o. his, their, him, them (d. darg) o.
Karklak n. The Gnome Tongue o.
karlkraven n. a nightmare creature (literally: fearful men) [ME cravant, cowardly + ME < ON karl, man] [GT < FA cravant, cowardly + karl, man < N] o.
keel pn. he, they (masculine) o.
kirnen v. to fight with a sword [Perh. < kirnizzen, to skirmish] o.
kirniz n. skirmish [FA skirmisshe < N eskirmiss-, to fight with a sword] o.
kirnizzen v. to skirmish o.
klakken v. to draw (a weapon), to get, to take [Imit.] o.
klangen v. to sheathe (a weapon), to put away, to hide [Imit.] [< Lat. clangere] d.
klik adj./adv. quick, quickly [ME quicke, swift < OE cwicu, alive] –
knak adv. not [Perh. OE na, no]
knord n./adj./adv. north [OE nord] d.
ko pn. I, we (d. ro) o.
konbad n. battle [N combattre.] o.
kor art./pn. – d.o. prep. the, your, you, a, an (d. dar) o.
krad n. enemy, goblin o.
kraken n. kraken [N.] o.
krakken v. to open [ME craken < OE cracian] o.
krangen v. to close d.kraz n. sword o.
krazzel n. spear – of the thrusting, parrying type (from: kraz+zel = sword+stick) o.
krazzen v. to parry with a sword (from < KROZZEN, to parry + KRAZ, sword) d.
krik n. bow o.
krikken v. to fire a bow o.
krikuk n. bowfire, bow-and-arrow (from: krik+uk = bow+missilefire arrow) o.
kro d.o. prep. my, our, me, us (d. ro) o.
krog pn. you (all) (d. brog) o.
kroz n. a parry (back-formation < KROZZEL – see KRAZZEL) d.
krozzel n. quarterstaff (from: “zel” meaning staff) d.
krozzen v. to parry (esp. with a quarterstaff) (from < KROZ, a parry) d.
rald n. life o.
ralden v. to live o.
ralk adj./n. every/everything [OE aefre+aelk, ever+each] > vralk o.
ralrev n. plunder, especially armor weapons, from the slain [OE wael – reaf.] o.
rard n. guard [OE weard, ward, guardian] d.
rarden v. to guard, to protect [< rard] d.
rarlok n. warlow [OE waerloga, oath-breaker] o.
raven n. raven [GT < OA hraefn] o.
ravenravok n. ravenhawk, or ravinghavoc (“Wings of Night”) o.
ravok n. hawk [GT < OA hafoc.] o.
razzen v. to attack with a blade, to kill with a blade (or even a beak or talon) [OT < FA to scrape, rasen] o.
reng n. wing [GT wenge < FA] o.
rengen v. to fly [< reng, wing] o.
renk conj. until
reven v. to seize forcibly, to plunder [FA < OA reafian.] 
revlak n. pillage, plunder [OA reaf-lac.] o.
ro d.o. prep. my, our, me, us (o. kro) d.
ro pn. I, we (now considered archaic) – use do (o. ko) d.
roven v. to shoot arrows at a (practice) target [FA.] o.
uk n. arrow, missile fire o.
urgak n. ogre [Perh. < N – urgach of K.] [K. urgach < N. ogre.] o.
zax n. hatchet, axe [ME sax, knife < OE seax] o.
zel n. staff, walking stick d.

Photo by Melissa De Yoe on Unsplash.