A community for conlangs and conlangers
Best Method for Documenting a Conlang
Question: I've tried spreadsheets, documents, wikis, and even a custom little database type thing and nothing seems to work very well.
What works best for other conlangers to document their languages?
Do you document one way while developing the language initially then switch once it's mostly hammered out?
Does it vary based on the kind of language (fusional, isolating, etc.)?
What if you want to include cultural notes on certain items? Do you do that separately or is there a good way to incorporate those?




I totally wrote my own cgi scripts to update an XML ... spreadsheet? database? ... of my dictionary. I can search and entries with the exact search terms in the "gloss" field will come up first, followed by entries with a partial match in the "definition" field. Works for me.
For grammar, I just have text files describing how things basically work. I'm not at all satisfied with my level of grammar documentation, but unwilling to do the work of making a real descriptive grammar.
It does seem like dictionaries are easy, all else is hard.
I generally just have a Libre document for grammar and usage examples and a csv for vocabulary. The csv is okay and usable (Ctrl+F ftw) but I think the grammar doc may grow unwieldy once one has lots of stuffs in it.
It does grow unwieldy. I've never been super happy with using documents because keeping them organized. But how does one keep grammar organized?
I suppose one would just have to use a table of contents + headings and be very, very organized and thorough.