language-evolution skill

---
name: language-evolution
description: Design evolving language systems for fictional worlds. Use when creating language families, dialects, linguistic history, or when language should reflect cultural and historical development.
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: jwynia
  version: "1.0"
  type: generator
  mode: generative
  domain: worldbuilding
---

# Language Evolution: Linguistic Development Skill

You help writers create realistic language systems that evolve over time and reflect cultural history. This goes beyond conlang phonology to address how languages change, branch, and interact across generations and geographies.

## Core Principles

1. **Historical Continuity**: Languages evolve from previous forms rather than appearing fully formed
2. **Contact Modification**: Languages change through interaction with other languages
3. **Functional Adaptation**: Language structures evolve to serve communication needs
4. **Cultural Reflection**: Languages encode values, environment, and practices of speakers
5. **Cognitive Constraints**: Development is shaped by human cognitive limitations
6. **Register Variation**: Languages develop specialized forms for different contexts
7. **Innovation-Conservation Balance**: Languages contain both innovative and conservative elements
8. **Geographic Divergence**: Physical separation leads to linguistic divergence over time
9. **Sociolinguistic Stratification**: Language varies across social groups
10. **Writing System Independence**: Spoken and written forms evolve semi-independently

## Parameter Categories

### 1. Environmental Parameters

| Parameter | What It Affects |
|-----------|-----------------|
| **Geographic Distribution** | Mountain ranges, rivers affecting spread |
| **Climate Influence** | Weather and seasonal vocabulary |
| **Resource Availability** | Local materials in terminology |
| **Fauna and Flora** | Taxonomic complexity for important species |
| **Topographical Marking** | Landscape feature naming patterns |

### 2. Cultural-Historical Parameters

| Parameter | What It Affects |
|-----------|-----------------|
| **Migration Patterns** | Population movements creating contact |
| **Conquest History** | Dominant-subordinate language relationships |
| **Trade Networks** | Commercial contact creating exchange |
| **Technological Development** | New terminology requirements |
| **Religious Traditions** | Abstract concepts and sacred language |

### 3. Sociolinguistic Parameters

| Parameter | What It Affects |
|-----------|-----------------|
| **Social Stratification** | Class-based language variation |
| **Occupational Specialization** | Professional jargons |
| **Gender Differentiation** | Gender-based language patterns |
| **Age Grading** | Generational change markers |
| **Group Identity Marking** | In-group terminology and pronunciation |

### 4. Communication Context Parameters

| Parameter | What It Affects |
|-----------|-----------------|
| **Formality Levels** | Situational appropriateness markers |
| **Medium Adaptation** | Spoken vs. written vs. digital |
| **Specialist Discourse** | Technical, legal, scientific evolution |
| **Artistic Expression** | Poetic, narrative, performance forms |
| **Privacy/Secrecy** | Coded communication and euphemisms |

## Language Typologies

### Morphological Types

| Type | Characteristics | Real Examples |
|------|-----------------|---------------|
| **Isolating** | Minimal word modification | Mandarin Chinese |
| **Agglutinative** | Clear morpheme boundaries | Turkish, Japanese |
| **Fusional** | Multiple meanings in single morphemes | Latin, Russian |
| **Polysynthetic** | Many morphemes per word | Inuktitut, Mohawk |

### Word Order Types

| Type | Pattern | Examples |
|------|---------|----------|
| **SVO** | Subject-Verb-Object | English, Mandarin |
| **SOV** | Subject-Object-Verb | Japanese, Turkish |
| **VSO** | Verb-Subject-Object | Irish, Classical Arabic |
| **VOS** | Verb-Object-Subject | Malagasy |
| **OVS** | Object-Verb-Subject | Hixkaryana |
| **OSV** | Object-Subject-Verb | Rare |

### Writing System Types

| Type | How It Works | Examples |
|------|--------------|----------|
| **Logographic** | Character per word/morpheme | Chinese |
| **Syllabic** | Character per syllable | Japanese kana |
| **Alphabetic** | Character per phoneme | Latin, Cyrillic |
| **Abjad** | Consonants primarily | Arabic, Hebrew |
| **Abugida** | Consonant-vowel units | Devanagari |
| **Featural** | Characters represent features | Korean Hangul |

## Language Evolution Mechanisms

### Sound Change Types

| Type | Description |
|------|-------------|
| **Lenition** | Weakening of consonants |
| **Fortition** | Strengthening of consonants |
| **Vowel Shift** | Systematic vowel changes |
| **Palatalization** | Consonants shift toward palate |
| **Assimilation** | Sounds become more similar |
| **Metathesis** | Sound order swaps |

### Grammatical Evolution

| Type | Description |
|------|-------------|
| **Grammaticalization** | Lexical words become grammatical |
| **Analogical Leveling** | Irregular forms become regular |
| **Case System Simplification** | Loss of case distinctions |
| **Tense/Aspect Development** | New temporal distinctions |
| **Evidentiality Emergence** | Source marking becomes grammatical |

### Contact Effects

| Type | Description |
|------|-------------|
| **Lexical Borrowing** | Vocabulary adoption (most common) |
| **Phonological Influence** | Sound system adjustments |
| **Syntactic Convergence** | Sentence structure alignment |
| **Morphological Simplification** | Complexity reduction in contact |
| **Calquing** | Loan translation with native words |
| **Code-Switching** | Alternation between languages |

## Language Family Construction

### Step 1: Proto-Language Design
- Create core vocabulary (200-500 words)
- Establish basic phoneme inventory
- Define grammatical skeleton
- Set morphological type

### Step 2: Sound Change Rules
- Define systematic sound shifts
- Apply changes to create daughter languages
- Track which changes apply where
- Create regular correspondences

### Step 3: Grammatical Divergence
- Develop distinct innovations per branch
- Create unique grammatical features
- Track loss and gain of categories
- Design independent evolution paths

### Step 4: Vocabulary Divergence
- Track cognate relationships
- Add unique vocabulary per branch
- Create borrowings from contact
- Develop semantic shifts

### Step 5: Contact Zone Development
- Map where languages meet
- Create contact effects
- Develop pidgins/creoles if appropriate
- Design bilingual phenomena

## Common Evolution Sequences

### Tonal Development
- Consonant distinctions lost → Pitch compensates → Tones stabilize

### Case System Simplification
- Full case → Reduced case → Prepositions → Fixed word order

### Creolization
- Pidgin → Expanded pidgin → Creole with native speakers

### Dialect to Language
- Single language → Regional varieties → Political division → "Separate languages"

## Setting-Specific Adaptations

### Fantasy Settings
- **Elven Language Family**: Ancient, conservative, prestige
- **Dwarven Isolation**: Mountain-separated dialects
- **Human Diversity**: Rapid change and adaptation
- **Magical Terminology**: Specialized arcane vocabulary
- **Dead Language Remnants**: Ritual preservation

### Science Fiction Settings
- **Post-Earth Divergence**: Colony isolation effects
- **Alien-Human Pidgins**: Contact language development
- **Universal Translator Implications**: Technology effects
- **Digital-Augmented Communication**: Tech-language interface
- **Xenolinguistic Principles**: Non-human cognition

### Post-Apocalyptic Settings
- **Linguistic Fragmentation**: Isolation creating new dialects
- **Technological Vocabulary Loss**: Terms for lost tech
- **Specialized Jargon**: New environmental challenges
- **Writing System Degradation**: Literacy decline effects
- **Pre-Collapse Remnants**: Preserved texts, misunderstandings

## Sociolinguistic Variation

### Register Levels

| Register | Context | Features |
|----------|---------|----------|
| **Frozen** | Ceremonies, oaths | Fixed phrases, archaic forms |
| **Formal** | Official, professional | Complete sentences, technical |
| **Consultative** | Teacher-student, expert-client | Standard grammar |
| **Casual** | Friends, family | Slang, ellipsis |
| **Intimate** | Close relationships | Private vocabulary |

### Dialect Markers

| Type | What Varies |
|------|-------------|
| **Phonological** | Pronunciation differences |
| **Lexical** | Vocabulary differences |
| **Grammatical** | Structure differences |
| **Pragmatic** | Usage differences |

## Implementation Checklist

- [ ] Define language family relationships
- [ ] Create proto-language skeleton
- [ ] Design sound change rules
- [ ] Develop grammatical divergence
- [ ] Map sociolinguistic variation
- [ ] Create writing system (if any)
- [ ] Design contact zone effects
- [ ] Build register variation
- [ ] Document sample texts
- [ ] Create naming conventions integration

## Case Study Examples

### Tolkien's Languages
- Proto-Eldarin as common ancestor
- Quenya: conservative, prestige (Latin analog)
- Sindarin: evolved, everyday (Romance analog)
- Systematic sound changes documented
- Cultural-linguistic integration

### Klingon
- Distinctive phonology matching warrior culture
- Grammar reflecting cultural values
- Vocabulary emphasizing important domains
- Writing system matching technology level

### Valyrian (Game of Thrones)
- High Valyrian as classical, learned language
- Daughter languages showing realistic divergence
- Contact effects with other languages

## Output Persistence

### Output Discovery
1. Check for `context/output-config.md` in the project
2. If found, look for this skill's entry
3. If not found, ask user: "Where should I save language evolution work?"
4. Suggest: `worldbuilding/languages/` or `explorations/worldbuilding/`

### Primary Output
- **Language family tree** - Proto-language and daughter branches
- **Sound change rules** - Systematic transformations per branch
- **Grammatical divergence** - How branches differ structurally
- **Contact zone effects** - Borrowings, pidgins, convergence
- **Sociolinguistic variation** - Registers, dialects, markers

### File Naming
Pattern: `{language-family}-evolution-{date}.md`

## Verification (Oracle)

### What This Skill Can Verify
- **Sound change consistency** - Do rules apply systematically? (High confidence)
- **Typological plausibility** - Does combination of features exist in real languages? (Medium confidence)
- **Evolution logic** - Do changes follow from contact/isolation patterns? (High confidence)

### What Requires Human Judgment
- **Aesthetics** - Does the language sound right for the culture?
- **Story fit** - Does linguistic variation serve narrative?
- **Reader accessibility** - Will readers parse invented words?

### Oracle Limitations
- Cannot assess whether language feels "right" for fictional culture
- Cannot predict reader pronunciation assumptions

## Feedback Loop

### Session Persistence
- **Output location:** See `context/output-config.md`
- **What to save:** Family tree, sound changes, grammatical features, contact effects
- **Naming pattern:** `{language-family}-evolution-{date}.md`

### Cross-Session Learning
- Check for prior language work in this world
- Ensure new languages maintain family consistency
- Failed sound changes inform anti-patterns

## Design Constraints

### This Skill Assumes
- Setting has languages that evolved (not created ex nihilo)
- Writer wants historical depth, not just vocabulary
- Some linguistic diversity exists

### This Skill Does Not Handle
- **Detailed phonology** - Route to: conlang
- **Cultural texture** - Route to: memetic-depth
- **Generational society change** - Route to: multi-order-evolution
- **Naming conventions** - Route to: character-naming

### Degradation Signals
- English grammar with substituted words (relexification)
- Languages too regular without exceptions
- No sociolinguistic variation within languages

## Reasoning Requirements

### Standard Reasoning
- Single sound change application
- Basic grammatical divergence
- Simple dialect variation

### Extended Reasoning (ultrathink)
- **Full language family design** - [Why: sound changes compound across branches]
- **Contact zone synthesis** - [Why: multiple languages interacting]
- **Deep historical development** - [Why: tracing evolution across centuries]

**Trigger phrases:** "design the language family", "how did these languages diverge", "linguistic history"

## Execution Strategy

### Sequential (Default)
- Proto-language before daughter languages
- Sound changes before applying to vocabulary
- Family structure before contact effects

### Parallelizable
- Designing independent language branches
- Researching different linguistic analogs

### Subagent Candidates
| Task | Agent Type | When to Spawn |
|------|------------|---------------|
| Linguistic research | general-purpose | When modeling on real language families |
| Conlang phonology | general-purpose | When needing detailed sound inventory |

## Context Management

### Approximate Token Footprint
- **Skill base:** ~3k tokens (parameters + mechanisms)
- **With typologies:** ~4k tokens
- **With case studies:** ~5k tokens

### Context Optimization
- Focus on relevant evolution mechanisms
- Typologies are reference, load on-demand
- Case studies optional examples

### When Context Gets Tight
- Prioritize: Current evolution mechanism, active family branch
- Defer: Full typology tables, all mechanisms not in use
- Drop: Case studies, setting-specific adaptations

## Anti-Patterns

### 1. Relexification
**Pattern:** Creating "alien language" by substituting words into English grammar and syntax—"Klaatu barada nikto" as sentence structure.
**Why it fails:** Language families don't work this way. Different languages have different grammatical structures, word orders, and morphological patterns. English-with-different-words feels fake.
**Fix:** Choose a typological profile different from English. An SOV language with agglutinative morphology will feel genuinely foreign even with limited vocabulary.

### 2. Perfect Regularity
**Pattern:** Languages with no exceptions, no irregular verbs, no spelling inconsistencies—logically constructed rather than evolved.
**Why it fails:** Real languages accumulate irregularities through history. The most common words resist change, preserving older forms. Constructed perfection signals artificial origin.
**Fix:** Add irregularity to high-frequency elements. "To be" equivalents should be irregular. Common plurals should have exceptions. Spelling should preserve historical pronunciations.

### 3. Frozen Languages
**Pattern:** Languages unchanged for millennia, spoken identically by ancient elves and their modern descendants.
**Why it fails:** All spoken languages change. Geographic separation creates dialects. Prestige languages like Latin fossilize as literary forms while spoken vernacular evolves.
**Fix:** Create at least archaic and modern registers. Show dialect variation across regions. Have characters note "old-fashioned" speech patterns.

### 4. Contact Without Effect
**Pattern:** Languages existing side by side for centuries without borrowing, convergence, or pidginization.
**Why it fails:** Language contact always produces change. Trade brings vocabulary. Conquest brings grammatical influence. Bilingualism creates code-switching patterns.
**Fix:** Map where languages meet. Identify domains where borrowing occurs (technology, trade goods, governance). Create contact phenomena appropriate to relationship type.

### 5. Monolingual Societies
**Pattern:** Everyone in a kingdom speaking exactly one language with no regional variation, no professional jargon, no class markers.
**Why it fails:** Real societies are linguistically diverse. Merchants develop trade pidgins. Scholars use classical languages. Nobility marks status through speech. Regions develop dialects.
**Fix:** Design at least three registers (formal, common, intimate). Add professional jargons for important groups. Include at least one prestige/classical language.

## Integration

### Inbound (feeds into this skill)
| Skill | What it provides |
|-------|------------------|
| worldbuilding | Geographic and historical context for language spread |
| multi-order-evolution | Generational timescales for language change |
| governance-systems | Political boundaries affecting language standardization |

### Outbound (this skill enables)
| Skill | What this provides |
|-------|-------------|
| conlang | Historical context for phonology choices |
| character-naming | Naming conventions following language patterns |
| dialogue | Register variation for character voice |
| memetic-depth | Linguistic markers for cultural texture |

### Complementary
| Skill | Relationship |
|-------|--------------|
| conlang | Language-evolution provides macro history; conlang provides micro phonology. Use together for deep linguistic worldbuilding |
| memetic-depth | Language-evolution tracks structural change; memetic-depth uses linguistic markers for cultural texture |