Conlanger

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈkɑn.læŋ.ɚ/

Definitions

1. A person dedicated to the creation of artificial languages for use in fiction or communication
2. An individual who invents new languages by designing vocabularies and grammar systems for artistic or practical purposes
3. Someone who develops original languages from scratch, often for storytelling or experimental communication

Etymology: "Conlanger" is a plain, transparent formation: it is built from "conlang," a shortening of "constructed language," plus the agent suffix "-er," which marks a person who does something. A conlanger, then, is someone who constructs languages, whether for a novel's fictional people, a film's alien race, or simply for the pleasure of inventing a grammar and vocabulary from scratch. The base word does the interesting work. "Conlang" compresses the idea of a language built deliberately rather than grown over centuries, setting it apart from natural languages such as English or Swahili. The suffix "-er" is the same ending found in "baker" or "teacher," and attaching it to a clipped coinage shows how quickly English speakers produce new agent nouns once a useful term exists.