Glossotechnia, the language invention card game

Glossotechnia is a card game in which the players collaboratively create a new language, and attempt to translate certain challenge sentences into this game-language. It combines competitive and cooperative elements, and probably has potential for use in teaching certain concepts in linguistics, though this aspect hasn't been tested yet.

Glossotechnia is released under the least restrictive Creative Commons license, CC BY 4.0. That is, you can do anything with it (including manufacture decks and sell them for a profit) as long as you credit me as the inventor of Glossotechnia.

• The rules
• The composition of the deck (relatively brief)
• Long detailed list of cards with exact text and layout of each
• The outline of a talk I gave about Glossotechnia at the 2007 Language Creation Conference
• MPG video of the talk I gave at the 2007 Language Creation Conference (apparently an excerpt therefrom, not quite the whole talk)
• A PDF version of the slides illustrating my talk: several cards from the main deck and the translation challenge deck, and a copy of the lexicon from the first-ever Glossotechnia game
• Two PDF files suitable for printing onto cardstock, created by Tanis Kint:
  • glossotechnia_cards.pdf
  • glossotechnia_cards_simple.pdf

  Note that his simplified version is not the same as my simplified version.

• Mailing list, weblog and message board posts about Glossotechnia:
  • conlang-card-game mailing list at Google Groups, where most recent discussion of Glossotechnia is taking place
  • First tentative discussion of the deck and rules, CONLANG list, January 2007
  • A report on the first game played, CONLANG list, March 2007
  • Feedback on various talks and events at the 2007 Language Creation Conference, including some comments on Glossotechnia
  • Make A Lang, Matthew Haupt's variant of Glossotechnia
  • A possible Glossotechnia variant using Natural Semantic Metalanguage, February 2008
  • Tone and stress in Glossotechnia, February 2008
  • Another Glossotechnia playtesting report, March 2008
  • A playtesting report on the first game using the simplified deck, August 2008

Thanks to all the people who have playtested Glossotechnia, especially those who gave me feedback on improving the game: Parker Bohn, Ynza Morgan Star, Ryan Crenshaw, Mark Watson, Kathryn Kovarik, Jack Logan, Dan Segal, Greg Koeser, Alex Fink, Matthew Haupt, Kelly Drinkwater, David J. Peterson, Peter Ara Guekguezian, Sai Emrys, Lila Sadkin, Jeff Burke, David Salo, Greg Shuflin, Clinton Gordon, Raleigh Johnson, Philip, Joseph, Juliette and Margaret Henry, Mark Reed, Michael Bohn, Valeria Jones, Nathaniel, Abi, and Somer Rowe, Jacob Lindler, Jim Henry Jr., Eugenia Henry, Deanna Ehrlich, Kevin Spehar, Randy Dean, Joel and Ĵenja Amis, Amanda Furrow, Brian Distin, Ryan Connell, and Daniel Demski. I've probably forgotten some people. John Quijada didn't playtest, but came up with useful ideas such as syntax and syllable-form wildcards.

If you make your own Glossotechnia deck and play, please let me know how your games turn out, and any problems you see with the flow of the game. Especially let me know if you try out new rule variations or new types of cards, and how well they work.

Jim Henry
jimhenry at pobox dot com

My home page
My conlang page
Last updated October 2023