u/ChiqantiKisaal

I would also exclude Turkic, Chinese and Japanese tbh. Added the phonology tag because I’m most motivated by trying to create consistent phonotactics/“feels” and conform languages to existing phonotactics/phonetic sprachbunds aesthetically.

Here are five ideas I really like:

1. Steppe Qiangic: the Tanguts cross Mongolia and establish a lasting “Khanate” somewhere in OTL Russia. The phonotactics of the language become slightly more “Turcomongol”

2. Central Mexican Totonac: A third branch of Totonacan with simple Oto-Pamean tone and maybe even voiced consonants. Maybe <tl> becomes a dental fricative like Otomi’s

3. Headwater Austroasiatic: A basal (or maybe in-universe the only) branch of Austroasiatic spoken in Sichuan/Yunnan/Tibet, with the sesquisyllables developing into an Old Tibetan/Qiangic style cluster system. This is the proposed homeland of Proto-AA for some researchers.

4. Macro-Laal: A language related to Laal (a language isolate of Chad) with typical Congolese phonotactics (Central Sudanic or Ubangian)

5. Macro-Ge Trills: Taking a Macro-Ge language with consonant clusters and turning them into bilabial and

maybe

1. retroflex trills

Honorable mention, I have like four different Yeniseian conlangs I have to choose between (like East Asian, South Asian, ‘Neo-Hunnic’ in Europe, replacing Turkic in Central/SW Asia)

Edit: ignore the weird formatting on Item 5, I cannot fix it no matter what I do.

I’m curious what you guys like to focus on. Especially grammatically; I’m more into lexicon and phonology unfortunately but trying to get a stronger understanding of grammar.

Being into South American languages is rare enough as-is, so anyone can reply but I’m especially curious about people that want to make projects (including projects beyond conlangs) based on indigenous cultures where they are.

For context I am a white American. Some items on my lexicon/phonology bucket list are:

1. Making the bilabial trill more common in hypothetical future/past Wari’ (or Chapacuran generally). Maybe Piraha or another language with sounds that could coalesce realistically into a bilabial trill (consonant clusters of some kind)
2. Giving Pilaga more Caucasian **or** Afroasiatic phonotactics to go with its pharyngeal fricative
3. Giving some Moxos language native vocabulary for complex administration and modern technology, probably Movima because of its implosives
4. Making some Macro-Ge language with initial consonant clusters look slightly more Austroasiatic or Slavic phonotactically (also Daw from Nadahup because it has a lot of glottalization)

Also, for an example of South American grammatical feature that inspired me to add something to an a priori conlang checklist: the mythological past-tense in Kawesqar. I want to create a language where a similar tense gets semantically bleached in typical speech register to just be an uncertainty marker for past tense.

Podemos hablar en español tambien, si quieres. Necesito practicar.