The Language Construction Kit

“Before I could write this little inscription I had to:

1. Decide on the sounds of the language
2. Create the lexicon
3. Create the grammar
4. Design an alphabet
5. Decide how the alphabet is modified for cursive handwriting
6. Translate the desired text

The order of the steps above is significant. > Working backwards (e.g. creating a text and then devising a grammar to match) will lead to an inconsistent if not incoherent work. A bad example is Hergé’s Syldavian; since he basically made it up in pieces, as he needed it, it’s impossible to create a consistent phonology or morphology for it, based on the scraps of the language provided in the Tintin books.”

From The Language Construction Kit