<p>Let's look at a made-up example. Assume that we want to apply a sound change from /g/ to /d͡ʒ/ before /e/ and /i/ in Esperanto. Then, the conjugation of the Esperanto verb <em>pagi</em> "to pay" suddenly becomes irregular:</p>

<p><em>paĝi</em>, <em>pagas</em>, <em>paĝis</em>, <em>pagos</em>, <em>pagus</em> (The infinitive and the past tense have a different consonant (<em>ĝ</em>) than the rest).</p>

<p>Analogy will force one consonant for all forms but we cannot predict which one. In this respect, analogy is quite irregular, and we can end up either with the original Esperanto paradigm, or with all forms shifted to the new consonant (<em>paĝi</em>, <em>paĝas</em>, <em>paĝis</em>, <em>paĝos</em>, <em>paĝus</em>).</p>

<p>Analogy affects usually inflected or agglutinative word forms, such as verbs and nouns, but it can also be applied to derivational morphology.</p>

<p>Another type of analogy tries to level out differences between conjugations or declensions. Assume, your language features two different conjugations. Than borrowing an ending (or prefix, or vowel change) from one conjugation to the other is also an analogy.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-03-20T10:26:19.130Z
What sense of "analogy" are you writing about here?
curiousdannii
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-03-20T10:41:23.170Z
LIke in the first bullet point in this wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Analogy&oldid=824245148#Linguistics
Sir Cornflakes
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-03-20T10:49:38.277Z
Ahh. I'd missed that. Odd that levelling is called an analogy, but I get why the form of *dive->dove* arising from *drive->drove* would be called an analogy.
curiousdannii
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-03-20T07:26:40.327Z
2018-03-20T09:37:08.943Z
2018-03-20T09:37:08.943Z
Sir Cornflakes
<p><strong>What steps can be taken to reproduce <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analogy#Linguistics" rel="nofollow noreferrer">analogy</a> in a constructed language?</strong> Which parts of grammar are more likely to evolve with analogy, and why? Are there rules for what analogy does to which words, or rules that show where analogy may take place?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-03-20T03:30:05.080Z
What kind of "analogy" are you talking about that it involves phonetic rules?
curiousdannii
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-03-20T09:11:26.617Z
I'm not meaning phonetics, but analogy falls into the domain of diachronics and I showed it in (forgive the pun) analogy.
Duncan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-03-20T10:25:46.010Z
Sorry, but I have literally no idea what you're asking about. Can you give a link to this type of "analogy"?
curiousdannii
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-03-20T11:18:50.360Z
It's some sort of diachronical change that is responsible for a big part of grammatical evolution, such as Latin neuter disappearing in French and the English plural of octopus being octopuses, including the reason you can pluralise garbage words like jibbledinoss > jibbledinosses. I'm looking for a link right now
Duncan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-03-20T11:21:11.840Z
See Trask's Historical Linguistics
Duncan
<diachronics>
How to make good analogy in one's constructed language?
# How to make good analogy in one's constructed language?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-03-19)

**What steps can be taken to reproduce [analogy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analogy#Linguistics) in a constructed language?** Which parts of grammar are more likely to evolve with analogy, and why? Are there rules for what analogy does to which words, or rules that show where analogy may take place?

**Tags:** diachronics
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: What kind of "analogy" are you talking about that it involves phonetic rules?  
> **username_0**: I'm not meaning phonetics, but analogy falls into the domain of diachronics and I showed it in (forgive the pun) analogy.  
> **username_1**: Sorry, but I have literally no idea what you're asking about. Can you give a link to this type of "analogy"?  
> **username_0**: It's some sort of diachronical change that is responsible for a big part of grammatical evolution, such as Latin neuter disappearing in French and the English plural of octopus being octopuses, including the reason you can pluralise garbage words like jibbledinoss > jibbledinosses. I'm looking for a link right now  
> **username_0**: See Trask's Historical Linguistics  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2018-03-20. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

Let's look at a made-up example. Assume that we want to apply a sound change from /g/ to /d͡ʒ/ before /e/ and /i/ in Esperanto. Then, the conjugation of the Esperanto verb *pagi* "to pay" suddenly becomes irregular:

*paĝi*, *pagas*, *paĝis*, *pagos*, *pagus* (The infinitive and the past tense have a different consonant (*ĝ*) than the rest).

Analogy will force one consonant for all forms but we cannot predict which one. In this respect, analogy is quite irregular, and we can end up either with the original Esperanto paradigm, or with all forms shifted to the new consonant (*paĝi*, *paĝas*, *paĝis*, *paĝos*, *paĝus*).

Analogy affects usually inflected or agglutinative word forms, such as verbs and nouns, but it can also be applied to derivational morphology.

Another type of analogy tries to level out differences between conjugations or declensions. Assume, your language features two different conjugations. Than borrowing an ending (or prefix, or vowel change) from one conjugation to the other is also an analogy.

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: What sense of "analogy" are you writing about here?  
> **username_2**: LIke in the first bullet point in this wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Analogy&oldid=824245148#Linguistics  
> **username_1**: Ahh. I'd missed that. Odd that levelling is called an analogy, but I get why the form of *dive->dove* arising from *drive->drove* would be called an analogy.  

---

