Welcome to this guide! If you're wondering how a lot of really common things like tables and formatting should be done on Linguifex, wonder no longer! This guide will hopefully be helpful for those who have no prior experience with Wiki editing.

If you're wondering how anything on this page is done, feel free to click Edit above in the top right corner (next to "View History"). Just make sure to not delete anything and then save the changes. But we can rectify that easily if it does happen.

There is also a nice little Edit button next to all section headers.

Finally, here is a list of existing guides which you might find more helpful and detailed. These are for Wikipedia, so some differences might arise here and there, mostly in the form of {{ ... }} templates.

(And if you need IPA characters, just use this website: http://ipa.typeit.org/full/)

Comments

For Linguifex you can just use normal HTML comments, e.g. using the following bracketing:

<!-- This is a comment-->

Comments don't show up in the final rendered page, but stay visible in the underlying source, so you can remind yourself about things and point out notes for future editors without making the final page look unprofessional or cluttered.

This is particularly useful when making a new language page on Linguifex, since it automatically generates some sections for you that you might not want to tackle right away, but might still want to keep track of for future reference.

Tables

Tables in HTML and Wiki format are always less intuitive than using a word processor or something like that. But you do have similar control. But you should plan your tables accordingly ahead of time, making sure they're formatted in a sane way you can easily make changes to later.

Pre-formatted using the Tool

Let's say you just want a simple table right now, you can do that easily just by going up to the top of the Linguifex editor pane, and clicking Advanced. At the very end of the icons that have now popped up, there is a table icon (as of 08:37, 9 March 2017 (CET) at least). This comes with checkboxes for various options, and the preview image will show you what they change. For now, let's make a 3x3 non-sortable table with headers and see what happens in the code!

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Header text !! Header text !! Header text
|-
| Example || Example || Example
|-
| Example || Example || Example
|-
| Example || Example || Example
|}

Header text	Header text	Header text
Example	Example	Example
Example	Example	Example
Example	Example	Example

The Underlying Mechanics of the Arte o' Tabulature

The Table Brackets

The following brackets, combined with the header (see next bit), define a table.

{|
[...]
|}

The Table Header

{| class="wikitable"

This just specifies which kind of table it is. There are different version with various colours out there in the wild, so if you see one on Linguifex that you like the look of, look at the class and see if you can replace your table's class with theirs.

How Rows and Cells are Separated

The vertical bars followed by dashes signify row separators. Note that there is no row separator at the very end. If you don't use the row separator, all cells on the next line will be assumed to be part of the above row. You distinguish cells using those vertical bars. Each cell has a vertical bar before it; and if it's followed by another cell, you add one to the end too. See below for examples.

BUT WHY? This actually gives you some flexibility. For example, if I know I'm going to have a table with 10 columns and only 3 rows, then it's less frustrating for me to put those cells on a new line each, so that way I don't have to line them all up perfectly. What looks nicer to you of the two following examples?

{|
| 1 || 2 || 3 || 4 || 5
|-
| House || Helictoper || Jaguar || Astronaut || The History of Martial Law and its Application on the Isle of Jersey during the Napoleonic Era
|}

or...

{|
| 1
| 2
...
|-
| House
| Helicopter
...
|}

You'll have to decide in practice how you'll handle that. Note also that I didn't use a table header there, and just used the bare brackets. It's not as pretty though when it's rendered.

Header Cells

These use exclamation marks instead of vertical bars. You also can't mix header cells and normal cells on the same line, but you can mix them on the same row as long as you start the normal cells on a new line. For example:

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Caption goes here
! Header 1
| Normal 1 || Normal 2
|-
| Normal 3
! Header 2
| Normal 4
|-
| Normal 5 || Normal 6
! Header 3
|-
! Header 4 || Normal 7 !! Header 5 <!-- Don't even think about "! Header 4 !| Normal 7 |! Header 5"-->
|}

Caption goes here
Header 4	Normal 7	Header 5
Header 1	Normal 1	Normal 2
Normal 3	Header 2	Normal 4
Normal 5	Normal 6	Header 3

Spreading a Single Cell over Multiple Rows or Columns

This is probably easiest for those who have experience with HTML tables. But the most important advice here is that, if you tell a cell it spans across multiple rows or columns, keep in mind for the next row or column that one space has already been eaten up by that cell. If you don't plan ahead, it will steal a space from an unexpected row.

For example, this is how you span a cell over multiple rows:

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! 1st Row, 1st Cell !! rowspan='2' | 1st Row, 2nd Cell with rowspan='2' !! 1st Row, 3rd cell
|-
! 2nd Row, 1st Cell !! 2nd Row, <u>''2nd''</u> Cell
|}

1st Row, 1st Cell	1st Row, 2nd Cell with rowspan='2'	1st Row, 3rd cell
2nd Row, 1st Cell	1st Row, 2nd Cell with rowspan='2'	2nd Row, 2nd Cell

Some Example Tables

Here's some no-thrills tables for you to copy and experiment with.

Phoneme Inventory for a Random Language

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Consonants in Mongor
|-
! colspan='2' | <!-- blank spot -->
! Labial !! Dental !! Palatal !! colspan='2' | Dorsal !! Guttural
<!-- Add in more categories as you like, just keep count! There's 5 here right now, so I should have five (actually, 6...) corresponding columns -->
|-
! rowspan='2' | Plosives !! Fortis
| p || t || č || k || q ||   
|-
! Lenis
| b || d || (ž) || g || ʁ ||   
|-
! colspan='2' | Nasals
| m || n || ń || ŋ || ɴ || 
|-
! colspan='2' | Fricatives <!-- Only use as many categories as you need for your language, assuming your phonology is fairly finalised -->
|   || s, z || š ||colspan='2'|  || h 
|-
! colspan='2' | Sonorants
| v || l, ł || j ||colspan='2'|   ||  
|}

Consonants in Mongor
		Labial	Dental	Palatal	Dorsal		Guttural
Plosives	Fortis	p	t	č	k	q
Plosives	Lenis	b	d	(ž)	g	ʁ
Nasals		m	n	ń	ŋ	ɴ
Fricatives			s, z	š			h
Sonorants		v	l, ł	j

Phoneme Inventory for Something like English

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Consonants in Germanese
|-
! <!-- blank spot -->
! Labial !! Alveolar !! Post-Alveolar !! Velar !! Glottal
|-
! Plosives
| p, b || t, d ||   || k, g || (ʔ)
|-
! Affricates
| pf ||  || ch, j ||   ||   
|-
! Fricatives
| f, v || s, z || sh || (gh) || h
|-
! Nasals
| m || n ||   || ng ||   
|-
! Sonorants
| w || r, l || j ||   ||   
|}

Consonants in Germanese
	Labial	Alveolar	Post-Alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Plosives	p, b	t, d		k, g	(ʔ)
Affricates	pf		ch, j
Fricatives	f, v	s, z	sh	(gh)	h
Nasals	m	n		ng
Sonorants	w	r, l	j

Example from my own conlang Qalbïlla

{| class="wikitable"
|+ [[User:Ceige/2_Vowels|Qalbïlla]] Consonant Phonemes
|-
! Phonation
! Labial !! Dental !! Dorsal 
|-
! Plosive
| p, b || t, d, ''tˤ'' || q
|-
! Fricative
|  || s || ''h''
|-
! Nasal
| m || n || 
|-
! Sonorant
| w || l || y
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|+ [[User:Ceige/2_Vowels|Qalbïlla]] Vowel Phonemes
|-
! Openness
! Center 
|-
! Closed
| ɨ~ɯ̈ ⟨ï⟩
|-
! Open
| ɑ̈ ⟨a⟩
|}

Qalbïlla Consonant Phonemes
Phonation	Labial	Dental	Dorsal
Plosive	p, b	t, d, tˤ	q
Fricative		s	h
Nasal	m	n
Sonorant	w	l	y

Qalbïlla Vowel Phonemes
Openness	Center
Closed	ɨ~ɯ̈ ⟨ï⟩
Open	ɑ̈ ⟨a⟩

User:Ceige/How to Linguifex like a Semi-Pro

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