Conlangery #26: “Emphasis”

November 28, 2011 by 9 Comments

We talk about one of William’s pet peeves in conlang descriptions and linguistics in general: the overuse of the word “emphasis”.  We start out with some very strong reccomendations against using it in phonology, and then talk about some more standard terms you might use instead when talking about discourse or syntax.  We also review Yivrian, created by the writer of the well-known (in the community) “Artlanger’s Rant”.

Top of Show Greeting: Mybutan

Conlang: Yivrian

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Conlangery #25: Grammatical Voice

November 21, 2011 by 5 Comments

We have a guest on, Olle Heikilä, who we totally didn’t forget to add to the Skype call, and have a nice discussion on grammatical voice and what it’s for, what you can include, and just in general.  If you believe what your English teacher taught you about voice, prepare to be disabuse.  We also review Tseeyo, a wonderful little language with a terrible website.

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Conlang: Tseeyo

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Conlangery #24: Possession

November 14, 2011 by 9 Comments

After some observations about the merits of Star Wars and plastic chopsticks, we tell you all kinds of stuff about possession: alienable vs inalienable, various marking strategies, “to have” and more.  Oh, and we talk about Abakwi.

Top of Show Greeting: rejistanian

Conlang: Abakwi

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We Need Help AGAIN (Another poll and some more)

November 8, 2011 by 11 Comments

Over the course of the show we have discovered something … it’s really hard to dig up good conlangs out there.  Not that there aren’t plenty of conlangs out there, but a large number are ill-informed first attempts, incomplete sketches, or simply have no documentation online for us to look at.  So, we have a couple of things we’d like you, the listener to help us with:

  1. We need to have more conlang suggestions.  Good ones, with enough grammar online for us to make a decent assessment (no, you don’t need a 100-page grammar, but hopefully you have some syntax worked out.
  2. We are considering whether or not to supplement by featuring natlangs on some weeks.  We’d probably start with something familiar to see how it does, but after that I’m sure we can dig up the rare and bizarre.  I have a poll below to ask whether you all would like that idea.

 

Would you like us to feature a natural language some weeks rather than a conlang?

  • Yes, once in a while (57%, 45 Votes)
  • Yes, alternate natlang-conlang (34%, 27 Votes)
  • No, get your nat out of my con! (6%, 5 Votes)
  • I have a better idea (and you'll find it in my comment) (3%, 2 Votes)

Total Voters: 79

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Conlangery #23: Alien Languages

November 7, 2011 by 8 Comments

We talk a little about what we like and dislike about alien languages — and what concepts we think are actually likely to work.  Then we reveiw Ebisédian.

Top of Show Greeting: Cardonian

Conlang: Ebisédian

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