http://conlangery.com The podcast about constructed languages Mon, 17 Jun 2013 22:56:30 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 http://conlangery.com/feed/podcast/ Conlangery is the podcast for language creators and enthusiasts of constructed languages. George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine gacorley@gmail.com gacorley@gmail.com (George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine) Copyright © George Corley 2011 The Podcast About Constructed Languages conlang, constructed, language, language, linguistics http://conlangery.conlang.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Conlangery-album-art-e1306861282552.png http://conlangery.com Weekly http://conlangery.com/2013/06/17/conlangery-shorts-10-phrasebook-how-do-you-say/ http://conlangery.com/2013/06/17/conlangery-shorts-10-phrasebook-how-do-you-say/#comments Mon, 17 Jun 2013 22:56:30 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=370 http://conlangery.com/2013/06/17/conlangery-shorts-10-phrasebook-how-do-you-say/feed/ 0 conlang,language,linguistics,phrasebook George continues his phrasebook series by considering what you say when you ask "How do you say ...?" and "What does that mean?" George continues his phrasebook series by considering what you say when you ask "How do you say ...?" and "What does that mean?" George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 13:17 http://conlangery.com/2013/06/03/conlangery-shorts-09-phrasebook-hello-and-goodbye/ http://conlangery.com/2013/06/03/conlangery-shorts-09-phrasebook-hello-and-goodbye/#comments Mon, 03 Jun 2013 09:46:46 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=368 http://conlangery.com/2013/06/03/conlangery-shorts-09-phrasebook-hello-and-goodbye/feed/ 10 conlang,farewell,greeting,language,linguistics George starts off on a sort of informal "series" of shorts on phrasebook phrases with some talk about greetings and farewells. George starts off on a sort of informal "series" of shorts on phrasebook phrases with some talk about greetings and farewells. George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 16:54 http://conlangery.com/2013/05/20/announcement-going-on-hiatus/ http://conlangery.com/2013/05/20/announcement-going-on-hiatus/#comments Mon, 20 May 2013 05:45:59 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=366 http://conlangery.com/2013/05/20/announcement-going-on-hiatus/feed/ 4 We'll be back mid-to-late June. We'll be back mid-to-late June. George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 1:38 http://conlangery.com/2013/04/29/conlangery-shorts-08-a-pahran-grammaticalization-idea/ http://conlangery.com/2013/04/29/conlangery-shorts-08-a-pahran-grammaticalization-idea/#comments Mon, 29 Apr 2013 04:00:56 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=361 http://conlangery.com/2013/04/29/conlangery-shorts-08-a-pahran-grammaticalization-idea/feed/ 3 conlang,grammaticalization,language,linguistics,Pahran George shares an idea he is pursuing in the historical development of Pahran. - LCC5 George shares an idea he is pursuing in the historical development of Pahran. LCC5 George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 11:33 http://conlangery.com/2013/04/22/conlangery-89-polysynthesis/ http://conlangery.com/2013/04/22/conlangery-89-polysynthesis/#comments Mon, 22 Apr 2013 06:41:23 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=359 http://conlangery.com/2013/04/22/conlangery-89-polysynthesis/feed/ 3 conlang,language,linguistics,morphology,polysynthesis,typology Today, we take a little time to talk about the topic of polysynthesis - Top of Show Greeting: Gothic (translated by Roman Rausch) - Links and Resources: Nootkan/Southern Wakashan grammar (featured on episode 41) ZBB thread on polysynthesis Today, we take a little time to talk about the topic of polysynthesis Top of Show Greeting: Gothic (translated by Roman Rausch) Links and Resources: Nootkan/Southern Wakashan grammar (featured on episode 41) ZBB thread on polysynthesis Nice Inuit article Iñupiatun Eskimo dictionary Ancient Egyptian (Amazon link) Feedback: Hello, I've posted in the comments as Panglott a couple of times. I have a couple of episode suggestions and a small offer below. There's no need to read this email on the air, please ;)   I completely understand the need to go biweekly (being in grad school myself, I've just been amazed at your ability to keep it going weekly for so long). And as for suggestions for Shorts episodes, you might ought go for really small topics, like individual words or etymologies. Perhaps William could, in a series of Shorts episodes, highlight some of the more interesting entries from his Conlanger's Thesaurus. It could be an interesting 5-minute discussion to overview a word or idea that often has a strange or interesting semantic range. Or even things like your discussion of 4-character poems in Chinese, highlighting short epigrams or literary forms as a means of developing/expressing a conlang. Are there any Esperanto-specific literary forms?   After listening to episode 85 "Multilingual Conworlds", I'd like to suggest you do a long-form episode as a "Practicum on Naming Languages". It's more of a beginner topic than what you ordinarily do, but I think we're all interested in science fiction and fantasy writers doing more plausible and developed fictional languages. A practicum episode on naming languages could give us a resource to point to to say "look at that". And I suspect there's some demand for more beginner-level content, as when people have requested that you conlang live on the podcast. It could be a way to briefly review stuff you've talked about in the past, and lay out a simple framework for creating a small conlang for beginners (phonology, syllable structure, orthography, head-initial vs. head-final compounding). And a naming language or small sketch that is quite different from your main language can be a great way to break out of a creative rut if you're "stuck" with your main language, as I recently discovered.   I'd also continue to encourage y'all to profile some of your own languages or even your conworld settings for them, sometime. We get hints here and there but little concrete information. After almost 2 years, it's not self-promotion so much as connecting with your audience ;)  <snip> Thanks, Panglott (Jeremiah) George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 50:28 http://conlangery.com/2013/04/15/conlangery-shorts-07-when-do-you-insert-your-infix/ http://conlangery.com/2013/04/15/conlangery-shorts-07-when-do-you-insert-your-infix/#comments Mon, 15 Apr 2013 20:37:17 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=357 http://conlangery.com/2013/04/15/conlangery-shorts-07-when-do-you-insert-your-infix/feed/ 3 conlang,infix,language,linguistics,reduplication George uses an example from Tagalog to highlight one of the decisions conlangers might need to make if they use infixing. George uses an example from Tagalog to highlight one of the decisions conlangers might need to make if they use infixing. George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 6:58 http://conlangery.com/2013/04/08/conlangery-88-ancient-greek-natlang/ http://conlangery.com/2013/04/08/conlangery-88-ancient-greek-natlang/#comments Mon, 08 Apr 2013 06:07:39 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=354 http://conlangery.com/2013/04/08/conlangery-88-ancient-greek-natlang/feed/ 6 Ancient Greek,conlang,language,linguistics,natlang This week, we are going to focus on a language you've probably heard us talk about quite a bit in passing: Ancient Greek.  Learn how it is the oddball of European languages. - Top of Show Greeting: Pali (natlang) - This week, we are going to focus on a language you've probably heard us talk about quite a bit in passing: Ancient Greek.  Learn how it is the oddball of European languages. Top of Show Greeting: Pali (natlang) Special Mention: Linguistics MOOC Links and Resources: Tables and tables of morphological forms Some downloadable books Grammar handout Greek Phonology Info on those diacritics we derailed on Feedback: Hi George and co. It's a pity you can't keep up with a tight schedule for the podcast but that happens, school is important. For short podcast subjects you might want to do reviews of the variability of certain grammatical structures in some selected languages. Or alternatively go through the variety of uses some simple grammatical forms, such as a case or a participle, can have in a single language. As you've said over and over again, nothing in grammar has a simple and well defined function and the available constructions tend to be used for all kinds of different tasks. Hearing some case studies of this from different languages with good examples would be nice and instructive for conlangers at all stages. My main inspiration for suggesting this comes from doing some research of non-finite subordination for my main conlang project. I've read some papers about various aspects of the use of non-finite verb forms in Finnish, and the variability of the system and how flexibly many of its member forms can be used doesn't end to astonish even a native speaker. For example, in addition to their prototypical attributive use the participles are used in some adverbial constructions happily mixed with other forms based on various infinitives. So the non-finite temporal clause denoting posteriority is built on the past passive participle: satee-n lakat-tu-a rain-GEN end-P.P.PARTIC-PART "after the end of the rain", "when the rain has ended" while the parallel non-finite clause for simultaneous actions is based on the 2nd infinitive satee-n lakat-e-ssa rain-GEN end-2ND.INF-INE "simultaneous to the end of the rain", "as the rain ends" The use of some infinitives exhibits variation when used with different auxiliary verbs. Some verbs allow pretty free variation between the basic 1st infinitive and the 3rd infinitive illative: ehdi-n tul-la have.time-1SG come-1ST.INF ehdi-n tule-ma-an have.time-1SG come-3RD.INF-ILL both "I have time to come" Whereas some other verbs are pretty picky about what infinitive to use for this same basic verb combining without invoking any additional adverbial meanings: halua-n tul-la want-1SG come-1ST.INF "I want to come"   rupea-n tule-ma-an begin-1SG come-3RD.INF-ILL "I begin to come", "I'm beginning to leave there"   The causes for these variations are not immediately clear without a historical analysis. I'm also searching information of other languages with similarly rich use of non finite verb forms and would like you to have a take on this. That would very likely be a much longer topic and better for a practicum of getting rid of finite subordination. Finally I recommend you to take a look at Skou as a possibility for a featured natlang. It's a Papuan language spoken on the north coast of New Guinea just west from the border between PNG and West Papua. There's a very thorough grammar of it available at http://www.papuaweb.org/dlib/tema/bahasa/skou/ I've only taken glances at it because it's huge but it's certainly full of juicy goodness. There are also more manageable documents of the language at the site. Take especially a look at the paper on verbal agreement in the language (http://www.papuaweb.org/dlib/tema/bahasa/skou/SkouAGR.pdf) and bend your minds with the overwhelming personal marking shown in its examples 38 and 42. -Jyri (For pronunciation, the IPA for my name is just that. Stress goes on the first syllable.) gloss: GEN = genetive PART = partitive INE = inessive ILL = illative 1SG = 1st person singular George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 1:01:46 http://conlangery.com/2013/03/25/conlangery-87-quantifiers-and-determiners/ http://conlangery.com/2013/03/25/conlangery-87-quantifiers-and-determiners/#comments Mon, 25 Mar 2013 06:19:00 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=350 http://conlangery.com/2013/03/25/conlangery-87-quantifiers-and-determiners/feed/ 6 conlang,determiners,language,linguistics,quantifiers This week, we do a little talking about determiners, a topic that has come up before in many episodes but that we hadn't really treated on its own.  Also, we get to reading some iTunes reviews we've been forgetting about. - This week, we do a little talking about determiners, a topic that has come up before in many episodes but that we hadn't really treated on its own.  Also, we get to reading some iTunes reviews we've been forgetting about. Top of Show Greeting: Brazilian Portuguese (Vítor) Links and Resources: WALS: Conjunctions and Universal Quantifiers A book about determiners The Conlanger's Thesaurus Wikipedia on Determiners George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 45:53 http://conlangery.com/2013/03/18/announcement-on-schedule-change/ http://conlangery.com/2013/03/18/announcement-on-schedule-change/#comments Mon, 18 Mar 2013 04:00:41 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=348 http://conlangery.com/2013/03/18/announcement-on-schedule-change/feed/ 4 Conlangery is going to become a fortnightly podcast. Conlangery is going to become a fortnightly podcast. George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 2:28 http://conlangery.com/2013/03/13/conlangery-86himmaswa/ http://conlangery.com/2013/03/13/conlangery-86himmaswa/#comments Wed, 13 Mar 2013 19:38:45 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=345 http://conlangery.com/2013/03/13/conlangery-86himmaswa/feed/ 1 Apologies for posting this so late.  Technical difficulties. - In this episode we explore the curious Himmaswa and its Chinese-inspired writing system. - Top of Show Greeting: Swiss German (Zurich dialect) - Links for Himmaswa: KneeQuickie ZBB Apologies for posting this so late.  Technical difficulties. In this episode we explore the curious Himmaswa and its Chinese-inspired writing system. Top of Show Greeting: Swiss German (Zurich dialect) Links for Himmaswa: KneeQuickie ZBB Fkeuswa Feedback: Hi dudes...      I'm still loving the podcast :) I've got a question for you guys this time. I was trying to use obviation in my language, Nashtuku, so I ended up going down a rabbit hole of papers trying to grok the entirety of the effects it has on a language. I was reading a paper about how it can be used with word order for focus ( Focus, obvation, and word order in East Cree http://tinyurl.com/c2xshhf) and I realized that I now have three options: pameni re‘agwidi ‘akireseseli’ pameni re-‘agwi-di ‘aki-re- seseli -’ child obv-dog-acc prog-3(obv)-see- 3   re’agwidi pameni ‘akireseseli’ re-’agwi-di pameni 'aki- re- seseli-’ obv-dog-acc child prog-3(obv)-see- 3   pameni ‘akiagwisechali’ pameni ‘aki-agwi-sechali-’   ** the change in the verb is because of transitivity madness, I can explain                                                     more if you're interested  :) child prog-dog- see- 3   I was thinking of making the leftmost position the focus position, so the first sentence would be 'it is the child that sees the dog' the second would be 'It is a dog that the child sees" and the third is where I got stuck... I think it would be the most basic so "the child sees the dog". I'm wondering if this is too subtle of a distinction to make with just word order trickery, or do other languages do this? I know from what I've been reading that at least the first two are distinctions made in natural languages, I was just wondering about the third. Could perhaps you do a show about obvation? I've been reading about the algonquin languages, but apparantly there are other languages in Africa and Asia that use it as well...     Also, I have a suggestion (since my last suggestion caused what sounded like a lively debate :) ) It would be neat to put out a sound chart and ask people to make a language using those sounds, then you guys either create one as a show, or separatly create one, so you can compare all the madness and wonderful crazyness that can be done with just a simple phonology. If you wanted to go completely nuts, leave that and when you do a practum, ask people to restrict themselves to those sounds to make a language that wields whatever topic you're talking about. It could be a lot of fun :)             Joe Schelin /'ʃəlin/ (you got it exactly right last time, and I squee every time I listen to that episode :D)   George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 49:13 http://conlangery.com/2013/03/04/conlangery-85-multilingual-conworlds/ http://conlangery.com/2013/03/04/conlangery-85-multilingual-conworlds/#comments Mon, 04 Mar 2013 08:10:18 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=341 http://conlangery.com/2013/03/04/conlangery-85-multilingual-conworlds/feed/ 4 conlang,conworld,fiction,language,linguistics This week, we have a relatively short discussion on the creation and fictional portrayal of multilingual conworlds.  It's a linguistics-light topic, but we thought it might be useful. - Links: Dragoman - Feedback: - Email: Azul*, guys: So, This week, we have a relatively short discussion on the creation and fictional portrayal of multilingual conworlds.  It's a linguistics-light topic, but we thought it might be useful. Links: Dragoman Feedback: Email: Azul*, guys: So, I've just got done with the Tone episode (#81), and at the end someone mentioned "bogolangs," which put me in mind of one I had found many moons ago, called Frangléi, which (obviously) is French+English. Anyway, I felt it might merit a look-see. Kind of an old site (2007), so the creator might be a bit elusive. Home page: http://davrie.net/franglei/ n.b. The three links you'll probably want to look at don't work, because of some strange goings-on with the link. If the link has stuff between "davrie.net/" and "franglei,"just delete that bit. So, the link given for the grammar is this: http://davrie.net/My%20Documents/My%20Web%20Sites/Personal/franglei/grammar2.html But actually, it should be this: http://davrie.net/franglei/grammar2.html *Azul = "hello" in Talossan. I'm a citizen of the Kingdom and a member of the CÚG (the language committee). I've actually been on the show before, though not in person, as I was the person who translated/read "La Coraziun Profanind"/"The Tell-tale Heart" ontalossan.com (along with most of the other translations there). :-) Iustì Canun George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 41:11 http://conlangery.com/2013/02/25/conlangery-shorts-06-borrowing-cultural-concepts/ http://conlangery.com/2013/02/25/conlangery-shorts-06-borrowing-cultural-concepts/#comments Mon, 25 Feb 2013 05:00:19 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=339 http://conlangery.com/2013/02/25/conlangery-shorts-06-borrowing-cultural-concepts/feed/ 6 conlang,language,linguistics,loanwords George talks about how we borrow words for cultural concepts, even when the concept isn't all that alien to our culture. - Links: Xenia Guanxi (关系) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenia_(Greek) George talks about how we borrow words for cultural concepts, even when the concept isn't all that alien to our culture. Links: Xenia Guanxi (关系) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenia_(Greek) George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 10:16 http://conlangery.com/2013/02/18/conlangery-84-delason/ http://conlangery.com/2013/02/18/conlangery-84-delason/#comments Mon, 18 Feb 2013 12:25:33 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=336 http://conlangery.com/2013/02/18/conlangery-84-delason/feed/ 2 conlang,Delason,language,linguistics George and Mike have a wonderful conversation with Nizar Habash, creator of Delason. - Featured Conlang: Delason - Feedback: Hi! I discovered this podcast almost a month ago and I'm on episode 46. I'm actually not a conlanger, George and Mike have a wonderful conversation with Nizar Habash, creator of Delason. Featured Conlang: Delason Feedback: Hi! I discovered this podcast almost a month ago and I'm on episode 46. I'm actually not a conlanger, but I love linguistics and I love the discussions you guys have about different aspects of language. Thank you for producing such a fascinating show. -Shaw Birmingham, AL George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 52:21 http://conlangery.com/2013/02/11/conlangery-83-conlanging-through-translation/ http://conlangery.com/2013/02/11/conlangery-83-conlanging-through-translation/#comments Tue, 12 Feb 2013 01:11:13 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=333 http://conlangery.com/2013/02/11/conlangery-83-conlanging-through-translation/feed/ 1 conlang,language,linguistics,translation Today we tell you some techniques for using translations to flesh out your conlang. - Top of Show Greeting: Pahran (George's work-in-progress conlang) - Links and Resources: Conlang Syntax Tests Aesop's Fables (online collection) Today we tell you some techniques for using translations to flesh out your conlang. Top of Show Greeting: Pahran (George's work-in-progress conlang) Links and Resources: Conlang Syntax Tests Aesop's Fables (online collection) George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 44:04 http://conlangery.com/2013/02/04/conlangery-shorts-05-classification/ http://conlangery.com/2013/02/04/conlangery-shorts-05-classification/#comments Mon, 04 Feb 2013 05:00:19 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=331 http://conlangery.com/2013/02/04/conlangery-shorts-05-classification/feed/ 2 classification,conlang,gender,language,linguistics,noun class William Annis gives us a wonderful review of how classification occurs in natural languages, and the many ways you can incorporate it in your langs. - (Small note, we will no longer be putting translated greetings on the short episodes.) - William Annis gives us a wonderful review of how classification occurs in natural languages, and the many ways you can incorporate it in your langs. (Small note, we will no longer be putting translated greetings on the short episodes.) Links and Resources: Austronesian Possession (and another link) List of Chinese Classifiers (Wikipedia) Noun Classification in Dakelh Bantu Noun Class Systems Navajo Classifacatory Verbs (Wikipedia) George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 12:35 http://conlangery.com/2013/01/28/conlangery-82-rikchik/ http://conlangery.com/2013/01/28/conlangery-82-rikchik/#comments Mon, 28 Jan 2013 18:19:34 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=328 http://conlangery.com/2013/01/28/conlangery-82-rikchik/feed/ 4 conlang,language,linguistics,Rikchik,sign language Today we talk to Denis Moskowitz about his wonderful experiment Rikchik and the strange aliens who speak it. - Top of Show Greeting:  Forkëzoq - Feature Conlang: Rikchik Rikchik physiology Smiley award Today we talk to Denis Moskowitz about his wonderful experiment Rikchik and the strange aliens who speak it. Top of Show Greeting:  Forkëzoq Feature Conlang: Rikchik Rikchik physiology Smiley award George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 1:06:35 http://conlangery.com/2013/01/21/conlangery-81-tone/ http://conlangery.com/2013/01/21/conlangery-81-tone/#comments Mon, 21 Jan 2013 11:49:51 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=325 http://conlangery.com/2013/01/21/conlangery-81-tone/feed/ 7 conlang,language,linguistics,tone It took us two tries, but we managed to record an episode focusing entirely on tone systems.  Learn about how tonal languages work, how they develop historically, and a few little bits you can play with. - Top of Show Greeting: Frenkisch - It took us two tries, but we managed to record an episode focusing entirely on tone systems.  Learn about how tonal languages work, how they develop historically, and a few little bits you can play with. Top of Show Greeting: Frenkisch Links and Resources: Wobé Wè Nobiin Thai writing system IPA Tone Markings Hmong Gwoyeu Romatzyh (Yes, that is how it's spelled.  Characters: 国语罗马字 ) Tonogenesis WALS on tone Feedback: Email: Hi George & co After several months, I have finally caught up with all the Conlangery podcasts. I'm very impressed that you've kept them going so long and kept the standard up. Can I suggest another area you might like to look at - language contact, particularly creoles and pidgins. A lot of conlangers model change within a family but there's not many conlangs with more than one ancestor. Creoles and pidgins with their restricted vocabulary, morphology and word order might be good for beginners or for someone looking for a quick, fun project. Yet they can form larger projects to, e.g. if different registers are taken into account. You could base one on real world languages or on conlangs. There's some theoretical debate to be had there, too - Bickerton and other universalists versus those who favour socio-cultural explanations. <Removed some links from the email for brevity, though those may surface in a future episode on creoles and pidgins> George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 57:54 http://conlangery.com/2013/01/14/conlangery-80-zonal-auxlangs/ http://conlangery.com/2013/01/14/conlangery-80-zonal-auxlangs/#comments Mon, 14 Jan 2013 06:57:14 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=323 http://conlangery.com/2013/01/14/conlangery-80-zonal-auxlangs/feed/ 6 auxlang,conlang,language,linguistics,zonal auxlang Today, George and William have an interesting discussion on the phenomenon of "zonal" auxiliary languages,  which seek to unite a region rather than the whole world. - Top of Show Greeting: Ponuhi - Links and Resources: - - Germanic auxlangs - Today, George and William have an interesting discussion on the phenomenon of "zonal" auxiliary languages,  which seek to unite a region rather than the whole world. Top of Show Greeting: Ponuhi Links and Resources: - Germanic auxlangs Euronord Teutonish Folksprak Frenkish - Slavic auxlangs A big giant list of them Neoslavonic Interslavic Jan van Steenbergen's presentation at LCC4 - Dnghu - Afrihili Feedback: Email: Dear George, Mike and DJP (et al), Perhaps it's not a topic worthy of an entire episode, but I thought I'd ask, and maybe sometime in feedback you'll tell me a better way to go about learning.  Can you guys do an episode on tone?  I've studied (English,) German, French, Czech, Japanese, and Korean, so tone has never come up.  I can almost hear them, but I can never produce them with any degree of fluency.  There are a few sounds that I don't think I am articulating correctly (e.g. pharyngealization) so I never include them in my conlangs.  The same is true with tone.  I remember William repeatedly suggested we write a two-tone language, but I couldn't find any good examples to listen to online.  Could you guys maybe do a practicum? Thanks for making a great show so regularly.  George is a good sergeant York! Sincerely, Robert Marshall Murphy Navajo spoken with text on the screen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFayFUiyv20 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiS_bF_ihp4 George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 53:11 http://conlangery.com/2013/01/07/conlangery-shorts-04-episode-13-outtakes/ http://conlangery.com/2013/01/07/conlangery-shorts-04-episode-13-outtakes/#comments Mon, 07 Jan 2013 05:00:06 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=320 http://conlangery.com/2013/01/07/conlangery-shorts-04-episode-13-outtakes/feed/ 2 conlang,language,linguistics I ended up cutting out about 10 minutes worth of excellent material in episode 13 that I've been sitting on forever just waiting for a chance to share it, so here you have it. - Top of show Greeting: nQaixhaþ Maħàr I ended up cutting out about 10 minutes worth of excellent material in episode 13 that I've been sitting on forever just waiting for a chance to share it, so here you have it. Top of show Greeting: nQaixhaþ Maħàr George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 12:32 http://conlangery.com/2012/12/31/conlangery-shorts-03-expanding-your-lexemes/ http://conlangery.com/2012/12/31/conlangery-shorts-03-expanding-your-lexemes/#comments Mon, 31 Dec 2012 05:00:13 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=318 http://conlangery.com/2012/12/31/conlangery-shorts-03-expanding-your-lexemes/feed/ 1 conlang,language,lexemes,lexicon,linguistics William tells us how lexemes need not be one continuous word or morpheme, using his characteristically exotic examples (and some not so exotic. - Top of Show Greeting: fangait - Links and Resources: Navajo Verb Template Asheninca Campa William tells us how lexemes need not be one continuous word or morpheme, using his characteristically exotic examples (and some not so exotic. Top of Show Greeting: fangait Links and Resources: Navajo Verb Template Asheninca Campa George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 10:27 http://conlangery.com/2012/12/24/conlangery-79-cherokee/ http://conlangery.com/2012/12/24/conlangery-79-cherokee/#comments Tue, 25 Dec 2012 04:07:18 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=316 http://conlangery.com/2012/12/24/conlangery-79-cherokee/feed/ 6 Cherokee,conlang,language,linguistics In our last full episode of 2012, we talk all about Cherokee. - Top of Show Greeting: Emberyad - Announcements: Profile of John Quijada in The New Yorker Jim Henry Medical Trust - Featured NATLANG: Cherokee Reference Grammar In our last full episode of 2012, we talk all about Cherokee. Top of Show Greeting: Emberyad Announcements: Profile of John Quijada in The New Yorker Jim Henry Medical Trust Featured NATLANG: Cherokee Reference Grammar Lexicon Valley on Sequoyah's syllabary Short lesson on classifiers Feedback: Email: Good Afternoon, I just finished listening to you podcast on Khangabyagon and it struck me that you all said that this was a conlang for a 'magical language'. And I know from Arika Okrent's book that Laadan is for expressing the views of women better. So I would like to recommend an episode where you all just have some fun going over the different conlangs that have a stated purpose or philosophy  nothing all that in-depth but a broad set touching on what appears to be how that purpose is being addressed, detailed vocabulary or certain features of the language. Enjoy, Timothy Wofford George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 54:19 http://conlangery.com/2012/12/17/conlangery-78-how-to-read-linguistics-papers/ http://conlangery.com/2012/12/17/conlangery-78-how-to-read-linguistics-papers/#comments Mon, 17 Dec 2012 06:23:52 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=312 http://conlangery.com/2012/12/17/conlangery-78-how-to-read-linguistics-papers/feed/ 0 conlang,language,linguistics,research Special mention: DJP had another podcast interview (Yeah, I know, we're late on everything) - Thanks to a wonderful email suggestion, we talk about how conlangers should read linguistics research papers, including what to look at (and what you don't n... Special mention: DJP had another podcast interview (Yeah, I know, we're late on everything) Thanks to a wonderful email suggestion, we talk about how conlangers should read linguistics research papers, including what to look at (and what you don't need to) and how to find papers to look at. Top of Show Greeting: Kobardon Email: Conlangery, I just made this suggestion on the web page, and it occurred to me that I did not sign my name. There's a field for commenting, but it's separate from the the one for submitting suggestions. "On the forums, I often see links to linguistics papers or books. Usually, I have trouble getting much use out of them, as opposed to looking up grammar topics on wikipedia. How should one go about separating the wheat from the chaff? This might be a good no-research-needed topic for William once he gets back." Regards, Alex Joneth PS, my dad's from Wisconsin and my mom's from West Virginia. I was born in Madison. Pepperoni rolls are good. George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 54:25 http://conlangery.com/2012/12/10/conlangery-77-fairylang/ http://conlangery.com/2012/12/10/conlangery-77-fairylang/#comments Mon, 10 Dec 2012 07:00:52 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=308 http://conlangery.com/2012/12/10/conlangery-77-fairylang/feed/ 1 conlang,FairyLang,language,linguistics This week John Ericson joins us to talk about his wacky and wonderful FairyLang. - Top of Show Greeting: Russian (translation by Boris Listunov) - Featured Conlang: FairyLang - Feedback - Email: - Is it possible (or does there exist) languages in ... This week John Ericson joins us to talk about his wacky and wonderful FairyLang. Top of Show Greeting: Russian (translation by Boris Listunov) Featured Conlang: FairyLang Feedback Email: Is it possible (or does there exist) languages in which the lexicon can be automatically generated (or at least guided) by a heuristic employing a pre-existing ontological framework? I am new to this hobby (it was your podcast that really got me interested), and am trying to design a language where the semantics and lexicon are somewhat coupled. That a person might automatically generate a word from the very meaning he wishes to convey. For instance, I have been toying around with a language whose lexicology is based upon an infix system combined with single prefix and suffix slots. Each word can possesses two to four consonants separated by vowels. An optional vowel can come before the first consonant and also trailing the final consonant. Each vowel slot represents some feature in the language. The pre and postfixes add to it more subtle meanings. I have worked a simple naming language like this where the consonants are chosen arbitrarily. I like where I was going with it. But it occurred to me that, if I could assign to each consonant position a meaning in a similar fashion to the vowels, then I could build a framework where at least the meaning of a word is somewhat self-evident. I am unsure if you could reasonably do this where you necessarily get a one-to-one correspondence between specific meanings and a single word. In any case, I am curious if any conlang has attempted to build a lexicology that fuses with semantics in this way.  If so, it would greatly help me figure out the most complete and least ambiguous ontological for such an endeavor. Thanks, -Daniel (some resources we found for this question listed below:) Wiki on Oligosynthetic languages Lexical Semantics An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language Ygyde "Language of Space" George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 1:02:17 http://conlangery.com/2012/12/03/conlangery-76-definiteness/ http://conlangery.com/2012/12/03/conlangery-76-definiteness/#comments Mon, 03 Dec 2012 05:27:21 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=307 http://conlangery.com/2012/12/03/conlangery-76-definiteness/feed/ 8 conlang,definiteness,language,linguistics William is back!  He talks with us all about definiteness. - Top of Show Greeting: Vreksi - Links and Resources: Typology of definiteness Irish initial mutations (note the difference in masculine and feminine definites) William is back!  He talks with us all about definiteness. Top of Show Greeting: Vreksi Links and Resources: Typology of definiteness Irish initial mutations (note the difference in masculine and feminine definites) Javanese and definiteness in subjects Another paper on definiteness Hungarian definiteness marking on verbs Feedback: Email from Patrick: I do in fact listen to the entirety of every episode, although I do admit I listen at 1 1/2 speed because I actually have no time to listen in the first place. And, I'd like to thank y'all so much for your podcast. Without it, I'd've been bald because I attempted to learn my sinklang. Your podcast has helped me figure out how to reel in my craziness while still keeping features I love. And, you do it with humor and intelligence; y'all are EPICally amazing, awesome, helpful, [insert other applicable adjectives here] people. -Patrick Garza, from Southwestern University. George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 53:53 http://conlangery.com/2012/11/26/conlangery-shorts-02-georges-favorite-chengyu/ http://conlangery.com/2012/11/26/conlangery-shorts-02-georges-favorite-chengyu/#comments Mon, 26 Nov 2012 05:53:46 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=304 http://conlangery.com/2012/11/26/conlangery-shorts-02-georges-favorite-chengyu/feed/ 0 chengyu,Chinese,conlang,idiom,language,linguistics George shares his favorite chengyu (成语): 班门弄斧 - Top of Show Greeting: Omlűt George shares his favorite chengyu (成语): 班门弄斧 Top of Show Greeting: Omlűt George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 11:10 http://conlangery.com/2012/11/19/conlangery-75-alashian/ http://conlangery.com/2012/11/19/conlangery-75-alashian/#comments Mon, 19 Nov 2012 06:14:53 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=302 http://conlangery.com/2012/11/19/conlangery-75-alashian/feed/ 2 Alashian,conlang,language,linguistics This week, we invite Martin Posthumous on to talk about his new conlang Alashian. - Top of Show Greeting: South Eresian (reuse) - Featured Conlang: Alashian - Feedback: - Email from Kerri: - Hello. Thanks for doing the podcast. For some reason, This week, we invite Martin Posthumous on to talk about his new conlang Alashian. Top of Show Greeting: South Eresian (reuse) Featured Conlang: Alashian Feedback: Email from Kerri: Hello. Thanks for doing the podcast. For some reason, I just comprehend things better aurally than read, so it’s been very useful to me! I’m not a linguist, I’m a writer who’s just trying to make something that doesn’t make linguists grind their teeth. I created a language to go with a culture I created for a story, way back when I was 12-13, long before I’d ever heard of conlanging. It was awful and the story was pure cheese with horrible gobs of angst and a cast of mary sues, but hey, I was 12. I threw most of it out a long time ago, but your podcast encouraged me to give it (well, not that exactly) another try. Minus the angst, “characters”, and almost everything else. Doing it right, and with some actual knowledge. Thanks for that. How about a podcast on pidgins? I’ve been studying Latin and have a yen to settle the Ninth Legion somewhere unlikely.   George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 42:54 http://conlangery.com/2012/11/12/conlangery-74-vowel-harmony/ http://conlangery.com/2012/11/12/conlangery-74-vowel-harmony/#comments Mon, 12 Nov 2012 05:35:15 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=299 http://conlangery.com/2012/11/12/conlangery-74-vowel-harmony/feed/ 12 conlang,language,linguistics,vowel harmony Today we talk to you all about vowel harmony, taking Turkish, Finnish, Moro, and Mongolian as case studies to help you figure out the intricacies of what choices you need to make in vowel harmony systems and how you can introduce interesting - Today we talk to you all about vowel harmony, taking Turkish, Finnish, Moro, and Mongolian as case studies to help you figure out the intricacies of what choices you need to make in vowel harmony systems and how you can introduce interesting Top of Show Greeting: Maksinaunminverbe Links and Resources: Distinctive Feature Chart Vowel Systems Info on Turkish Wikipedia: Languages with Vowel Harmony Kinyarwanda (natlang; not mentioned on the pod) Special mention (from the outtakes): A giant freaking basket Feedback: χαιρετε, ὠ φιλε ("Greetings, friends"), Over at the Conlangers group on deviantART, we're hosting this little thing called NaCoWriMo. Basically, participants have until [Nov. 31] to write a 200-word passage in one of their conlangs. It's not a translation challenge, but rather a bona fide composition challenge. I thought some of the Conlangery listeners would be interested in participating. It's never too late to sign up, and anybody who wants to can do so at http://conlangers.deviantart.com. Cheers, MBR George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 1:13:15 http://conlangery.com/2012/11/05/conlangery-shorts-01-date-and-time-in-tagalog/ http://conlangery.com/2012/11/05/conlangery-shorts-01-date-and-time-in-tagalog/#comments Mon, 05 Nov 2012 05:00:33 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=296 http://conlangery.com/2012/11/05/conlangery-shorts-01-date-and-time-in-tagalog/feed/ 2 conlang,date and time,language,linguistics,loanwords,Tagalog We didn't get a full episode out this week, but George didn't want to have a week with nothing at all, so he "reads"* the date in Tagalog, then goes on a ramble about loanwords a bit. - Top of Show Greeting: Lingwa de Planeta - We didn't get a full episode out this week, but George didn't want to have a week with nothing at all, so he "reads"* the date in Tagalog, then goes on a ramble about loanwords a bit. Top of Show Greeting: Lingwa de Planeta Text of that date and time expression, for the curious: Ika-4 ng Nobiembre, 2012, alas 4:30 ng hapon. (all words): Ika-apat ng Nobiembre, twenty-twelve, alas kuwatro y medya ng hapon. *(It was actually produced on the fly, hence the disfluency.) George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 10:36 http://conlangery.com/2012/10/29/conlangery-73-khangathyagon/ http://conlangery.com/2012/10/29/conlangery-73-khangathyagon/#comments Mon, 29 Oct 2012 04:00:00 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=294 http://conlangery.com/2012/10/29/conlangery-73-khangathyagon/feed/ 9 conlang,Khangaþyagon,language,linguistics Today we eventually get to talking about Khangaþyagon, and get a lot of interesting stuff out of it.  Also, George forgets a notable conlanger who has been featured before on the show.  *headdesk* - Top of Show Greeting: Shokitin - Today we eventually get to talking about Khangaþyagon, and get a lot of interesting stuff out of it.  Also, George forgets a notable conlanger who has been featured before on the show.  *headdesk* Top of Show Greeting: Shokitin Featured Conlang: Khangaþyagon Email: Conglangerists: A while ago I finished my trawl through the Conlangery backlog, and I'm quite happy to say that I've now listened to ALL of the Conlangery. I'm sorry to see Bianca and William go even temporarily, but they'll be back. And though I do like me some morphemes, I actually really appreciated what David had to say in the most recent episode. Anyway, back when you read my last feedback, you said you were open to having me on a guest, since you had mentioned some things I wrote in the past. I'm just letting you know that I'm free if you ever find yourselves short a host for a week. Let me know if/when you ever want to have me on. -- JS Bangs George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 1:11:38 http://conlangery.com/2012/10/22/conlangery-72-relative-clauses/ http://conlangery.com/2012/10/22/conlangery-72-relative-clauses/#comments Mon, 22 Oct 2012 05:03:59 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=291 http://conlangery.com/2012/10/22/conlangery-72-relative-clauses/feed/ 22 conlang,language,linguistics,relative clause,relativization Today, we have a barely controlled, but good, discussion of relative clauses. - David's presentation on the Defiance langs is on YouTube. - Links and Resources:  Wikipedia on Relative Clauses WALS: Relativization on Subjects Today, we have a barely controlled, but good, discussion of relative clauses. David's presentation on the Defiance langs is on YouTube. Links and Resources:  Wikipedia on Relative Clauses WALS: Relativization on Subjects WALS: Relativization on Obliques Internally headed relative clauses in Japanese and Navajo Relative clauses in Lojban Feedback: Email from Logan: Thanks for the shout-out, guys. I just listened to your plea for more feedback in episode 71 and figured I ought to finally respond to that. So, here are some more details on my lexicography project. The project right now is called LexTerm, and aims to provide a bridge between termbases (primarily used for technical translation) and general dictionaries. That particular feature is aimed mainly at translators. What I will get credit for this semester is essentially being able to import and export TBX termbase files and view the entries either as terminological entries or as lexical entries in a dictionary (thus assisting in generating termbases from existing multilingual dictionaries and generating dictionaries from existing termbases), so that is what I am focused on until January, at which point I may or may not continue with the research internship to continue developing more features. However, the whole project will be Free and Open Source, and my academic credit depends only on the project getting done by some means, not on who actually writes the code, so I'm free to let other people work on it and start adding additional features even before my internship is over. The lexicography half is pitched as assisting field linguists, and that actually happens to be true, not *just* an excuse to work on conlanging, but I expect the features desired by either group to overlap extensively. If anybody's interested in helping out, I would first suggest looking up information on TBX Term Base eXchange format (http://www.ttt.org/oscarStandards/tbx/) as well as LMF Lexical Markup Framework (http://www.lexicalmarkupframework.org/), as those are the existing standards that I'm basing this work on. I'll be putting the project up on GitHub for easier collaboration eventually, but in the meantime potential contributors are free to e-mail me at chronosurfer@gmail.com. George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 1:16:01 http://conlangery.com/2012/10/15/conlangery-71-ogami-natlang/ http://conlangery.com/2012/10/15/conlangery-71-ogami-natlang/#comments Mon, 15 Oct 2012 04:59:48 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=288 http://conlangery.com/2012/10/15/conlangery-71-ogami-natlang/feed/ 12 Today, we all talk about the wonderful nuclear-fricitiveness of Ogami, a real life natural language in the Ryukyuan family.  It's got lots of little bits to inspire you in your conlangs.  Enjoy! - Top of Show Greeting: Mandarin Chinese (translation he... Today, we all talk about the wonderful nuclear-fricitiveness of Ogami, a real life natural language in the Ryukyuan family.  It's got lots of little bits to inspire you in your conlangs.  Enjoy! Top of Show Greeting: Mandarin Chinese (translation help and recording by Starrie Li (李昕)) Featured NATLANG: Ogami George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 1:05:38 http://conlangery.com/2012/10/08/conlangery-70-practicum-the-pitfalls-of-frameworks/ http://conlangery.com/2012/10/08/conlangery-70-practicum-the-pitfalls-of-frameworks/#comments Mon, 08 Oct 2012 04:00:51 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=285 http://conlangery.com/2012/10/08/conlangery-70-practicum-the-pitfalls-of-frameworks/feed/ 16 conlang,frameworks,language,linguistics,morphemes Kickstarter I mentioned at the top of the show. - Today, we finally get to talk about why David hates morphemes, among other things. - Top of Show Greeting: Tslure Thujekatsoth - Links and Resources: David's LCC1 talk about Morphemes Kickstarter I mentioned at the top of the show. Today, we finally get to talk about why David hates morphemes, among other things. Top of Show Greeting: Tslure Thujekatsoth Links and Resources: David's LCC1 talk about Morphemes More explanation from David And more and more I don't know why David put all his own stuff in the shownotes, but this one is a funny bit Zhyler vowel harmony (also from David, but we mention this specifically) UPDATE: The Endangered Alphabets Kickstarter I mentioned at the top of the show and linked above has reached its goal.  I like to think some of you helped push it over the edge, and if so, thanks.  If you haven't checked it out, yet, you can still donate until the 15th. George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 1:33:14 http://conlangery.com/2012/10/01/conlangery-69-ashaille/ http://conlangery.com/2012/10/01/conlangery-69-ashaille/#comments Mon, 01 Oct 2012 05:04:09 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=283 http://conlangery.com/2012/10/01/conlangery-69-ashaille/feed/ 6 Asha'ille,conlang,language,linguistics This week we talk about one of the older languages in the conlang community, Arthaey's Asha'ille.  And no, that spelling has nothing at all to do with the language's phonology.  You'll learn a bit about that in the episode. - This week we talk about one of the older languages in the conlang community, Arthaey's Asha'ille.  And no, that spelling has nothing at all to do with the language's phonology.  You'll learn a bit about that in the episode. Top of Show Greeting: Ostunese Featured Conlang: Asha'ille George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 50:31 http://conlangery.com/2012/09/24/conlangery-68-agglutination/ http://conlangery.com/2012/09/24/conlangery-68-agglutination/#comments Mon, 24 Sep 2012 04:10:34 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=280 http://conlangery.com/2012/09/24/conlangery-68-agglutination/feed/ 11 agglutination,conlang,language,linguistics We are super excited to reveal that our third host for (we hope) the duration of William's absence will be none other than David J. Peterson!  Take a listen as we talk through the challenges of making an agglutinative language that isn't depressingly b... We are super excited to reveal that our third host for (we hope) the duration of William's absence will be none other than David J. Peterson!  Take a listen as we talk through the challenges of making an agglutinative language that isn't depressingly boring. Top of Show Greeting: Kihā́mmic Feedback: Email from (another) Michael: Hey guys, I've been having a bear of a time getting going with LaTeX. For some reason, I can't get my hands on the Windows binaries that the LaTeX project website links to, and I can't stand Lyx. The LaTeX wikibook recommends using an online editor at ScribTeX.com, but that site isn't taking new users anymore (besides that, it's a freemium business model that gets you only 5 projects unless you pony up the dough). When I tried to register, it pointed me at ShareLaTeX.com, which I'm going to try out. From what I can tell so far, it's easy to write out the code, and you just click a button and it gives you a PDF right away. I'll keep you guys posted; this might be a great resource for conlangers! George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 1:09:41 http://conlangery.com/2012/09/17/conlangery-67-alubetah/ http://conlangery.com/2012/09/17/conlangery-67-alubetah/#comments Mon, 17 Sep 2012 12:12:50 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=279 http://conlangery.com/2012/09/17/conlangery-67-alubetah/feed/ 11 Alũbetah,conlang,language,linguistics Bianca joins us as we tackle a fun and wacky conlang with some serious phonological processes. - Top of Show Greeting: Neo-Simikaka - Featured Conlang: Alũbetah - Feedback: - Email: - Hi guys, - Greetings from Melbourne, Australia. - Bianca joins us as we tackle a fun and wacky conlang with some serious phonological processes. Top of Show Greeting: Neo-Simikaka Featured Conlang: Alũbetah Feedback: Email: Hi guys, Greetings from Melbourne, Australia. Loving the podcast, keep up the good work.  Only discovered it a few weeks ago, but have worked my way back through most of your back catalogue. I had a question which you might have covered in your episode on loan words, but not sure.  I am a high school language teacher (German/French/Chinese) and when I was talking with one class about loan words between languages we got off on a tangent about redundancies. For example, near our school is a waterway called "Mordialloc Creek".  In the indigenous Australian language (Boon Wurrung) that was spoken in this area before European settlement, the word "Yallock" means creek.  So the English name is essentially "Mordi Creek Creek". "Sahara" is also an anglicised version of the Arabic word for desert, so "Sahara Desert" is essentially "Desert Desert".  Mekong River is also something along the lines of "Khong River River", roughly (technically the full name in Thai is Mae Nam Khong, which makes more sense as "Khong River"). I know it happens in numerous other contexts. Our question was whether there is an actual word for this phenomenon?  Or is it just called linguistic redundancy? Thanks, Aaron George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 57:49 http://conlangery.com/2012/09/10/conlangery-66-conceptual-metaphors/ http://conlangery.com/2012/09/10/conlangery-66-conceptual-metaphors/#comments Mon, 10 Sep 2012 04:35:24 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=275 http://conlangery.com/2012/09/10/conlangery-66-conceptual-metaphors/feed/ 9 conceptual metaphor,conlang,language,linguistics,metaphor Today we have a very enlightening discussion about conceptual metaphors and how thinking about them can help you avoid a relex as well as have loads of fun in usage and translation.  Also, this will be William's last episode for a while :( - Today we have a very enlightening discussion about conceptual metaphors and how thinking about them can help you avoid a relex as well as have loads of fun in usage and translation.  Also, this will be William's last episode for a while :( Top of Show Greeting: Arahau Links and Resources: List of English conceptual metaphors (in categories) Metaphors in Iraqi Arabic John Quijada on cognitive linguistics (video) Metaphors in Hmong Organ/body part metaphors in Thai/Japanese/English Metaphors in Basque Mandarin Chinese metaphors for the Internet Metaphors in Modern Greek Dog metaphors in English Culinary metaphors in Persian George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 1:08:55 http://conlangery.com/2012/09/03/conlangery-65-tayein/ http://conlangery.com/2012/09/03/conlangery-65-tayein/#comments Mon, 03 Sep 2012 04:00:49 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=273 http://conlangery.com/2012/09/03/conlangery-65-tayein/feed/ 6 conlang,language,linguistics,Tayéin William is leaving (temporarily), but don't worry, we have one more episode before he goes.  Also, we talk with Eric about his lovely language Tayéin - Top of Show Greeting: Frixàð - Featured Conlang: Tayéin - Feedback: - Email from Sai: - George, William is leaving (temporarily), but don't worry, we have one more episode before he goes.  Also, we talk with Eric about his lovely language Tayéin Top of Show Greeting: Frixàð Featured Conlang: Tayéin Feedback: Email from Sai: George, William, & Mike - Howdy. Alex & I were just listening to your podcast #62 while on a road trip, and you mentioned a couple things we'd like to respond to. 1. You mentioned that you don't know any conlangs that have logophor; our gripping language does. (http://000024.org/conlang/gripping.html) Gripping is built specifically as a two-person tactile language, communicated entirely through finger presses made between two speakers who are holding hands (with opposite hands' palms facing). Because Gripping intrinsically has two extrinsincally asymmetric speakers, there are likewise two well defined pronouns rather than the usual first/second person - one for the speaker whose thumb is underneath, and one for the speaker whose thumb is on top (which we call 'sub' and 'dom' respectively). These two pronouns are part of a range of five terms (which we call a 'thumbscale'); they are produced by one speaker's thumb tapping the other speaker's thumb at any of five locations, from wrist to thumbtip. Thumbscales are extremely frequent in Gripping, and mostly made to take advantage of the natural feature of the mode. The other three pronouns in the scale are a neutral third person pronoun, one for the last bound referent of dom's, and one for the last bound referent of sub's; the last two function somewhat like a deixis system, for things that are closer to one speaker or another, either spatially or metaphorically (eg ownership). For subordinate clauses, we use logophor. Within the clause, 'dom' and 'sub' refer to the (first mentioned) speaker and their audience respectively (as if they were the ones speaking), and the dom's 3rd / sub's 3rd pronouns refer to the dom and sub of the matrix clause; the neutral 3rd pronoun is unchanged (becoming the only general purpose third person pronoun). Gripping is of course an engineered language, in which our objective was to optimize for the medium, rather than any concern for naturality. Neither of us know of any naturalistic artlangs that use logophor. 2. You suggested making a new conlang on the show, mentioning my conlang presentations as an example. Of course I think this is a great idea. ;-) As you probably know, I'm actually not an artlanger at all; my own conlanging interests are pretty strictly in engelanging, mainly in how the boundaries of language can be stretched or how languages could be made to better exploit an underused medium. The reason I do artlanging for my presentations is because I think it's actually a much better and more approachable teaching exercise. You get to cover the whole gamut of linguistics, you have to consider (and therefore know) what the normal range is and what works well together aesthetically, etc. It's also a lot easier to do quickly, since the options are usually relatively clear, and the considerations are more ones of aesthetics and consistency. With an engelang (at least for me), I find that my major difficulties are in just understanding what the possible space of solutions is, how to drastically reframe a familiar linguistic feature to better suit a new situation, etc. It's of course a process I quite enjoy, but doing it quickly and out loud is rather hard. I'd be quite interested to see how actual artlangers, like yourselves, would take on the problem of making a new collaborative artlang live on air. I've always felt a little awkward doing it for my presentations, since for me it's kinda like composing poetry in a language whose grammar I've read but which I don't really have any practice at speaking - something I can do when needed, but doesn't come naturally. I'd love to see native speakers at work, as it were. George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 1:30:26 http://conlangery.com/2012/08/27/conlangery-64-head-marking-vs-dependent-marking/ http://conlangery.com/2012/08/27/conlangery-64-head-marking-vs-dependent-marking/#comments Mon, 27 Aug 2012 06:36:56 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=269 http://conlangery.com/2012/08/27/conlangery-64-head-marking-vs-dependent-marking/feed/ 7 conlang,dependent-marking,head-marking,language,linguistics Today we tackle a very interesting typology topic: head-marking and dependant-marking.  Turns out that whether your language leans one way or another affects (or depends on) a wide variety of grammatical features. Today we tackle a very interesting typology topic: head-marking and dependant-marking.  Turns out that whether your language leans one way or another affects (or depends on) a wide variety of grammatical features.  Be sure to check the links below for additional info. Top of Show Greeting: Toki Pona (translated by Vadim Fomin) Links and Resources: Great paper on the subject WALS: Locus of Marking in the Clause WALS: Locus of Marking: Whole Language Typology Feedback: Email from Caleb: Hey guys, Great work with the podcast, informative and funny. I got a few questions I wish to bother you with. I was wondering if perhaps you could tell me why in iTunes I am only able to view/download only the most recent episodes? Also Is there any chance of Mark Rosenfelder getting on the podcast? And, Finally, Do you happen to know of a good resource for learning the majority of the IPA sounds ( pronunciation that is)? I have looked for quite a while and have no been able to find much. Perhaps you could direct me to something like videos or audio possibly? Thank you for your time. (Some resources we came up with for you: Flash IPA chart, IPA for English)   George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 54:02 http://conlangery.com/2012/08/17/episode-64-is-likely-to-be-late/ http://conlangery.com/2012/08/17/episode-64-is-likely-to-be-late/#comments Fri, 17 Aug 2012 22:16:43 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=266 http://conlangery.com/2012/08/17/episode-64-is-likely-to-be-late/feed/ 10 http://conlangery.com/2012/08/13/conlangery-63-kuot-natlang/ http://conlangery.com/2012/08/13/conlangery-63-kuot-natlang/#comments Mon, 13 Aug 2012 05:27:30 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=263 http://conlangery.com/2012/08/13/conlangery-63-kuot-natlang/feed/ 12 Kuot,language,linguistics Today, we cover one of the weird and wonderful languages of Papua New Guinea.  It turns out to be surprisingly not so weird, but there's still quite a few things in it to inspire conlangers.  Do check out the crazy verbs though -- that bit is quite nuts. Today, we cover one of the weird and wonderful languages of Papua New Guinea.  It turns out to be surprisingly not so weird, but there's still quite a few things in it to inspire conlangers.  Do check out the crazy verbs though -- that bit is quite nuts. Top of Show Greeting: Pøplish Featured NATLANG: Kuot George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 45:18 http://conlangery.com/2012/08/06/conlangery-62-practicum-anaphora-and-co-reference/ http://conlangery.com/2012/08/06/conlangery-62-practicum-anaphora-and-co-reference/#comments Mon, 06 Aug 2012 04:00:07 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=260 http://conlangery.com/2012/08/06/conlangery-62-practicum-anaphora-and-co-reference/feed/ 2 anaphora,conlang,coreferentiality,language,linguistics,logophor,obviation,switch-reference Today we tackle a big grammar and discourse topic: anaphora and co-referentiality.  We go through a list of options you have for cleaning up ambiguities and keeping your discourse coherent.  Just don't throw them all into the same conlang. - Today we tackle a big grammar and discourse topic: anaphora and co-referentiality.  We go through a list of options you have for cleaning up ambiguities and keeping your discourse coherent.  Just don't throw them all into the same conlang. Top of Show Greeting: Minhast Links and Resources: Indexicality, Logophorality, and Plural Pronouns Logophor in Ogonoid languages Switch reference in Pomo Wiki on switch reference Special Mention: Talossa has been reunited Feedback: Emails: From Robert: Dear Dudes, I like the new format.  I think it will help you keep the show going strong for longer.  I look forward to the more manageable episodes!  Keep up the great work Sincerely, Robert Murphy From Joe: Hi guys... I've been listening to your podcast for a few months now- it's the majority of what I listen to back and forth to work. (I usually listen to the new episode on monday, then again on friday, with random ones inbetween to make up tuesday-thursday :) ) Anyway, I've had ideas I wanted to share with you percolating in my brain for a while, and I finally now am getting to write them down. I've been conlanging on and off, for almost as long as William. I started from french in HS, then Klingon/ASL at college, then all of a sudden I had a 'Holy crud, I can do this!' revelation and off I went. I realize from listening to you guys that I was missing a bunch of interesting things that I could do, and was probably making nooblangs all that time (but now I'm getting better). So I just wanted to say I really like the show. It's got interesting discussion, and sometimes wild ideas that make me ponder and want to try things out. Just wanted to say you guys rock! The one thing that frustrates me, is every time you mention tlhIngan Hol, you play the crap from the show. Not real tlhIngan Hol! Need a good song in Klingon? Here's a link http://youtu.be/MnvAGY1t9es Ok, enough ranting, I had a idea for you guys. I was thinking, instead of reviewing a complete (or nearly complete) conlang, how about getting a newbie on, or having them send you a nascent conlang that they are having issues with, so you guys can suggest things, encourage people for things you like that they came up with, make suggestions on how to fix potential problems that newbies don't see yet. This would take some of the pressure off of finding a new awesome conlang every week, and it would be helpful to people as well. That's all for now, keep up the awesome, and let me know of what you think of my idea :) Joe Schelin /ʃəlin/ (unless I'm mangling the ipa ;) George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 1:02:29 http://conlangery.com/2012/07/30/conlangery-62-amman-iar/ http://conlangery.com/2012/07/30/conlangery-62-amman-iar/#comments Mon, 30 Jul 2012 04:00:45 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=258 http://conlangery.com/2012/07/30/conlangery-62-amman-iar/feed/ 9 amman îar,conlang,language,linguistics This week we cover the monumental and yet incomplete amman îar, a heavily Tolkien-inspired language that nevertheless manages to have its own flavor. - Top of Show Greeting: Uskra - Featured Conlang: amman îar - Feedback: - Email from FE: Howdy, - This week we cover the monumental and yet incomplete amman îar, a heavily Tolkien-inspired language that nevertheless manages to have its own flavor. Top of Show Greeting: Uskra Featured Conlang: amman îar Feedback: Email from FE: Howdy, I don't know if someone has already addressed this, however, in episode 40 you discussed the ubiquity of British-esque varieties in fantasy media and introduced the implications thereof but weren't able to come up with examples besides the Game of Thrones series and which William (or Bianca?) noted largely features British actors. There is also the issue, unaddressed, that fantasy media like Game of Thrones and the Lord of the Rings films portray fantasy worlds explicitly based at least partially on an indeterminately ancient Britain. Some examples that came to my mind during this discussion that can't be explained away by the native variety of the performers were the films "Gladiator" and "Troy". While the former is not strictly fantasy its pseudohistorical adventure genre utilizes the same linguistic trope. In the case of "Gladiator", I vaguely recall that a cast member on the DVD commentary addressing the fact that nearly all the non-British cast members (among them Americans, Danes and Kiwis) who were portraying Romans adopted their own approximation of the English accent that actors like Derek Jacobi had naturally. If I recall correctly, the commenter mentioned that someone (either one of the producers, the director, or actor Richard Harris) found their mangled fake accents appalling, but it was par for the course on a film like this. The dialogue in Troy features the constant use of the term "Milord" by characters when addressing their social superiors. This word shows up in a lot of fantasy and historical films as a generic marker of social stratification despite the fact that, as I understand it, until very recently in English it was never used as a form of general address and only used in a specific context (that is, addressing a person to who bore the specific title of "Lord"). See also "Game of Thrones" and the 2004 film "King Arthur" (English people before they were English!). Thanks for making the podcast. William's brain is a sexy beast. George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 1:08:24 http://conlangery.com/2012/07/23/conlangery-60-syllable-and-word-shapes/ http://conlangery.com/2012/07/23/conlangery-60-syllable-and-word-shapes/#comments Mon, 23 Jul 2012 04:00:48 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=253 http://conlangery.com/2012/07/23/conlangery-60-syllable-and-word-shapes/feed/ 13 conlang,language,linguistics,phonotactics,syllable So, for various reasons we have now changed the format of the show.  Now we will be doing only one topic per show, alternating weeks between discussion topics and featured conlangs.  We hope that this addresses the issues some people have had with show... So, for various reasons we have now changed the format of the show.  Now we will be doing only one topic per show, alternating weeks between discussion topics and featured conlangs.  We hope that this addresses the issues some people have had with show length while still allowing us to have thick, meaty discussions.  As such, this week's show is all about phonotactics and how the way you allow sounds to combine into words is often more important to the overall sound of your conlang than your phoneme inventory is. Top of Show Greeting: Khangaþyagon Links and Resources: WALS on Syllable Structure Lakhota syllable structure Proto-Algonquian Georgian and its plainly ridiculous consonant clusters No feedback today, sorry. George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 49:47 http://conlangery.com/2012/07/16/conlangery-59-loan-words/ http://conlangery.com/2012/07/16/conlangery-59-loan-words/#comments Mon, 16 Jul 2012 04:00:47 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=252 http://conlangery.com/2012/07/16/conlangery-59-loan-words/feed/ 25 conlang,Kebreni,language,linguistics,loan word Today we take some time to talk to you about a conworldy topic: loan words in your conlang.  What words are likely to be borrowed?  What kinds of situations cause borrowing?  And how does grammar work for loan words?  Also, we talk about Kebreni, Today we take some time to talk to you about a conworldy topic: loan words in your conlang.  What words are likely to be borrowed?  What kinds of situations cause borrowing?  And how does grammar work for loan words?  Also, we talk about Kebreni, our second feature of an Almean language. Top of Show Greeting: Lojban Links and Resources: Presentation on "Borrowability" World Loanword Database Loanword Typology (paper) Loanword Typology (PPT) Featured Conlang: Kebreni Feedback: Email: Saluton! A friend just posted this on my Facebook wall: a list of measure words in English! Everything from a murder of crows to a stand of flamingos to a blessing of unicorns (because it's Unicorn Appreciation Day, of course!), and even some obviously contrived creations like "a brace of dentists". http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/gswithenbank/collnoun.htm Now I wonder what the measure word for conlangers would be.... Cheers, Michael from California George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 1:27:53 http://conlangery.com/2012/07/09/conlangery-58-practicum-things-you-can-do-with-the-middle-voice/ http://conlangery.com/2012/07/09/conlangery-58-practicum-things-you-can-do-with-the-middle-voice/#comments Mon, 09 Jul 2012 04:00:37 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=251 http://conlangery.com/2012/07/09/conlangery-58-practicum-things-you-can-do-with-the-middle-voice/feed/ 12 Burushaski,conlang,language,linguistics,mediopassive,middle voice This week, we talk all about the middle voice and the many things that that covers, as well as give you all sorts of options to make your own creative use of this feature.  We also have a featured natlang today that has very interesting features as wel... This week, we talk all about the middle voice and the many things that that covers, as well as give you all sorts of options to make your own creative use of this feature.  We also have a featured natlang today that has very interesting features as well as some hilarious crackpot historical theories around it. Top of Show Greeting: Fäesek Links and Resources: Paper about middle voice Wikipedia Lingforum thread SIL FAQ A short description Featured NATLANG: Burushaski (Wikipedia page) Feedback: Email from Thomas: Hi! I just listened to your 52:nd episode, and heard you mention Kahless. I think it's qeHleS in Klingon. I just thought it would be fun to mention that when I first read about Klingon lacking the k-sound, I wondered if Kahless was a pun. Klingon is actually k-less. There are many other puns in Klingon, like chang'eng "pair" from the siamese twins, but perhaps k-less is too far-fetched. Thomas Lindroth, Sweden Email from John: Hi, I discovered your podcast recently and I've been listening to some of your archived episodes. In those early episodes, you reference "nooblangs," and I was wondering, what are the hallmarks of a nooblang, and how can I tell if I've made one? Thanks, John George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 1:32:17 http://conlangery.com/2012/07/02/conlangery-57-animacy-and-agency/ http://conlangery.com/2012/07/02/conlangery-57-animacy-and-agency/#comments Mon, 02 Jul 2012 04:00:00 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=247 http://conlangery.com/2012/07/02/conlangery-57-animacy-and-agency/feed/ 13 agency,animacy,conlang,Interlingua,language,linguistics After a short update on George's grad school situation and some musing over our tagline, we get to talking about the very complex interactions that animacy and agency can have with the rest of your grammar.  Then we talk about Interlingua, After a short update on George's grad school situation and some musing over our tagline, we get to talking about the very complex interactions that animacy and agency can have with the rest of your grammar.  Then we talk about Interlingua, a very boring auxlang that appears to be comfortably readable by anyone who speaks a Romance language. Top of Show Greeting: Kiswona Links and Resources: Animacy and Pluralization Intensives Great paper on the subject Wikipedia on Animacy Featured Conlang: Interlingua (another link) Feedback: Dear George, William and Mike, First of all, let me say, what a great show!  I just posted a 5 star review on iTunes.  I started three weeks ago and listened to every episode.  I wanted to bring to your attention the unwritten rule in podcasting not to go beyond 82 minutes.  No one can burn your episode onto CD and give it to a friend if it's longer than that!  Let me be sure to emphasize to coolness of what yo do. Thanks again, Robert Murphy George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 1:28:14 http://conlangery.com/2012/06/25/conlangery-56-growing-a-lexicon/ http://conlangery.com/2012/06/25/conlangery-56-growing-a-lexicon/#comments Mon, 25 Jun 2012 04:00:53 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=244 http://conlangery.com/2012/06/25/conlangery-56-growing-a-lexicon/feed/ 21 conlang,Dothraki,language,lexicon,linguistics,polysemy,semantic fields David Peterson joins us for a wonderful Supersize episode where we talk all about growing your lexicon, from generating roots to creating realistic polysemy and semantic fields.  Also, we finally feature an obscure little language we've wanted to talk ... David Peterson joins us for a wonderful Supersize episode where we talk all about growing your lexicon, from generating roots to creating realistic polysemy and semantic fields.  Also, we finally feature an obscure little language we've wanted to talk about for a while :P Top of Show Greeting: Oltengo Links and Resources: Analysis of English phrasal verbs with out John Quijada on cognitive linguistics: LCC1 Some lojban dictonary resources Okuna dictonary ámman îar dictionary Asha'ille dictionary (same person has some software to convert Shoebox to HTML) Wikipedia list of Dictionary Writing Systems SIL's Shoebox Lexical typology notes Bonus link: A cool linguistics book on TAM Featured Conlang: Dothraki (fan site, David's blog) Feedback: Email from Zelos: I thought I would tell about a recent conlang wiki that is growing, http://conlang.wikkii.com/wiki/Main_Page it moved from the oldhttp://conlang.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page . We are somewhat small now but are working on becoming a great source for conlang information. Best Regards, Zelos From james: http://www.excelville.com/file/285/Conlang+Lexicon+Generator George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 2:01:46 http://conlangery.com/2012/06/18/conlangery-55-practicum-getting-rid-of-tense/ http://conlangery.com/2012/06/18/conlangery-55-practicum-getting-rid-of-tense/#comments Mon, 18 Jun 2012 04:00:43 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=240 http://conlangery.com/2012/06/18/conlangery-55-practicum-getting-rid-of-tense/feed/ 7 aspect,conlang,K'tlê,language,linguistics,tense We give you a podcast today about how you can do without tense, and what other things in the language can be used to fill in the gaps.  Also, we have special guest Jeffrey Jones on to talk about his conlang. - Top of Show: Sheewan - We give you a podcast today about how you can do without tense, and what other things in the language can be used to fill in the gaps.  Also, we have special guest Jeffrey Jones on to talk about his conlang. Top of Show: Sheewan Links and Resources: Vietnamese tense/aspect marking Telicity (Wikipedia) Featured Conlang: K'tlê Feedback: Email from JS: Conlangery hosts: I'm writing to say how much I enjoy your podcast. I only became aware of its existence a few weeks ago, and since then I've been doing what I always do when I discover a new podcast that I like: listening to the archives from the beginning. Just today I happened to listen to episode 23, in which I discovered, to my shock and delight, that my OWN conlang Yivrian had been featured. I thought you guys said a lot of complimentary things about it, and your criticisms were completely valid. In particular, I agree with Bianca that the verbal system is a little bit overstuffed, and with William that the modal prefixes are annoyingly regular. Both of these things are the result of a disease that afflicts people who work on the same language for a very long time: different parts of the language are designed at different times, often with different philosophies and different goals. In this case, the modal prefixes date from a period when total regularity was a design goal, while the verbal complex dates from the ALL OF THE MORPHEMES stage that followed shortly thereafter. It's a good thing I had never heard of evidentiality or animacy hierarchies at the time I initially designed the verbs, or I would doubtlessly have found a way to include those as well. Your podcast has also inspired me to consider other neglected aspects of my languages. In particular, I've been mulling over the ways that Yivrian expresses formality, and reconsidering the entire concept of adjectives. You discussed my ancient essay "An Artlanger's Rant" when you covered my conlang, and it's very interesting to see how that post has aged ten years on. If you ever were interested as having me on as a guest, I'd be happy to discuss it (or anything else conlang-related) with you. -- JS Bangs jaspax@gmail.com http://jsbangs.wordpress.com "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle" -Philo of Alexandria George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 1:02:47 http://conlangery.com/2012/06/11/conlangery-54-reduplication/ http://conlangery.com/2012/06/11/conlangery-54-reduplication/#comments Mon, 11 Jun 2012 04:00:17 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=238 http://conlangery.com/2012/06/11/conlangery-54-reduplication/feed/ 12 conlang,language,linguistics,reduplication,Sandawe Today is a big show where we tackle the topic of reduplication, something we think more conlangers should employ.  Then we talk about a wonderfully crazy click langauge called Sandawe -- and it's natural! - Top of Show Greeting: Chudihr - Today is a big show where we tackle the topic of reduplication, something we think more conlangers should employ.  Then we talk about a wonderfully crazy click langauge called Sandawe -- and it's natural! Top of Show Greeting: Chudihr Links and Resources Iyo Grammar (see p. 21) Spokan (reduplication talk begins on p. 111) Reduplication in Kikerewe Turkish reduplication for intensives Mon and Khmer Wikipedia on Reduplication Featured NATLANG:  Sandawe (Wikipedia) Feedback: Email from Liam: Hi there, I recently just discovered the podcast, and I'm in love! I've been toying with creating languages for my own RPG and fiction writing, but never knew how deeply and completely the subject went. Anyway, I started listening, and one thing I quickly discovered, is that my grasp on grammar terms is significantly lacking. I know the basics every 7th-grader should know (I'm, er, a bit older than that...) but so much of what I hear you discuss go way beyond what I ever encountered, even, if I recall, my undergrad English classes! So, my question: is there or are there any books that you would recommend for someone who is needing both a refreshing on general English grammar and, especially, advanced grammar? Especially something that would be helpful for the self-taught, and would help as a basis for then exploring constructed languages? I appreciate any suggestions! :) Thanks, and thanks for the fascinating podcasts! (The animus-based sentence structure portion of one 'cast blew me away!) Liam W (reply) Some links to help you along Wikipedia index of linguistic articles The Language Construction Kit Language Log George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 1:32:25 http://conlangery.com/2012/06/04/conlangery-53-topicalization/ http://conlangery.com/2012/06/04/conlangery-53-topicalization/#comments Mon, 04 Jun 2012 04:00:28 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=237 http://conlangery.com/2012/06/04/conlangery-53-topicalization/feed/ 11 conlang,language,linguistics,Talmit,topic,topicalization After a short update on rain in Wisconsin and ankle injuries, we try to make sense of the topic of topicalization and topic prominent languages.  Then we talk about Talmit, a language created by active Conlangery listener and commenter Roman Rausch - After a short update on rain in Wisconsin and ankle injuries, we try to make sense of the topic of topicalization and topic prominent languages.  Then we talk about Talmit, a language created by active Conlangery listener and commenter Roman Rausch Top of Show Greeting: Grewa Resources: Nice paper on topicalization Featured Conlang: Talmit (LCC talk, pdf grammar, more stuff) Feedback: Email from Alex: Hey everyone, my name's Alex and I'm a conlanger and regular watcher of your podcast (which, I adore, by the way) and I had a question. I'm making a conlang, which isn't ready to be seen by other humans eyes, but I've hit a bump. The language will be either OSV or OVS but the subject is often excluded due to the community of fictional speakers focus[ing] on what is done and who's affected more than who preformed the action. My question is, is this a logical sentence structure? I don't enough about exotic syntax and I want to make sure it's not illogical. The language marks verbs for clusivity, number, and evidentiality. What do you think? Do you have any tips? Fare fairly. Alex George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 1:07:25 http://conlangery.com/2012/05/28/conlangery-52-conlangery-at-the-movies/ http://conlangery.com/2012/05/28/conlangery-52-conlangery-at-the-movies/#comments Mon, 28 May 2012 04:00:38 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=234 http://conlangery.com/2012/05/28/conlangery-52-conlangery-at-the-movies/feed/ 25 Ancient Egyptian,conlang,Dothraki,Klingon,Ku,language,linguistics,movies,na'vi,Pakuni,Quenya,Sindarin For our 52nd episode we decided to take a break from our usual format and just have a good time talking about movies and TV shows -- with a conlang twist.  So, here we are listening to a bunch of conlang (and pseudo-conlang) dialogue from various prope... For our 52nd episode we decided to take a break from our usual format and just have a good time talking about movies and TV shows -- with a conlang twist.  So, here we are listening to a bunch of conlang (and pseudo-conlang) dialogue from various properties and talking a little about what we like and don't like.  Enjoy! Top of Show Greeting: Doon Properties Featured: Inkubo Star Trek Alien Nation Stargate and Stargate SG1 The Lord of the Rings Avatar Game of Thrones Bonus -- a quiz we found on fictional languages. George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 1:28:22 http://conlangery.com/2012/05/21/conlangery-51-language-history/ http://conlangery.com/2012/05/21/conlangery-51-language-history/#comments Mon, 21 May 2012 04:00:57 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=229 http://conlangery.com/2012/05/21/conlangery-51-language-history/feed/ 16 conlang,Dimana Lokud,history,language,language change,linguistics We go a little out of our comfort zone and talk about language history -- particularly as involves the diachronic method of creating a conlang.  Then we move on to some talk about a language called Dimana Lokud. - Top of Show Greeting: Oupe - We go a little out of our comfort zone and talk about language history -- particularly as involves the diachronic method of creating a conlang.  Then we move on to some talk about a language called Dimana Lokud. Top of Show Greeting: Oupe Links and Resources: Wikipedia on the Neogrammarians Book with some information on sound changes from Latin to Old Occitan Uto-Aztecan Uto-Aztecan Phonology Proto-Wintun Featured Conlang: Dimana Lokud George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 1:23:40 http://conlangery.com/2012/05/14/conlangery-50-the-technology-of-literacy/ http://conlangery.com/2012/05/14/conlangery-50-the-technology-of-literacy/#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 04:00:18 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=222 http://conlangery.com/2012/05/14/conlangery-50-the-technology-of-literacy/feed/ 25 conlang,language,linguistics,Qakwan,writing In today's bonus-size episode we have Carsten Becker on to join in a great discussion on the technologies of writing:  implements, media, formats, and even literacy itself.  Then we have an invigorating discussion with Larry Sulky about his "artlangy-e... In today's bonus-size episode we have Carsten Becker on to join in a great discussion on the technologies of writing:  implements, media, formats, and even literacy itself.  Then we have an invigorating discussion with Larry Sulky about his "artlangy-engelang" Qakwan, among other things. Top of Show Greeting: Treyll Links and Resources: Palm Leaves as a writing medium Brāhmī script Learn how to do cuneiform with a chopstick Curse tablets Jane Austen's ink recipe Typical Chinese calligraphy brush grip (video) Arabic calligraphy with Chinese characteristics (that is, written with a brush) Tsolyani script (which seems impossible to William) Some possibly better conscripts, with artifacts Featured Conlang: Qakwan George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 2:10:47 http://conlangery.com/2012/05/07/conlangery-49-the-noun-phrase/ http://conlangery.com/2012/05/07/conlangery-49-the-noun-phrase/#comments Mon, 07 May 2012 04:00:44 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=221 http://conlangery.com/2012/05/07/conlangery-49-the-noun-phrase/feed/ 7 conlang,gjâ-zym-byn,language,linguistics,noun,noun phrase This week, we have Jim Henry on the show to talk about his long-term labor of love, the "engelangy artlang" gjâ-zym-byn.  But first we talk in great detail about noun phrases and many of the things you can do with them. - Top of Show Greeting: Qakwan This week, we have Jim Henry on the show to talk about his long-term labor of love, the "engelangy artlang" gjâ-zym-byn.  But first we talk in great detail about noun phrases and many of the things you can do with them. Top of Show Greeting: Qakwan Links and Resources: A paper on sentence word order and noun phrases Wikipedia on Definiteness WALS: Dominant Word Order Order of adjective and noun Discussion on adjective order The Finnish Noun Phrase Adjective order in Ancient Greek Adjective Ordering Restrictions Revisited Adjective Order in Cyopriot Maronite Arabic Even more on adjective order Featured Conlang: gjâ-zym-byn George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 1:12:16 http://conlangery.com/2012/04/30/conlangery-48-designing-a-sound-system/ http://conlangery.com/2012/04/30/conlangery-48-designing-a-sound-system/#comments Mon, 30 Apr 2012 04:00:19 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=215 http://conlangery.com/2012/04/30/conlangery-48-designing-a-sound-system/feed/ 4 conlang,language,linguistics,phoneme,phonology,Volapük After a discussion of George's recent consumption of bear meat, we get to talking about designing your sound system, a topic we meant to talk about in episode 29 but somehow didn't end up saying much about.  After a long discussion about that topic, After a discussion of George's recent consumption of bear meat, we get to talking about designing your sound system, a topic we meant to talk about in episode 29 but somehow didn't end up saying much about.  After a long discussion about that topic, we feature perhaps the second most famous auxlang in history, which goes by the terrible name of Volapük. Top of Show Greeting: Quenya (translation by Roman Rausch) Links and Resources: WALS on the velar nasal Arapaho (Wikipedia) WALS on gaps in plosive systems A Survey of Some Vowel Systems WALS on consonant inventories Featured Conlang: Volapük ("Handbook", Wikipedia, Volapük.com)   George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 1:29:58 http://conlangery.com/2012/04/23/conlangery-47-practicum-isolating-and-analytic-languages/ http://conlangery.com/2012/04/23/conlangery-47-practicum-isolating-and-analytic-languages/#comments Mon, 23 Apr 2012 04:00:20 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=213 http://conlangery.com/2012/04/23/conlangery-47-practicum-isolating-and-analytic-languages/feed/ 12 analytic,conlang,isolating,language,linguistics,taila Today we talk about something we wish more conlangers would think about creating -- isolating and analytic languages.  It seems that virtually everyone wants some polysynthetic madness or at least a complex verb paradigm, Today we talk about something we wish more conlangers would think about creating -- isolating and analytic languages.  It seems that virtually everyone wants some polysynthetic madness or at least a complex verb paradigm, but there are ways to make isolation and analytic syntax interesting, we promise!  Also, Taila Top of Show Greeting: Hra'anh Links and Resources: Wikipedia: Isolating Language (w/ section on analytic languages) Zero role marking and word order Gbe languages (Wikipedia) Nonconcatenative morphology (Brought up in response to Mike's question about triconsonontal roots.) Nùng Featured Conlang: Taila George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 1:23:45 http://conlangery.com/2012/04/16/conlangery-46-conlanging-for-conworlds/ http://conlangery.com/2012/04/16/conlangery-46-conlanging-for-conworlds/#comments Mon, 16 Apr 2012 04:00:29 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=210 http://conlangery.com/2012/04/16/conlangery-46-conlanging-for-conworlds/feed/ 26 Akana,conlang,conworld,Iŋomœ́,language,linguistics Check out the Serpent's Tongue kickstarter I mentioned at the top of the show! - After teasing Mike a bit about his trip to an Anime convention, we get down to business on how to make your conlang fit into a conworld. Check out the Serpent's Tongue kickstarter I mentioned at the top of the show! After teasing Mike a bit about his trip to an Anime convention, we get down to business on how to make your conlang fit into a conworld.  Then we cover an interesting and enigmatically-named Arka language. Top of Show Greeting: German (translation by Carsten Becker) [NOTE: Yes, we are now accepting natlang greetings from native speakers] Featured Conlang: Iŋomœ́ (Akana Wiki Page) Feedback: The Damin language (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damin) was created by the Lardil as a form of ritual language which seems to be classified as a conlang... But... It was developed by an entire culture over several generations and not by a single person so doesn't that classify as a natlang? But on the other hand the vocabulary is actually very small with only two pronouns. Also, the phonology of Lardil and the neighbouring Yangkaal languages don't really match the phonology of Damin. For example: Damin has a fricative. Not just any fricative but an ingressive voiceless lateral alveolar fricative. There are also clicks present in most places of articulation with a special mention to the prenasal bilabial click contrasting with the oral egressive bilabial click. Keeping in mind that this is spoken in Australia. Any ideas on what's happening there guys? Also, at the top of the show I thought that Mike had replaced George. Then I realised that I was an idiot. ~~~~ Gildoff. George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 1:34:59 http://conlangery.com/2012/04/11/can-we-get-some-suggestions/ http://conlangery.com/2012/04/11/can-we-get-some-suggestions/#comments Thu, 12 Apr 2012 00:40:00 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=207 http://conlangery.com/2012/04/11/can-we-get-some-suggestions/feed/ 19 http://conlangery.com/2012/04/09/conlangery-45-questions/ http://conlangery.com/2012/04/09/conlangery-45-questions/#comments Mon, 09 Apr 2012 04:03:38 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=203 http://conlangery.com/2012/04/09/conlangery-45-questions/feed/ 12 conlang,language,linguistics,questions,Welsh This week we talk about the many peculiarities of how questions can be handled in your language.  Join us as we explore not only polar and content questions, but also talk about rhetorical and conjectural ones as well, This week we talk about the many peculiarities of how questions can be handled in your language.  Join us as we explore not only polar and content questions, but also talk about rhetorical and conjectural ones as well, with some insight on how different languages handle them.  We also have a natlang featured today, one that I'm sure many people will be familiar with. Top of Show Greeting: Wateu Links and Resources: Wikipedia on "yes" and "no" Wh-movement Featured NATLANG: Welsh (Early and Middle) Feedback: In lieu of a regular feedback, we read some of our iTunes reviews.  Unfortunately, I cannot copy-paste from iTunes and really don't want to retype them, but I will link to Literal Minded's blog post where he linked to us -- you should have a look see at that guy. George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 1:12:42 http://conlangery.com/2012/04/02/conlangery-44-negation/ http://conlangery.com/2012/04/02/conlangery-44-negation/#comments Mon, 02 Apr 2012 04:00:15 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=201 http://conlangery.com/2012/04/02/conlangery-44-negation/feed/ 17 Brithenig,conlang,language,linguistics,negation First of all, George was on something called FourCast a bit ago.  You might enjoy it.  Also, CNN is doing a special on Dothraki on April 8.  But the meat of this podcast is all about negation: how to deal with scope, negative concord, First of all, George was on something called FourCast a bit ago.  You might enjoy it.  Also, CNN is doing a special on Dothraki on April 8.  But the meat of this podcast is all about negation: how to deal with scope, negative concord, and a number of other issues in your conlang.  Oh, and we also talk about Brithenig. Top of Show Greeting: Qlfhpfsq Links and Resources: Asymmetries in negation (WALS) Featured Conlang: Brithenig (FrathWiki page, Ill Bethisad Wiki) Feedback: Email from Lee: Hi, Conlangers, domo. I liked the show. I'm a Lojbanist, and I thought your coverage was generally accurate and fair. But I'm surprized you didn't mention Lojban's take on the subject of your show: getting rid of adjectives. Lojbans goes the extra mile and gets rid of adjectives, nouns, and verbs. Lojban does all of the above with predicate-words, which are all equal. "Bird", "Fly", and "Blue" are all just predicates. "ta cipni" ("that's a bird"); "ta vofli" (that thing is flying), "ta blanu" (that thing is blue). So I could say "le cipni cu vofli" (the bird is flying) or "le volfi cu cipni" (the flying thing is a bird), or "le blanu cu cipni" (the blue thing is a bird). Likewise, any predicate can modify any other, so I could say "le blanu cipni cu vofli" (the blue bird is flying) or "le cipni volfi cu blanu" (the bird-like flying thing is blue).  Of course, Lojban goes to great lengths to specify the grouping of modifiers so it doesn't have the English problem of ambiguity in "big car sale" and such. There's certainly a lot else I could say about Lojban, but then that would be a whole new podcast, so I'll leave it at that. Thanks again for the show. George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 1:17:10 http://conlangery.com/2012/03/26/conlangery-43-adpositions/ http://conlangery.com/2012/03/26/conlangery-43-adpositions/#comments Mon, 26 Mar 2012 04:00:55 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=197 http://conlangery.com/2012/03/26/conlangery-43-adpositions/feed/ 10 adpositions,conlang,Junen Rhá,language,linguistics,postpositions,prepositions Today, we spend a ridiculous amount of time talking about adpositions, creating an hour-long discussion out of something William thought would be short.  We also have an extra special featured conlang today -- one hand crafted specifically for this pod... Today, we spend a ridiculous amount of time talking about adpositions, creating an hour-long discussion out of something William thought would be short.  We also have an extra special featured conlang today -- one hand crafted specifically for this podcast! Top of Show Greeting: Opaki Aŋkuati Links and Resources: WALS: Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase WALS: Person Marking on Adpositions WALS on VO/OV order and adpositions Featured Conlang: Junen Rhá Hey Guys, Here's my try at the caseless conlang exercise. Sorry it's a little late in coming, but I was busy the last few weeks and am only now catching up with the podcast. :) It's been a good many years since I sketched out more than a phoneme inventory for a conlang, so I apologize for it being a little rough. Cheers, Bryn Feedback: Question, I am new to the whole conlang concept. I have been a podcast subscriber since week 1 when I read about it on the Conlang Mailing List. I have been lurking on the subject for years at this point, but still haven’t started. Your podcast is the first place I have heard about IPA, I have downloaded the chart from Wikipedia, Is there some way to make sense of it?  I mean if IPA is somewhat necessary for others to understand what you are doing. I have no formal linguistics training. Any help with IPA would be appreciated. Thanks Matt from Oklahoma Response to Feedback: Wikipedia "English IPA" IPA "beat box" (non-pulmonic sounds) -- the rest of the sounds can all be found here. Another site with sound samples Two IPA "Keyboards": here and here   George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 1:32:04 http://conlangery.com/2012/03/19/conlangery-42-practicum-getting-rid-of-adjectives/ http://conlangery.com/2012/03/19/conlangery-42-practicum-getting-rid-of-adjectives/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 04:00:46 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=193 http://conlangery.com/2012/03/19/conlangery-42-practicum-getting-rid-of-adjectives/feed/ 26 adjectives,conlang,language,linguistics,Lojban We introduce you to a new host: Mike Lentine.  Then we cover the different ways you can get rid of adjectives or at least fuzz the distinctions between them and other word classes.  Also, we try to figure out what Lojban is all about. - We introduce you to a new host: Mike Lentine.  Then we cover the different ways you can get rid of adjectives or at least fuzz the distinctions between them and other word classes.  Also, we try to figure out what Lojban is all about. Top of Show Greeting: Esperanto (translation by William) Featured Conlang: Lojban Feedback: Email from Aidan: Just wanted to say that I finally tracked down these podcasts of yours, and I am thoroughly enjoying them! Really, I only heard about them fairly recently, as I happened to catch something on the conlang list where someone mentioned them. Lately, I've been crazy busy, and didn't know about them. After a month or 3 or dithering, I finally remembered, and downloaded the lot. I'm only on ep. 7 (not bad for 1 work week), and I'm really glad you figured out your (George's) volume issues. I'll also say that it's making my commute SO MUCH NICER! I swear, you've probably saved 83547 lives since I'm not all aggro. Just mellow and enjoying the 'cast. So thank you! I'm excited to listen to all the rest over the next month or two, and I hope you guys keep up the great work for a good long time to come! George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 1:08:28 http://conlangery.com/2012/03/15/this-is-the-final-album-art-at-least-for-now/ http://conlangery.com/2012/03/15/this-is-the-final-album-art-at-least-for-now/#comments Thu, 15 Mar 2012 15:25:23 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=187 http://conlangery.com/2012/03/15/this-is-the-final-album-art-at-least-for-now/feed/ 0 http://conlangery.com/2012/03/13/new-album-art-and-site-banner/ http://conlangery.com/2012/03/13/new-album-art-and-site-banner/#comments Tue, 13 Mar 2012 23:24:37 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=158 http://conlangery.com/2012/03/13/new-album-art-and-site-banner/feed/ 3 http://conlangery.com/2012/03/12/conlangery-41-discourse-particles/ http://conlangery.com/2012/03/12/conlangery-41-discourse-particles/#comments Mon, 12 Mar 2012 07:00:30 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=143 http://conlangery.com/2012/03/12/conlangery-41-discourse-particles/feed/ 11 conlang,discourse particles,language,linguistics,Makah,Nootka Bianca's last show as a regular host goes into a rather ambitious topic: discourse particles.  Go listen to the show, because it's too complicated a subject for me to summarize properly here.  We also feature a natlang going by two names. - Bianca's last show as a regular host goes into a rather ambitious topic: discourse particles.  Go listen to the show, because it's too complicated a subject for me to summarize properly here.  We also feature a natlang going by two names. Top of Show Greeting: Amjati Links and Resources: Paper with a typology and some general info (Mostly uses German and English) Mando Malay Chinese discourse particles (skip to the qualitative analysis) Featured NATLANG: Nootka and Makah Feedback: Email: Hey guys, So first off let me start by saying we love your podcasts and posts. They provide a great resource to the conlanging community. Me and two other friends who met online through various conlanging forums or Tumblr have started a blog devoted to conlanging, but specifically trying to provide an easy to understand resource for newbie conlangers. We have about 30 or more posts already and one episode of our very own podcast that we are planning on running. We were wondering if you could give our blog/podcast either a mention, or a link on one of your next posts or in your next podcast so we can gain readers and get the word out there that we are a good resource for newbie and veterans alike. Our blog is currently being hosted through Tumblr, and there URL is http://deconstructedconstruction.tumblr.com We're just a new blog trying to fill a niche in the conlanging community that we believe is left somewhat unfilled. We by no means want to compete with your podcasts, and in fact we have your blog/podcasts in our resources section as a great site to check out about conlanging. I'm sure there are plenty of your listeners that could also find our blog helpful. Thanks for any support you can give us! Jordan Creator/Editor, Deconstructing Conlanging George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 1:12:43 http://conlangery.com/2012/03/05/conlangery-40-dialects-and-kunstsprachen/ http://conlangery.com/2012/03/05/conlangery-40-dialects-and-kunstsprachen/#comments Mon, 05 Mar 2012 05:02:29 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=140 http://conlangery.com/2012/03/05/conlangery-40-dialects-and-kunstsprachen/feed/ 10 Anawanda,conlang,dialect,kunstsprachen,language,linguistics After a big announcement, we delve into the mysteries and wonders of creating dialects, reviewing natlang tendencies and talking about some techniques that can be used to mimic them, and then we talk about a quite interesting conlang as well. - After a big announcement, we delve into the mysteries and wonders of creating dialects, reviewing natlang tendencies and talking about some techniques that can be used to mimic them, and then we talk about a quite interesting conlang as well. Top of Show Greeting: Palezi Urca Links and Resources: Wikipedia on Romance Languages Emesal (a Sumerian dialect/Kunstsprache) Uto-Aztecan sound correspondences Featured Conlang: Anawanda George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 1:14:13 http://conlangery.com/2012/02/27/conlangery-39-noun-incorporation/ http://conlangery.com/2012/02/27/conlangery-39-noun-incorporation/#comments Mon, 27 Feb 2012 06:54:50 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=136 http://conlangery.com/2012/02/27/conlangery-39-noun-incorporation/feed/ 4 conlang,Gevey,language,linguistics,noun incoprporation George gets Bianca's name wrong and no one notices.  We also have some digressions at the beginning and the end of the show, but somehow we end up talking a whole lot about noun incorporation, and the weird and wacky language known as Gevey. - George gets Bianca's name wrong and no one notices.  We also have some digressions at the beginning and the end of the show, but somehow we end up talking a whole lot about noun incorporation, and the weird and wacky language known as Gevey. Top of Show Greeting: Vaida Mi Ha Links and Resources: Notes on Mithun (1984) Featured Conlang: Gevey Special Mentions: Carsten Becker's interlinear gloss plugin for Wordpress The Last Lingua Franca Feedback: Anthony Docimo (comment on #37) Could part of Novegradian be described as reconstructing? In the same way that a form of Hebrew was revived in the 20th Century, built upon the Torah and Talmud primarily; Novegradian was revived in teh conlang, built upon historical materials from/relating to medieval Novegradian. or is my mind seeing a paralel/connection that isn’t there? George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 1:08:10 http://conlangery.com/2012/02/20/conlangery-38-derivational-morphology/ http://conlangery.com/2012/02/20/conlangery-38-derivational-morphology/#comments Mon, 20 Feb 2012 12:07:36 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=133 http://conlangery.com/2012/02/20/conlangery-38-derivational-morphology/feed/ 3 conlang,derivational morphology,language,linguistics,Proto-Deithas Today we talk all about derivational morphology and what can be done with it.  We also spend some time talking about Proto-Deithas - Top of Show Greeting: Sindarin (translation by Roman Rausch) - Links and Resources: - Today we talk all about derivational morphology and what can be done with it.  We also spend some time talking about Proto-Deithas Top of Show Greeting: Sindarin (translation by Roman Rausch) Links and Resources: Gary Shannon's notes on related words Lexical Semantics Agent nominalizations Nominalization in Thai Featured Conlang: Proto-Deithas George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 1:06:09 http://conlangery.com/2012/02/13/conlangery-37-phonological-processes/ http://conlangery.com/2012/02/13/conlangery-37-phonological-processes/#comments Mon, 13 Feb 2012 06:43:59 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=132 http://conlangery.com/2012/02/13/conlangery-37-phonological-processes/feed/ 10 conlang,language,linguistics,Novegradian,phonological processes,phonology Aszev of the CBB joins us for a little talk about the many kinds of phonological processes: what they are, what you can do with them, why the order of processes in important.  We also review the awesomely well-developed Novegradian with its 500-page gr... Aszev of the CBB joins us for a little talk about the many kinds of phonological processes: what they are, what you can do with them, why the order of processes in important.  We also review the awesomely well-developed Novegradian with its 500-page grammar and excellent dictionary. Top of Show Greeting: Talmit Links and Resources: Distinctive Features Types of Processes Featured Conlang: Novegradian Feedback: Email from Nathaniel Fischer: Dear Conlangery Podcast, I really enjoyed your episode on gender, and I thought I'd contribute my own interesting tidbit.In the Kiowa-Tanoan languages, there is a very unusual way of marking number that interacts with gender. The Kiowa-Tanoan languages typically have 4 genders and 3 numbers (singular, plural, and Dual). Every word "expected" number. If the number is "unexpected", then the inverse number marker is applied. What is funny is that  what number is expected number varies from gender to gender. So in one gender, you might have the singular and the plural marked with the same affix, while in the next gender, you may have the plural and dual marked with the same affix. Look up inverse number marking for more details. -Nate George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 58:18 http://conlangery.com/2012/02/06/conlanangery-36-morphosyntactic-alignment/ http://conlangery.com/2012/02/06/conlanangery-36-morphosyntactic-alignment/#comments Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:18:09 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=128 http://conlangery.com/2012/02/06/conlanangery-36-morphosyntactic-alignment/feed/ 6 conlang,language,linguistics,morphosyntactic alignment,Ngarla CORRECTION: A commenter below graciously corrected me on a point I (George) raised in the show.  When I talk about desiderative languages, please replace that word with dechticaetiative.  Look to the comments below for a relevant link. CORRECTION: A commenter below graciously corrected me on a point I (George) raised in the show.  When I talk about desiderative languages, please replace that word with dechticaetiative.  Look to the comments below for a relevant link.  I apologize for misidentifying the phenomenon I was talking about. We talk a lot about morphosyntactic alignment, outlining the basic types, talking a little about various complications, and even bringing up a linguist who thinks it's not all that important, anyway.  Also, we feature a natlang for the second time: Ngarla, a language of Australia, with some morphosyntactic oddness (that's typical for Australia, but still odd).  Also, stick around after the end music to hear George's informal review of China Miéville's Embassytown. Top of Show Greeting: Jameld Links and Resources: Wikipedia article Handout on ergativity The Blue Bird of Ergativity Featured NATLANG: Ngarla Feedback: Email from Bryn LaFollette: Hey guys,I came across your podcast a few of weeks ago on iTunes serendipitously and just wanted to let you know that I've been heartily enjoying it! I had been meaning to write in just to voice my appreciation, but then ep #33: Supersegmentals just happened to hit upon what happened to be the very subject matter of my Master's Thesis; namely, derivation of phonemic tone inventories in natural languages, with field work on Mandarin. And while working with my collected data that I had specifically observed the tendency for low tone (i.e. tone 3) in Mandarin to be realized by many speakers, especially in continuous speech, as creaky voice! And, just as Bianca mentioned, the hell that wrought in trying to get usable frequency data from spectrograms of the recordings I had made with my native consultants! Anyhow, it gave me a good laugh.My main area of research used to be Phonology (though with a heavy dash of phonetics) and Syntax (very close to the very fuzzy border with morphology). I had gotten as far as completing a Linguistics Master's degree from University of California, Santa Cruz when I took a "short break" from linguistics, graduate school and academics in general about ten years ago, but in the mean time sort of accidentally ended up a professional programmer. Your podcast has gotten me digging up my old attempts at constructed languages, as well as re-interested me in my old linguistics work, and, incidentally, LaTeX. From what I've seen since looking at the examples you've featured, my humble artlangs wouldn't really qualify as much more than sketches, honestly. Plus, being designed for the use of non-linguists they were necessarily simplified and restrained from what I might have otherwise done. Although the content is unchanged from their last being worked on in '98 (before grad school took up pretty much all my time), I think they're laying about somewhere on the interwebz still in some form or other. Well over due for a revision, me thinks.Now that I've said 'hi', I may make some comments on older episodes as I get around to listening to them. So, here's fair warning, I guess. As far as feedback, there were two main thoughts I've been having: 1. Aside from the foray into supersegmentals, it seems like phonology hasn't figured very strongly in the podcast. The episode on sound systems and romanization was really mostly just romanization, and left me wondering if it might not be something worth covering. Especially, the wonderfully diverse contrasting features in the worlds languages. Likewise, concepts like sonority scale and what sorts of crazy phonemes some languages in the world deem to function as a syllable nucleus, not just syllabic /r/ or /l/, but like /t/, for example. The sound of a language as spoken by a fluent speaker is a major part of the appeal to me, and I feel like maybe more appreciation of the sound of less familiar languages might be a nice source of inspiration to others. For example, George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 1:07:09 http://conlangery.com/2012/01/30/conlangery-35-practicum-getting-rid-of-case-marking/ http://conlangery.com/2012/01/30/conlangery-35-practicum-getting-rid-of-case-marking/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:00:15 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=127 http://conlangery.com/2012/01/30/conlangery-35-practicum-getting-rid-of-case-marking/feed/ 10 case,conlang,language,linguistics,practicum,Txtana What do you do when you want to make a language without case marking?  Or with very little case marking?  That is what we attempt to explore in this episode.  If you would like to take up George's "homework" challenge, What do you do when you want to make a language without case marking?  Or with very little case marking?  That is what we attempt to explore in this episode.  If you would like to take up George's "homework" challenge, make up a sketch of a language and send an example of some sort of narrative that demonstrates how you handle various semantic roles, with varying animacy, etc.  Here is an example story you can use (though you are fully free to make up one yourself). There was once a man who beat his donkey every day.  One day, a second man, who was a neighbor, came to the donkey-beater and asked, "Why do you beat your donkey?"  The donkey-beater said, "Beating is all the donkey knows, I must beat him until he learns how to behave." The donkey-beater then went into his home and discovered his dinner wasn't ready, so he beat his wife.  His neighbor heard the screams of the donkey-beater's wife and came to the door.  "You should not beat your wife so much," said the neighbor.   "I beat her until she learns to have dinner ready on time." Some time later, the neighbor saw the donkey-beater beating his son in a field.  This time, he did not say anything, but seized the donkey beater and began to beat him with a heavy cudgel.  When the donkey-beater asked why his neighbor was beating him, his neighbor replied, "I will beat you until you learn not to beat others." Again, you don't have to use my story, it's just an example. Anyway, on with the shownotes ... Top of Show Greeting: Maxédri Links and Resources: Maori goodness Featured Conlang: Txtana George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 1:00:40 http://conlangery.com/2012/01/23/conlangery-34-gender-and-noun-classes/ http://conlangery.com/2012/01/23/conlangery-34-gender-and-noun-classes/#comments Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:00:46 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=123 http://conlangery.com/2012/01/23/conlangery-34-gender-and-noun-classes/feed/ 18 agreement,conlang,gender,language,linguistics,noun class,Taruven Alternate Title: Genders, Classes, and Agreement, oh my! - We talk today all about gender.  Or noun class.  Or both.  Really, they are the same thing, at least we think so.  Anyway, after a vivid and lively discussion on what can be done with the wond... Alternate Title: Genders, Classes, and Agreement, oh my! We talk today all about gender.  Or noun class.  Or both.  Really, they are the same thing, at least we think so.  Anyway, after a vivid and lively discussion on what can be done with the wonderful world of arbitrarily classifying nouns we review Taruven Top of Show Greeting: Knæknæk Links and Resources: -- Zompist on gender (More in the book.) -- WALS pages Number of Genders Sex-Based Gender Gender-assignment -- Interesting gender systems Yanyuwa (Australian) Anindilyakwa (Australian) Ganda (Bantu) Featured Conlang: Taruven (newer link here -- the grammar we used is very old) Feedback: We won something! (Link may die.  Let me know if it does.) George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 1:11:46 http://conlangery.com/2012/01/17/sopa-blackout/ http://conlangery.com/2012/01/17/sopa-blackout/#comments Tue, 17 Jan 2012 05:08:26 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=120 http://conlangery.com/2012/01/17/sopa-blackout/feed/ 2 http://conlangery.com/2012/01/16/conlangery-33-suprasegmental/ http://conlangery.com/2012/01/16/conlangery-33-suprasegmental/#comments Mon, 16 Jan 2012 17:00:38 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=116 http://conlangery.com/2012/01/16/conlangery-33-suprasegmental/feed/ 19 conlang,language,linguistics,phonation,stress,suprasegmentals,tone We get right to it talking about suprasegmentals: mainly stress, phonation, tone, and nasalization.  After a long and fascinating (if incomplete) discussion, we finally get around to talking to DJP's Kamakawi. - Top of Show Greeting: Kinál - We get right to it talking about suprasegmentals: mainly stress, phonation, tone, and nasalization.  After a long and fascinating (if incomplete) discussion, we finally get around to talking to DJP's Kamakawi. Top of Show Greeting: Kinál Links and Resources: Phonation Types Mark Liberman has doubts about stress-timed vs syllable-timed Nambikwara (lots of suprasegmental distinctions) Featured Conlang: Kamakawi Feedback: Comment thread on #30 Some comments we mention specifically: CMunk: A short introduction to danish numbers. In danish “halv fem” (half five) is 4:30. Oh yeah, now Bianca found swedish  There’s also a special word for ‘one and a half’ in danish. It’s “halvanden” (half-second), and it has rarely used counterparts: “halvtredje” (half-third = 2.5) “halvfjerde” (half-fourth = 3.5). And this brings me to the vigesimal part of the numbersystem. The names of the tens 50-90 are derived from the number of scores. For example 60 is “tresindstyve” which breaks down to “three-times-twenty”, though this is a rather conservative way of saying it; it is normally* shortened to “tres”. Now, 50 is “halvtreds(indstyve)” (half-third-times-twenty = 2.5 * 20 = 50). 70 is “halvfjerds(indstyve)” (half-fourth-times-twenty = 3.5 * 20 = 70). 80 is “firs(indstyve)” (four-times-twenty = 4*20 = 80). 90 is “halvfems(indstyve)” (half-fifth-times-twenty = 4.5 * 20 = 90). *”normally” means always, except in ordinal numbers where you’d have to say “tresindstyvende”. And these are used a bit more than the english equivalents because we have flipped tens and ones (as in German). {A relevant illustration} Kraamlep: Hi guys, some random thoughts apropos this episode: Is it possible that Chinese’s writing system was a sufficiently strong influence to prevent numbers like 12 and 13 from being subjected to the forces of historical linguistics? I mean, would the fact that 12 was written [ten][two] be enough to stop the spoken form drifting away? Half five: that’s just us Brits lazily omitting “past”  As Bianca pointed out, Swedish would have it meaning “halfway to five”, and Norwegian, Danish, Dutch and German are the same. Similarly, Jameld has “fëfjel” (five-half), which is also used to mean “four and a half”. William mentions not needing to use a plural marker after a numeral in Hungarian. Finnish also does that; IIRC it does funky things with the partitive and the verb stays in the singular. Which is fun. Russian is glorious: it uses the genitive singular with 2, 3, 4 and numerals ending in those digits, and the genitive plural for 5–9. So you get one book, two/three/four of book, five/six of books… , 21 book, 22 of book, 25 of books and so on. Truly inspirational  George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 1:13:36 http://conlangery.com/2012/01/09/conlangery-32-evidentials/ http://conlangery.com/2012/01/09/conlangery-32-evidentials/#comments Mon, 09 Jan 2012 17:00:07 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=111 http://conlangery.com/2012/01/09/conlangery-32-evidentials/feed/ 19 conlang,evidentials,language,linguistics,Talossan George reveals a peeve, which leads to a bit of a tangent before we get to talking about the wonderful world of evidentials and all the stuff you can do with them.  Then we cover a very curious language by the name Talossan. - George reveals a peeve, which leads to a bit of a tangent before we get to talking about the wonderful world of evidentials and all the stuff you can do with them.  Then we cover a very curious language by the name Talossan. Top of Show Greeting: Gówa Links and Resources: Evidentiality in Tibetan Evidence from Evidentials WALS: Coding of Evidentials Featured Conlang: Talossan Feedback: Email from Arnt Richard Johansen: Hi, folks. Great show, I've listened to every episode since #1 (except #13, which is so incredibly long, and I haven't gotten around to #16 yet).I'm writing to bring to your attention a topic which I think is under-appreciated in our circles: prosody and intonation.I like David Peterson's Dothraki a lot. Not because its grammar and lexicon is cleverly done (although it is), but because when he pronounces example sentences in the language, it sounds believable.It seems that most language creators just borrow all the intonation patterns from their native language, but Dothraki doesn't sound like English – or any language I know. But I can tell that it isn't random either, there is some kind of system to it. If I only knew what that system was!Tone and stress, which are categories that operate at the word level, are fairly well-described. But when it comes to making a system that applies to whole sentences or utterances, I have no clue. What is a conlanger supposed to do to figure out how questions should differ from statements, or how to emphasize morphs, words and phrases in different ways, or to mark sarcasm? When it comes to intonation, what may differ between languages, and what is truly universal? George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no 1:08:51 http://conlangery.com/2012/01/02/conlangery-31-demonstratives/ http://conlangery.com/2012/01/02/conlangery-31-demonstratives/#comments Mon, 02 Jan 2012 17:00:28 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=109 http://conlangery.com/2012/01/02/conlangery-31-demonstratives/feed/ 17 conlang,demonstratives,language,linguistics,Quenya,Tolkien Today we talk about demonstratives.  Chiefly, what distinctions are common for demonstratives, and what crazy out-there distinctions you can make.  We also review a conlang that should be very familiar to you all. - Top of Show Greeting: Zelsen - Today we talk about demonstratives.  Chiefly, what distinctions are common for demonstratives, and what crazy out-there distinctions you can make.  We also review a conlang that should be very familiar to you all. Top of Show Greeting: Zelsen Featured Conlang: Quenya Thorsten Renk's Quenya Course (archive download) Ardalambion on Quenya Feedback: Email from Stephen Rogers: George and Bianca, I thought the following new title might be of interest to you. A DICTIONARY OF MADE-UP LANGUAGES: From Adūnaic to Elvish, Zaum to Klingon, the Anwa (Real) Origins of Invented Lexicons http://www.stephendrogers.com/Anthos/DictionaryOfMade-UpLanguages.htm Bio:  Stephen D. Rogers is a contributor to The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction & Fantasy: Themes, Works, and Wonders; a member of the Language Creation Society; and the award-winning author of more than 700 shorter pieces. Let me know what you think. Comment on #19 by David J Peterson: English has 11 basic color terms. I think you may be getting confused about what “basic color term” means. A basic color term is a color term that can’t be explained in terms of other color terms. So in English, you can’t describe “pink” as “light red” or “whitish red”, or anything. That’s how we know “pink” is a basic color term. The largest number of basic color terms is 12 (Russian and Hungarian, which have different basic terms for what we’d call “light blue” and “dark blue”). “Basic color term” does not mean “not produced from derivational morphology”. “Orange” is a basic color term even though it’s a borrowing; “puce” is not a basic color term even though it’s pretty cohesive. See this description for more. George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no http://conlangery.com/2011/12/26/conlangery-30-numeral-systems/ http://conlangery.com/2011/12/26/conlangery-30-numeral-systems/#comments Mon, 26 Dec 2011 17:00:33 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=105 http://conlangery.com/2011/12/26/conlangery-30-numeral-systems/feed/ 36 conlang,language,linguistics,numbers,numerals,Wenedyk George has put up a grammar!  Also, we talk numerals -- what base to use, how to construct higher numerals, cardinal vs ordinal, etc.  Then we feature a little bogolang called Wenedyk. - Top of the Show Greeting: Celinese - Links and Resources: - George has put up a grammar!  Also, we talk numerals -- what base to use, how to construct higher numerals, cardinal vs ordinal, etc.  Then we feature a little bogolang called Wenedyk. Top of the Show Greeting: Celinese Links and Resources: WALS Numerical Base WALS Ordinals WALS Distributives WALS Numeral Classifiers Alyutor (Wikipedia) Pame number system (transition from octal to vigesimal) Janko Gorenc Featured Conlang: Wenedyk Feedback: Email from Mathew Park: Dear Conlangery,Over the past two days I have listened to all of your pod casts. While I am no linguist (my degrees are in communication and English [so not too far from linguistics]) the terms you have used, while difficult to understand in the first few pod casts, were easy enough to look up on Wikipedia. I also enjoy when you pause and give an English example of a concept that non linguists may not understand.First and foremost let me applaud your podcast. While it may sound overly dramatic, listening to you all has convinced me to peruse a degree in linguistics. I have already scouted schools and by next fall I should be enrolled.  I think for me this is a good life choice, because I may be the only person in the world who has run a red light just to get home from work in order to finish a podcast on Nonconfigurationality.I have only been conlanging for about four weeks now. So this has been a valuable resource. You made me think of things I never would have otherwise. While I have not been creating languages for long, I have written prose and poetry for almost 10 years now, so I am not new to creating things from nothing. In that regard I found that thinking about the culture that would use the language has helped me better decide what types of words they would use and how they would use them. I also enjoy the chemistry you three have. Please tell Bianca that I here by swear to never use X-Sampa. While I cannot say much of my own language at the moment, as there is less than anything to present, I do have several comments and questions that I think might be interesting (again since I am not a linguist, but more of an English major, these are more about the idea of language then the linguistically parts) 1)I would be interested in hearing you three’s opinion on the philosophical view of language as a whole. This may sound a bit vague. What I mean is: Humans are the only species we can confirm as having a language. We have viewed language like behavior in other species, dancing bees, singing birds, and even various smell based communications. After listening to seven straight hours of your pod cast I began to think about the English language and how it’s even possible to understand it as easy as I do, and I swear for a few moments I forgot how to understand language. Do you think language is intrinsic to all sentient life, or is it something that only advanced species can hope to obtain? 2) What are your thoughts on nouns that cant be broken down(even if you have to cross languages)? For example the word Television is a combination of Tele and Vision, Tele I am assuming must come from Latin being remote, again I assume. And it can be seen in other words, Telephone Telekinesis Telecommunications. Other words can’t really be broken down to explain their meaning. Like the word Bookshelf can be broken down in to Book and Shelf ( a shelf for books), but Book and Shelf cannot be broken down to further understand.  In a conlang (from an English perspective) how much of your words do you think should be untranslatable in concept? -More Fun Questions- 3) Do any of you indulge in a little egotism when creating your language? Perhaps using the your name or the names of people you like (or dislike) to create words, positive or negative. If you were to translate your English name into one of your conlangs, what would your name most likely mean phonetically? 4) Even though I have only been conlanging for less then a month, George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no http://conlangery.com/2011/12/19/conlangery-29-sound-systems-and-romanization/ http://conlangery.com/2011/12/19/conlangery-29-sound-systems-and-romanization/#comments Mon, 19 Dec 2011 17:00:47 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=104 http://conlangery.com/2011/12/19/conlangery-29-sound-systems-and-romanization/feed/ 16 conlang,language,linguistics,Mutsun,phonology,romanization,sound system After some discussion of one little New York Times article that quoted William(!), we move along to talking about designing your sound system and romanization, though it's mostly about romanization.  After that, After some discussion of one little New York Times article that quoted William(!), we move along to talking about designing your sound system and romanization, though it's mostly about romanization.  After that, we break a pattern and for the first time feature a natlang rather than a conlang -- going from a grammar that just so happens to be the dissertation of one Mark Okrand.  The language is Mutsun. Top of Show Greeting: Standard Sentalian Links and Resources: George's "Design Perameters for Romanization" Featured NATLANG: Mutsun George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no http://conlangery.com/2011/12/12/conlangery-28-correlatives-well-mostly-indefinites/ http://conlangery.com/2011/12/12/conlangery-28-correlatives-well-mostly-indefinites/#comments Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:00:28 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=101 http://conlangery.com/2011/12/12/conlangery-28-correlatives-well-mostly-indefinites/feed/ 27 conlang,correlatives,Gomain,indefinites,language,linguistics A very special guest host joins us for this episode, where we try to talk about correlatives as a thing, but as correlatives is actually many different things, we end up just talking about indefinites the whole time.  We have much more - A very special guest host joins us for this episode, where we try to talk about correlatives as a thing, but as correlatives is actually many different things, we end up just talking about indefinites the whole time.  We have much more Top of Show Greeting: pr̝̊ɛmɪsl Links and Resources: Esperanto correlatives WALS on Indefinites Featured Conlang: Gomain Feedback: Koppa Dasao (comment on #26): Good news. Was at my check up Tuesday, and my kidneys are patching up. Now I got more than half-a-kidney sustaining me   Email: James Campbell: Enjoyed episode 26 a great deal - no offence, but the editing definitely helps the "listener experience". The whole thing flows so much better.And yes, it looks like Basque does have a vigesimal system, and a pretty sane one to boot. For a truly twisted vigesimal counting system, see Danish (a system that was borrowed into/influenced Faroese, with further extraordinary phonetic mangling - although it looks like Faroese has largely changed over to a decimal system now).Owen: Way back, William mentioned using LaTeX and LyX to create documents and lexicons. I responded at the time to say I was trying those out, but I am struggling to figure out how I would convert a spreadsheet lexicon into dictionary form and wondered if William has any insight/ideas of how I can do this.Right now, my lexicon is a GoogleDoc spreadsheet with several columns:  word--pronunciation--englishequiv---wordtype---notes etc.  I would love to be able to present this in "OED" format, with nicer, longer descriptions and a uniform style. Thanks again for the podcast and your shared insights into language in general.   George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no http://conlangery.com/2011/12/05/comment-changes/ http://conlangery.com/2011/12/05/comment-changes/#comments Mon, 05 Dec 2011 18:16:44 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=98 http://conlangery.com/2011/12/05/comment-changes/feed/ 4 http://conlangery.com/2011/12/05/94/ http://conlangery.com/2011/12/05/94/#comments Mon, 05 Dec 2011 17:00:00 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=94 http://conlangery.com/2011/12/05/94/feed/ 12 conlang,Esperanto,irregularity,language,linguistics We start off with a reccomendation of sorts of the Speculative Grammarian Podcast, and George's own long post on romanization.  Then we get into the meat of the show talking about all kinds of irregularity and "regular irregularity". We start off with a reccomendation of sorts of the Speculative Grammarian Podcast, and George's own long post on romanization.  Then we get into the meat of the show talking about all kinds of irregularity and "regular irregularity".  Then we take a 180-degree turn and talk about the insanely regular Esperanto. Top of Show Greeting: Ayeri Featured Conlang: Esperanto (also here) Feedback: Email from Nathaniel: I've developed a fairly complicated type of poetry for my conlang Japaratu. This kind of poetry is known as the Gį́į́, and takes advantage of several rules that Japaratu has such as tone and nasal harmony. It also used consonance and alternating patterns of high, low, and middle tones. Interesting, the Gį́į́ does not use vowel length, although other poetry forms do.I write the mechanics of the Gį́į́ this way:A is a nasal syllable with high tone. B is a nasal syllable with low tone. C is a nasal syllable with middle tone. D is a oral syllable with high tone. E is a oral syllable with low tone. F is a oral syllable with middle tone. The first and second occurence of a syllable do not have to be the same word, but they must have the same features. Thus, péék and pár would fall in the same class. A, B, and C must all begin with the same sound. D, E and F must be the sound's nasal equivalent. M is a nasal monosyllabic word with middle tone. O is a oral monosyllabic word with middle tone. Unlike the above, M and O have to be the same word in all contexts. 1. ABCA 2. M 3. DEFD 4. O 5. ABCA 6. O 7. DEFD 8. M 9. MMOO Because the structure is so strict, the poems do not have necessarily have to make sense, although it is more prestigious to do so. Because the Japaratu are a poetry-loving culture, they have developed an elaborate poetry notation system. Here is an example: 1.ká kùb-kot 2.mų 3.gų́ų́į́į́m gų̀m gǫǫg 4.et 5.kóp kììj kiuu 6.et 7.gę́ę́r-gį̀-gįįęr 8.mų 9.mų mų et et -- tìt. Which literally translates as: rock marble clear autumn fern dirt poison tide clever branch poison elder clear clear clear poison poison Negative copula (to not be) My apologies if any or most of this is unclear. Thanks for sharing all of this with us. On little correction:the word tìt at the end of the Poem is the name of the author and is not part of the poem. George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no http://conlangery.com/2011/11/28/conlangery-26-emphasis/ http://conlangery.com/2011/11/28/conlangery-26-emphasis/#comments Mon, 28 Nov 2011 13:39:48 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=92 http://conlangery.com/2011/11/28/conlangery-26-emphasis/feed/ 9 conlang,emphasis,emphatic consonant,focus,language,linguistics 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, 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 Feedback: Email: Dear Conlangery Podcast!I wasn't sure where I should leave this little message, but I just had to say something. I am a beginner when it comes to conlanging (truth be told, though I have been "writing" about my conworld for years, but I was using  a truly bastardized version of Esperanto for one of their languages. I have since scrapped it to start fresh and think of myself as a true beginner). I tend to let my love of Japanese guide the way a bit too much, though, so I was kind of scared of infixes. But I made myself go through Bianca's Inyauk lessons yesterday and they really are pretty easy. She and William did say it was true. Glad I took a chance. :)I also wanted to say how much I appreciated episode #15, Getting Out of Creative Ruts. Blending natlangs is what I think of to get out of it a lot. I also look to specific words out of a bunch of languages to see which I like best before adding it to the lexicon (it takes a while, but it feels more personal than using a word generator for all your words). I love this podcast--I like knowing that not all of my ideas are crazy. Best wishes, Robyn Conlang: Yivrian George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no http://conlangery.com/2011/11/21/conlangery-25-grammatical-voice/ http://conlangery.com/2011/11/21/conlangery-25-grammatical-voice/#comments Mon, 21 Nov 2011 17:00:10 +0000 admin http://conlangery.com/?p=89 http://conlangery.com/2011/11/21/conlangery-25-grammatical-voice/feed/ 5 conlang,language,linguistics,passive voice,Tseeyo,voice 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 ... 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. Links and Resources The Great Wiki on voice Circumstantial Passive Chômeur Conlang: Tseeyo George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no http://conlangery.com/2011/11/14/conlangery-24-possession/ http://conlangery.com/2011/11/14/conlangery-24-possession/#comments Mon, 14 Nov 2011 17:00:32 +0000 admin http://conlangery.conlang.org/?p=88 http://conlangery.com/2011/11/14/conlangery-24-possession/feed/ 9 Abakwi,conlang,language,linguistics,possession 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. - 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 Greet... George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no http://conlangery.com/2011/11/08/we-need-help-again-another-poll-and-some-more/ http://conlangery.com/2011/11/08/we-need-help-again-another-poll-and-some-more/#comments Tue, 08 Nov 2011 16:56:50 +0000 admin http://conlangery.conlang.org/?p=80 http://conlangery.com/2011/11/08/we-need-help-again-another-poll-and-some-more/feed/ 11 http://conlangery.com/2011/11/07/conlangery-23-alien-languages/ http://conlangery.com/2011/11/07/conlangery-23-alien-languages/#comments Mon, 07 Nov 2011 17:00:19 +0000 admin http://conlangery.conlang.org/?p=84 http://conlangery.com/2011/11/07/conlangery-23-alien-languages/feed/ 8 alien,conlang,Ebisédian,language,linguistics 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 - Feedback: - Five-Star Reviews: - 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 Feedback: Five-Star Reviews: Great for both people interested in conlanging and linguistics in general by stingerbrg I'm fairly new at the conlanging hobby, so I don't know much about languages, but this podcast has really helped me. Their discussions of different aspects of language has taught me more than I ever learned in my college linguistics class, and their evaluations of created languages helps to see those aspects put in relation to other aspects. Even if you don't conlang yourself, the segments on the parts of language are informational enough to be quite enjoyable. This is always one of the first podcasts I listen to in a week, and that's not just because they are good at regularly updating on Mondays. Great! by Heylola2 I'm into conlanging, and I find this very enjoyable to listen to, even when I'm not doing anything with conlangs. Some of the things said in each podcast inspire me to add to my conlang. I love it :] Tweet from @AmazonDiaspora: @conlangery Have you guys ever experimented in mixing tense and aspect into one concept? I did and it created a weird PoV verb meaning. George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no http://conlangery.com/2011/10/31/conlangery-22/ http://conlangery.com/2011/10/31/conlangery-22/#comments Mon, 31 Oct 2011 16:00:03 +0000 admin http://conlangery.conlang.org/?p=81 http://conlangery.com/2011/10/31/conlangery-22/feed/ 3 Baranxe'i,conlang,language,linguistics,pronouns George's father has pragmatics issues, but anyway ... pronouns!  (Almost) every language is going to have pronouns of some sort.  We talk all kinds -- closed-class, open-class, free, clitic, and even having pronouns for bizarrely specific people.  Also, George's father has pragmatics issues, but anyway ... pronouns!  (Almost) every language is going to have pronouns of some sort.  We talk all kinds -- closed-class, open-class, free, clitic, and even having pronouns for bizarrely specific people.  Also, we review Baranxe'i Links and Resources: Swahili concord (alternate) Mixtec Xavante (look for the reference to a'ama) WALS on demonstratives Featured Conlang: Baranxe'i Feedback: Okuno Zankoku (Comment on #17: Aspect) Doesn’t Latin separate tense and aspect? I mean, that was the way I thought about it, but it’s not like I actually managed to speak with an L1 speaker of Latin, so take this for what it’s worth. You had to stretch it a little, but once I treated perfect as being a sort-of present tense and pluperfect as a past perfective, tense and aspect look perfectly distinct. I mean, obviously it’s not perfect separation, and it gets far weirder outside of indicative and subjunctive, but is there anything that’s perfect in language? Latin at least comes as close to perfectly separated as anyone would like (any real people anyway…). Oh, wait a minute, what am I thinking? Japanese has an even better separation: Non-Past Perfect: kuru Past Perfect: kita Non-Past Imperfect: kite iru Past Imperfect: kite ita Hmm, although wiki is making me doubt, but this is the way it was taught in my class (plus or minus technical terms), so I’m running with it. George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no http://conlangery.com/2011/10/24/conlangery-21-poetry/ http://conlangery.com/2011/10/24/conlangery-21-poetry/#comments Mon, 24 Oct 2011 16:00:53 +0000 admin http://conlangery.conlang.org/?p=76 http://conlangery.com/2011/10/24/conlangery-21-poetry/feed/ 13 conlang,kelen,language,linguistics,meter,morae,poetry,verse Bianca's out for this episode, so William and I take the opportunity to talk about something she hates so much she wouldn't let us have a show about it: poetry!  Figure out how to choose good poetic devices for your conlang, Bianca's out for this episode, so William and I take the opportunity to talk about something she hates so much she wouldn't let us have a show about it: poetry!  Figure out how to choose good poetic devices for your conlang, and how history can affect the complexity of poetry.  Also we talk about the amazingly verbless Kēlen. Top of Show Greeting: Delang Links and Resources: Alliterative Voice Meter / Quantitative Verse Hausa Poetic Meters Haiku are based on morae Japanese kigo Poetry Examples: Gilgamesh: On the third day they reached the appointed field. There the hunter and the ensnarer rested at their seat. One day, two days, they lurked at the entrance to the well, where the cattle were accustomed to slake their thirst, where the creatures of the waters were sporting. Then [came] Enkidu, whose home was the mountains, who with gazelles ate herbs, and with the cattle slaked his thirst, and with the creatures of the waters rejoiced his heart. Biblical antithesis: A wise son maketh a glad father, but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother. -- Proverbs 10:1 Conlang: Kēlen George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no http://conlangery.com/2011/10/17/conlangery-20-ideophones/ http://conlangery.com/2011/10/17/conlangery-20-ideophones/#comments Mon, 17 Oct 2011 16:00:56 +0000 admin http://conlangery.conlang.org/?p=73 http://conlangery.com/2011/10/17/conlangery-20-ideophones/feed/ 17 conlang,elves,ideophone,language,linguistics,Old Albic We talk about ideophones, a fun, fun class of words that describe a general feeling.  We also review a language that's not quite an elflang, so William doesn't quite hate it. - Top of Show Greeting: Dothraki - Links and Resources The Ideophone - We talk about ideophones, a fun, fun class of words that describe a general feeling.  We also review a language that's not quite an elflang, so William doesn't quite hate it. Top of Show Greeting: Dothraki Links and Resources The Ideophone Ideophone definition Japanese ideophones Daniel Tammet inventing an ideophone Featured Conlang: Old Albic Feedback: Email Hey! I've just started listening to your podcast and since I've started to listen to your podcast I've significantly simplified (lolz paradox/oxymoron) the aspects of the language to just two aspects and all others are implied by lexicon. However, I'm not too sure about the perfect and imperfect aspect on the present tense along with tenses and aspects on imperatives. Could you help me out a bit there? I don't want to mess with my verb grammar until I work that out a bit more...Also, I could appreciate it if you make a podcast on grammatical voices. I try to avoid voices mostly because I view them as pointless. How do I do this? Well, I use a person called the fourth person or zero person. This translates roughly into "one; person; people; someone; etc" and extracts the object of the sentence and makes a never mentioned "common-person". This makes the sentence "The deer was seen by the hunter" literally "The deer seen (by) someone".No. It isn't unnatural. Look at Finnic languages. -.-But anyway, I was wondering if you could help me out with the first part and BOW DOWN TO MY AWESOMENESSwith the fourth/zero person construct.Thank you you time. Go(o)d be (with) ye. Which is now apparently "Goodbye" ~~ From Australia. Gildoff.If you say "g'day" in reply or in a future podcast I will stab you in the face... A simple Hello/Hallo/WHATDAF***DOYOUWANTBITCH?! is socially acceptable now. =P George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no http://conlangery.com/2011/10/13/we-need-some-help/ http://conlangery.com/2011/10/13/we-need-some-help/#comments Thu, 13 Oct 2011 22:14:42 +0000 admin http://conlangery.conlang.org/?p=70 http://conlangery.com/2011/10/13/we-need-some-help/feed/ 6 http://conlangery.com/2011/10/10/conlangery-19-role-marking/ http://conlangery.com/2011/10/10/conlangery-19-role-marking/#comments Mon, 10 Oct 2011 16:00:56 +0000 admin http://conlangery.conlang.org/?p=68 http://conlangery.com/2011/10/10/conlangery-19-role-marking/feed/ 7 case,conlang,language,linguistics,role marking,syntactic roles We puzzle through the very difficult and complex subject of thematic roles and role marking, and then review the awesomely complicated Okuna. - Top of Show Greeting: Standard Telèmor - Links and Resources: Fiat Lingua paper We puzzle through the very difficult and complex subject of thematic roles and role marking, and then review the awesomely complicated Okuna. Top of Show Greeting: Standard Telèmor Links and Resources: Fiat Lingua paper Chemehuevi (predicate marking langauge) Lexical Semantics Featured Conlang: Okuna (formerly known as Tokana) An excerpt from the grammar: Compare also the following examples. In (4.45) and (4.46), the event of writing ends once the letter is nished; hence kihun `letter' is the delimiter, and takes the dative case. Example (4.46) also includes a non-case-marked noun phrase, es luom `an hour', which measures the amount of time from the beginning of the event to the endpoint. In (4.47), the temporal measure phrase itself delimits the event: that is, the event is over once one hour has elapsed, not once the letter is nished. Since the measure phrase identies the endpoint, it appears in the dative case, while kihun, no longer construed as a delimiter, is treated as the theme argument and takes the nominative instead. (4.45) Sakialma kihoin siehpyi Sakial.NOM letter.DAT write.PV `Sakial wrote the letter' (4.46) Sakialma kihoin es luom siehpyi Sakial.ERG letter.DAT one hour write.PV `Sakial wrote the letter in an hour' (4.47) Sakialma kihune es luoim siehpyi Sakial.ERG letter.NOM one hour.DAT write.PV `Sakial worked on the letter for an hour George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no http://conlangery.com/2011/10/03/conlangery-18-mood/ http://conlangery.com/2011/10/03/conlangery-18-mood/#comments Mon, 03 Oct 2011 16:00:48 +0000 admin http://conlangery.conlang.org/?p=65 http://conlangery.com/2011/10/03/conlangery-18-mood/feed/ 6 conlang,language,linguistics,mood,South Eresian We finish out our Holy Trinity of Verbs with Mood -- a slippery, slippery subject if there ever was one.  Of course, after trying to make some sense out of that, we move on to review South Eresian - Top of Show Greeting: tzoi - Rescources: - We finish out our Holy Trinity of Verbs with Mood -- a slippery, slippery subject if there ever was one.  Of course, after trying to make some sense out of that, we move on to review South Eresian Top of Show Greeting: tzoi Rescources: Wikipedia on Mood Conlang: South Eresian (blog) Feedback: Email from James Campbell: You're up early :-)I keep meaning to suggest dialects as a topic for discussion. We English speakers tend not to realise the extraordinary divergence that can be found in dialects, but my exposure to North Norwegian dialects over the last decade or so and (briefly last month) a West Flemish dialect has demonstrated to me that it's not just a case of a little non-standard grammar and some unusual terms for fish and farming equipment, as one might think from the situation in England these days. What gets me is the differences in pronouns. Allow me to illustrate:Where standard written Norwegian (bokmål) has "jeg"/"meg" for "I"/"me", Northern Norwegian has "æ"/"mæ". For "you" (plural), instead of "dere" Northern Norwegian has "dokker". Which I like a lot. My friends from near Ostend in Belgium informed me that their local dialect of Flemish also has some interesting pronoun forms. For "I"/"me", where standard Dutch has "ik"/"me/mij" they have "ekke"/"min". The plural pronouns are fantastic: Std Dutch  dialect nom/acc nom/acc we wij/ons    widder/us you   jullie/jullie   gidder/junder they  zij/hen    zidder/under This just blows my mind. It goes to show that there is more to language evolution than regular sound changes :-) Makes me wonder whether small populations are less conservative and more radical in their language changes than large populations are. I need to do more work on Jameld dialects now… Keep up the good work on the podcast – always enjoyable. James Dreakly (Comment on "Topic Suggestion Form and Voicemail") mood as people? George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no http://conlangery.com/2011/09/26/conlangery-17-aspect/ http://conlangery.com/2011/09/26/conlangery-17-aspect/#comments Mon, 26 Sep 2011 16:00:18 +0000 admin http://conlangery.conlang.org/?p=63 http://conlangery.com/2011/09/26/conlangery-17-aspect/feed/ 1 aspect,conlang,language,linguistics,Siwa The second in our TAM series, we spend a good deal of time on the basic perfective/imperfective distinction as well as talk a little about how you can go totally crazy with many, many more aspects.  Then we review the incredible Siwa. - The second in our TAM series, we spend a good deal of time on the basic perfective/imperfective distinction as well as talk a little about how you can go totally crazy with many, many more aspects.  Then we review the incredible Siwa. Top of show greeting: Salthan Featured Conlang: Siwa (CBB Thread) Feedback: (First of all, here's a link to the Inyauk Grammar for you.) Owen (email) HelloI just discovered your podcast last weekend on iTunes and I've been listening to all the episodes this week. I really love what you're doing! I've been interested in conlanging (and conworlding) for almost 30 years, mostly in a vacuum, so it has been wonderful to hear you talking about a topic close to my own heart.I was fascinated to hear that (like me), you tend to use Google Docs or Excel-style spreadsheets for laying out your lexicons and grammars. That's pretty much the way I've been working on mine. The mention of LaTeX was quite interesting as it was something I had always known about but never looked into because it always seemed too complicated for my need. I have just tried LyX on Windows, a "wysiwyg" style editor that outputs to PDF using TeX -- and I have to say, it's very good and quite easy to produce a basic well laid out document, so thanks for that heads up!Do you have examples of your own personal conlangs in the public space? I hear you talking lots about "Nyauk" and "Yeltagh" (I don't know the spellings, I'm just going on your pronunciations) but  I have not found any info on them by searching. I would be curious to see some of the techniques you talk about in action.I am not a linguist by any means and I tend to relate all my conglanging knowledge via English/French/German/Dutch and Esperanto as these are the languages I know. I would love some tips from you about how I can avoid making my attempts at conlangs all sound like German/Spanish/Latin :)Thanks for the great podcast. Keep up the work and I hope to hear plenty more from you as time goes on. Regards Owen Maine USA. Roman Rausch (Comment on #13) Russian has retained both Indo-European roots for ‘fart’: bzdet’ < *pezd- (silently), perdet' < *perd- (loudly), and the former is often used in the sense 'to be scared'. George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no http://conlangery.com/2011/09/19/conlangery-16-tense/ http://conlangery.com/2011/09/19/conlangery-16-tense/#comments Mon, 19 Sep 2011 09:00:19 +0000 admin http://conlangery.conlang.org/?p=60 http://conlangery.com/2011/09/19/conlangery-16-tense/feed/ 10 conlang,Klingon,language,linguistics,tense The first of our episodes of the holy verbal trinity of TAM.  We initially planned to do Tense and Aspect as one episode, but the more we talked about tense the more complicated it became, so the aspect discussion is pushed to next week. The first of our episodes of the holy verbal trinity of TAM.  We initially planned to do Tense and Aspect as one episode, but the more we talked about tense the more complicated it became, so the aspect discussion is pushed to next week.  We also have a wonderful time talking about the insanity that is Klingon. Opening Phrase: Sandic Featured Conlang: Klingon (KLI, The Klingon Dictionary) George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no http://conlangery.com/2011/09/12/conlangery-15-getting-out-of-creative-ruts/ http://conlangery.com/2011/09/12/conlangery-15-getting-out-of-creative-ruts/#comments Mon, 12 Sep 2011 12:00:59 +0000 admin http://conlangery.conlang.org/?p=57 http://conlangery.com/2011/09/12/conlangery-15-getting-out-of-creative-ruts/feed/ 8 Akana,conlang,language,linguistics,process,rut,Tmaśareʔ We throw out some tips for how to kick certain creative habits you might have developed as you create languages.  Then we review the Akana language Tmaśareʔ. - Top of Show greeting: Myonian - Links and Resources Spokan Hupa - We throw out some tips for how to kick certain creative habits you might have developed as you create languages.  Then we review the Akana language Tmaśareʔ. Top of Show greeting: Myonian Links and Resources Spokan Hupa Featured Conlang: Tmaśareʔ Feedback: Okuno Zankoku (email) Since you always want to know, I've just started a sketch of an analytic language, and have been trying to think of how I might create an aspect that's realized lexically rather than morphosyntactically. You're podcast on politeness and formality was pretty much exactly what I needed, now I just have to figure out the exact levels and derivations.Keep these coming, they're very enlightening, even to someone already relatively experienced in the subjects you discuss. George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no http://conlangery.com/2011/09/05/conlangery-14-verb-framing-and-postural-verbs/ http://conlangery.com/2011/09/05/conlangery-14-verb-framing-and-postural-verbs/#comments Mon, 05 Sep 2011 16:00:19 +0000 admin http://conlangery.conlang.org/?p=54 http://conlangery.com/2011/09/05/conlangery-14-verb-framing-and-postural-verbs/feed/ 10 conlang,language,linguistics,positional,postural verbs,verb framing We give you some info on verb framing -- that is the typology of how languages describe motion, as well as some discussion of postural verbs, aka positionals, and all the wondrous variety you can create with them.  Also, we review [k]enyani. - We give you some info on verb framing -- that is the typology of how languages describe motion, as well as some discussion of postural verbs, aka positionals, and all the wondrous variety you can create with them.  Also, we review [k]enyani. Greeting: Gomain by Zach Hart Links and Resources: A run-down of all the posibilites for postural verbs Tzotzil: the case of "insert" Postural gramaticalization for aspect Featured Conlang: Cenyani Feedback: Pyrmysl (Comment on #11) I noticed you seemed to be talking about Ayeri as if it has only one script. There is the normal script, tahano nuhicamu, and then there is the ornamental script, tahano nuvenon. While I am a fan of the first, the second is quite beautiful if somewhat labor intensive. I too had found the scripts before the conlang.   George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no http://conlangery.com/2011/08/29/conlangery-13-profanity-insults-and-taboo-words-nsfw/ http://conlangery.com/2011/08/29/conlangery-13-profanity-insults-and-taboo-words-nsfw/#comments Mon, 29 Aug 2011 16:00:58 +0000 admin http://conlangery.conlang.org/?p=51 http://conlangery.com/2011/08/29/conlangery-13-profanity-insults-and-taboo-words-nsfw/feed/ 11 conlang,insult,language,linguistics,profanity,taboo word Alternate Titles: AND ... tits, Bugger is for Sodomy, Dog Japan’d, When “Damn it” Just Won’t Cut it, What Did My 16th Great-Grandfather Do to You? Today we talk all about taboo words.  Make sure you have your headphones in or are by yourself when you ... Alternate Titles: AND ... tits, Bugger is for Sodomy, Dog Japan’d, When “Damn it” Just Won’t Cut it, What Did My 16th Great-Grandfather Do to You? Today we talk all about taboo words.  Make sure you have your headphones in or are by yourself when you listen, because we are going through the gamut of profane and vile words in various languages for ideas, and we simply can't dance around the nasty ones.  Also, we review Lé by Mark Rosenfelder.  Plus, stick around after the end music for a hilariously NSFW mashup. Links and Resources: Steven Pinker on Profanity 1 2 Featured Conlang: Lé Feedback Kenneth Nyman (Comment on #09) The changing use of “du” and “ni” in 20th century Swedish may be an interesting example of how rules of courtesy and formality may change. (1) In earlier Swedish, one should use a title when addressing someone of higher social rank than oneself. Intimates could address each other with “du” (the regular 2nd person singular pronoun). A person of higher social rank could address someone of lower rank (for example, an employer talking to an employee) using “ni” (the 2nd person plural pronoun) (2) In the early 20th century, there was attempts to change the formality system into French/German-style T/V-distinction, using “ni” as an all-purpose formal pronoun, while “du” would continue being the familiar pronoun. The attempts were only partly successful; many people (especially in more conservative small towns or rural areas) still considered “ni” as quite unfriendly, mainly used when addressing someone of a lower rank. (3) In the latter half of the 20th century, in accordance with general social changes in a more egalitarian and familiar direction, “du” became a generally used pronoun, used on most social context (“du-reformen”, “the du-reform”). (4) At the dusk of the 20th century, it became increasingly common for young people in various service occupations to address customers with “ni”, probably under influence from the French/German T/V-distinction. While it was done as an act of courtesy, the ironic result could be that old people, who had grown up with the earlier system, perceived it as rude and felt insulted. George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no http://conlangery.com/2011/08/22/conlangery-12-personal-names/ http://conlangery.com/2011/08/22/conlangery-12-personal-names/#comments Mon, 22 Aug 2011 16:00:02 +0000 admin http://conlangery.conlang.org/?p=49 http://conlangery.com/2011/08/22/conlangery-12-personal-names/feed/ 12 conlang,language,linguistics,name,surname We have no Will today, but we do have Adam Skoog from Sweden.  After a good discussion about personal names where I continually refer to Chinese naming conventions, we talk with Adam about his wonderful language Kozea and the kooky videos he has create... We have no Will today, but we do have Adam Skoog from Sweden.  After a good discussion about personal names where I continually refer to Chinese naming conventions, we talk with Adam about his wonderful language Kozea and the kooky videos he has created with it. Classical Tailancan by Dewrad Links and Resources Chinese style name Icelandic names Featured Conlang: Kozea Kozea Daily Videos: 1 2 3 4 Feedback: Ling (email) The links are in Chinese, but they offer some scripts (number listed) not covered by English Wikipedia: Taoist Scripts http://www.taoismdata.org/product_info.php?products_id=1875 Chinese Scripts http://yeats1103.pixnet.net/blog/post/22314508 http://big5.huaxia.com/zhwh/wmty/2009/02/1303845.html Chinese Wikipedia: http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:%E4%B8%8A%E5%8F%A4%E6%96%87%E5%AD%97 George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no http://conlangery.com/2011/08/15/conlangery-11-nonconfigurationality/ http://conlangery.com/2011/08/15/conlangery-11-nonconfigurationality/#comments Mon, 15 Aug 2011 16:00:18 +0000 admin http://conlangery.conlang.org/?p=45 http://conlangery.com/2011/08/15/conlangery-11-nonconfigurationality/feed/ 2 Ayeri,conlang,language,linguistics,nonconfigurationality Today we talk about nonconfigurationality, that is what languages do with word order when it's not needed to show semantic roles.  William regales us with tales of Navajo animacy-based word order, Nahuatl shifting its numerals around, Today we talk about nonconfigurationality, that is what languages do with word order when it's not needed to show semantic roles.  William regales us with tales of Navajo animacy-based word order, Nahuatl shifting its numerals around, and Ancient Greek's confounding tendency to separate adjectives from their noun phrases.  Also, we talk about Ayeri, a wonderfully well-developed conlang by Carsten Becker Top of Show Greeting: South Eresian Featured Conlang: Ayeri Site Grammar Revised kinship system Feedback: Email from Dirk Elzinga about ep #8: Hi guys.I just finished listening to the podcast, and I wanted to thank you for the kind words about Tepa. It's the most feedback I've received on the language (or any of my projects, for that matter), and it was interesting to hear your take on some of its features. Just one correction: the name of the language is pronounced [tɨβa], with [ɨ] and not [e].I did borrow the person hierarchy and the notions of direct and inverse from Algonkian, as you rightly supposed. The number marking reduplications of various kinds were indirectly inspired by Austronesian languages, though I didn't borrow directly from any of them. The noun morphology is more like Salish than anything else, particularly the Salishan "lexical suffixes" (you noted the suffix -ppi for 'buzzing animal/insect'; this is sort of like Salishan lexical suffixes). In fact, the only real Uto-Aztecan influences were in the phonology, which looks to Shoshoni rather than Hopi (though it too has limited consonant lenition, as William (?) noted). The practical orthography for Shoshoni that has been adopted by the Western Shoshonis in Duck Valley and by the Goshutes in Ibapah is also "radically phonemic" (to borrow your term). It doesn't take too long to learn how to use and was the model for setting up my romanization of Tepa (including representing [ɨ] with <e>). Even so, I might have done things differently now had I to do it again. It wasn't meant to be confusing--only efficient. The whole project is now dormant. It has been superceded by Miapimoquitch, which uses the same lexis, but has altered the phonology slightly, and drastically altered the morphosyntax. I still have the person hierarchy and direct/inverse marking, and paucal/distributive/collective number marking, but it works differently now. I have abandoned the traditional division between Noun and Verb and have only one part of speech, Predicate. This was a move suggested by the grammatical notion of "phase" that cross-cut the noun/verb distinction in Tepa. Now there is no distinction, and all content words are inflected alike. I have yet to put any descriptions of Miapimoquitch online; I'm trying to write it in the style of the American Structuralists of the 1930s, and it's slow going. In the future, may I suggest that you contact the creator of the featured language before-hand to fill in some of the gaps surrounding the creation of the language. I would have been happy to answer questions about when/why/how I created Tepa that aren't really given in the online materials if only to save you from trying to speculate on air (though it was fun to listen to you squirm :-). Thanks again, and keep up the good work! Dirk --------------------- ZBB thread about skin systems George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no http://conlangery.com/2011/08/10/3000-listens/ http://conlangery.com/2011/08/10/3000-listens/#comments Wed, 10 Aug 2011 17:38:05 +0000 admin http://conlangery.conlang.org/?p=44 http://conlangery.com/2011/08/10/3000-listens/feed/ 0 http://conlangery.com/2011/08/08/conlangery-10-organization-computers-and-conlanging/ http://conlangery.com/2011/08/08/conlangery-10-organization-computers-and-conlanging/#comments Mon, 08 Aug 2011 16:00:16 +0000 admin http://conlangery.conlang.org/?p=41 http://conlangery.com/2011/08/08/conlangery-10-organization-computers-and-conlanging/feed/ 7 conlang,grammar,language,organization,software We talk about how to organize your conlang, from organizing your notes to writing the grammar and lexicon, and what software is out there to help you.  Also, some stupid example sentences, and a little old language called Alurhsa. - We talk about how to organize your conlang, from organizing your notes to writing the grammar and lexicon, and what software is out there to help you.  Also, some stupid example sentences, and a little old language called Alurhsa. Pre-show intro: Ancaron language by ZBB's Lyhoko Leaci. Resources and Links: LaTeX The Field Linguist's Toolbox The Akana Wiki Featured Conlang: Alurhsa Alurhsa blog LCS Podcast interview with Anthony Harris       George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no http://conlangery.com/2011/08/01/conlangery-09-formality-and-register/ http://conlangery.com/2011/08/01/conlangery-09-formality-and-register/#comments Mon, 01 Aug 2011 16:00:12 +0000 admin http://conlangery.conlang.org/?p=36 http://conlangery.com/2011/08/01/conlangery-09-formality-and-register/feed/ 9 conlang,formality,language,linguistics,politeness,register,Teonaht Listen to David Peterson talk to Tom Merritt and Veronica Belmont on Sword and Laser #68: Ad-libbing in Dothraki - We're all about formality today, from the intricate politeness system of Korean to some crazy Nahuatl stuff to the subtle syntax of the ... Listen to David Peterson talk to Tom Merritt and Veronica Belmont on Sword and Laser #68: Ad-libbing in Dothraki We're all about formality today, from the intricate politeness system of Korean to some crazy Nahuatl stuff to the subtle syntax of the English polite request.  We talk on just what kind of things languages do to produce formal, polite, or literary language.  Then we have a little discussion of Teonaht, which is quite a good conlang, though the site design drives us a little crazy. Resource: That crazy Tibetan parallel vocabulary Featured Conlang: Teonaht Feedback Kraamlep (comment on #04) Thanks for the review of Jameld. As you will have gathered, I’m an amateur with no formal linguistics training, hence the layout of the grammar – although, as you correctly surmised, it’s more written from the point of view of a casual learner rather than a linguistics expert. It also has its tongue in his cheek occasionally, hence “I shall” I’m currently hard at work on a much-revised new edition of the dictionary, after which the next job is rewriting the grammar. I will definitely be taking your comments into account! I’m particularly glad that you both agreed that Jameld has its own character and feel. Desmond (comment on #05) As the inventor of the conlang “Rangyayo”, I feel very honoured that my language has been discussed in this week conlangery podcast. I simply can’t wait to listen to it! First thing to do when I get back home this evening   George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no http://conlangery.com/2011/07/25/conlangery-08-kinship-terms/ http://conlangery.com/2011/07/25/conlangery-08-kinship-terms/#comments Mon, 25 Jul 2011 16:00:50 +0000 admin http://conlangery.conlang.org/?p=32 http://conlangery.com/2011/07/25/conlangery-08-kinship-terms/feed/ 0 conlang,kinship,language,linguistics,Tepa We talk about kinship terminology: what kinds of kinship schemes exist in reality, how they are related to family structure and marriage customs, and where you can find resources to give you ideas about these concepts. We talk about kinship terminology: what kinds of kinship schemes exist in reality, how they are related to family structure and marriage customs, and where you can find resources to give you ideas about these concepts.  We also talk a little about Tepa (which I mispronounce a couple of times in the episode, it should be [teva]), a conlang from someone who studies American languages and decided to make one. Resources: Kinship system diagrams Australian "skin" systems Featured Conlang: Tepa Feedback: Peter (Comment on Episode 4) Suggestions for word generation: singing. I’ve found that different melodies lead to different results; classical music works best for me. You do need to have a good grasp of your language’s phonology, and it takes practice to not to end up relexing your native language’s phonology, but it’s a little more intimate and personal than running a random word generator. +1 on linguistics classes and Wikipedia. Definitely agree that you should use IPA; in this day and age, with good support for IPA in fonts, I have to go with Bianca and say skip X-SAMPA. Describing Morphosyntax by Thomas Payne has a scary title, but is a goldmine for the conlanger. It is full of good ideas for unusual features not commonly found in your standard Indo-European languages. Numerous examples from many different languages are included and many topics are explored in depth without the sometimes overwhelming attention to detail that can lose the amateur linguist. Additionally, it has a very comprehensive list of questions that make you really think about how a language works.           George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no http://conlangery.com/2011/07/18/conlangery-07-word-creation/ http://conlangery.com/2011/07/18/conlangery-07-word-creation/#comments Mon, 18 Jul 2011 16:00:53 +0000 admin http://conlangery.conlang.org/?p=30 http://conlangery.com/2011/07/18/conlangery-07-word-creation/feed/ 5 conlang,language,lexicon,linguistics,Toki Pona George says: check out the LCS Podcast interview of Sheri Wells-Jensen.  Meanwhile, on this side of the conlanging podosphere (literally, the other side, there are only two podcasts), we talk a little about how you can fill out that lexicon with words. George says: check out the LCS Podcast interview of Sheri Wells-Jensen.  Meanwhile, on this side of the conlanging podosphere (literally, the other side, there are only two podcasts), we talk a little about how you can fill out that lexicon with words.  And after that we talk about a language whose creator apparantly decided not to bother too much with words. Resources: Awkwords Patterns of nominalization in Bella Coola and Lushootseed (talking about the link between grammar and derivation) Kashaya (instrumental prefixes) Hupa Dictionary West Greenlandic Featured Conlang: Toki Pona               George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no http://conlangery.com/2011/07/11/conlangery-06-linguistic-typology/ http://conlangery.com/2011/07/11/conlangery-06-linguistic-typology/#comments Mon, 11 Jul 2011 16:00:41 +0000 admin http://conlangery.conlang.org/?p=27 http://conlangery.com/2011/07/11/conlangery-06-linguistic-typology/feed/ 7 conlang,Láadan,language,linguistics,typology,universals We talk at length about linguistic typology and all the weird and wonderful tendencies that human languages seem to have.  We also talk a little on Láadan, the language for women that our own token woman isn't too fond of (philosophy-wise, anyway). - We talk at length about linguistic typology and all the weird and wonderful tendencies that human languages seem to have.  We also talk a little on Láadan, the language for women that our own token woman isn't too fond of (philosophy-wise, anyway). Resources: The Universals Archive The World Atlas of Language Structure Online (WALS) Featured Conlang: Láadan Feedback: Peter (Comment on Episode #03) First, could you post the link to Bianca’s conscript rant page? Second, a very interesting discussion on “judging” conlangs. Of course, this is an old discussion, and not one that is going to go away any time soon, but I would suggest that there’s an additional element that’s not often taken into account: effort. For example, most people, if they go into a museum of modern art, will say, “I could throw something like that in 10 minutes from the junk in my garage!” Yes, there’s the message that the artist may be wanting to convey, but it’s a (universal, I believe) human trait to devalue that which is mass-produced, quickly made, with (apparently) little thought or effort put into its execution., especially if it has little to no utilitarian value. So in the case of modern art (especially the worst excesses), any message will be lost to the knee-jerk reaction, “This is junk, and someone actually paid good money for this?” Now, very few conlangers are getting paid to create conlangs, and the Secret Vice is most likely to remain firmly within the realms of amateurs (in the best, original sense of the word) for a long time to come. However, I think that we can attach a fundamental value to effort when it comes to conlanging. It’s not about whether a conlang is “good” or “bad”, but the value we attach to it. I think it’s safe to say that generally speaking, a conlang “sketch” will be found to be of lesser value than something that has been a labor of love for years, decades even. We naturally find higher value in a conlang that has more detail and shows signs that a lot of time and mental energy has been invested in it; we might not like it for aesthetic reasons, but we can still admire it and find value in it, because the conlanger invested value into it. All a sketch can offer is a passing, “Oh, that’s clever.” That’s not to say that a sketch has no value, just lesser. The value of a sketch is precisely in it’s ability to make us pause and say, “That’s interesting, I’d like to see that idea fleshed out some more and put into practice.” But what we’re really doing is valuing the idea. A mature conlang (or maturing–are they ever finished?), on the other hand, will be valued for what it is, in and of itself.   George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no http://conlangery.com/2011/07/04/conlangery-05-scripts-and-writing/ http://conlangery.com/2011/07/04/conlangery-05-scripts-and-writing/#comments Mon, 04 Jul 2011 16:00:14 +0000 admin http://conlangery.conlang.org/?p=24 http://conlangery.com/2011/07/04/conlangery-05-scripts-and-writing/feed/ 7 conlang,language,linguistics,Rangyayo,script,writing We're back to talk about scripts: what kind of script to use, how con-history fits into it, tips for developing a realistic script, etc.  Then we talk about a language that, while not having a unique writing system per se, We're back to talk about scripts: what kind of script to use, how con-history fits into it, tips for developing a realistic script, etc.  Then we talk about a language that, while not having a unique writing system per se, has incorporated existing systems in an interesting way. Featured Conlang: Rangyayo (see here, here and here) George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no http://conlangery.com/2011/06/27/conlangery04-getting-started/ http://conlangery.com/2011/06/27/conlangery04-getting-started/#comments Mon, 27 Jun 2011 05:34:28 +0000 admin http://conlangery.conlang.org/?p=23 http://conlangery.com/2011/06/27/conlangery04-getting-started/feed/ 12 conlang,Jameld,language,LCK,linguistics It's just George and Bianca this week, as Will ended up dealing with the spontaneous combustion of a server.  We do our best to stumble through some some recommendations for new conlangers and later take a look at an interesting little Germanic conlang. It's just George and Bianca this week, as Will ended up dealing with the spontaneous combustion of a server.  We do our best to stumble through some some recommendations for new conlangers and later take a look at an interesting little Germanic conlang. Links The Language Construction Kit The Zompist Bulletin Board The Conlanger Bulletin Board Featured Conlang: Jameld George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no http://conlangery.com/2011/06/20/topic-suggestion-form-and-voicemail/ http://conlangery.com/2011/06/20/topic-suggestion-form-and-voicemail/#comments Mon, 20 Jun 2011 17:59:31 +0000 admin http://conlangery.conlang.org/?p=19 http://conlangery.com/2011/06/20/topic-suggestion-form-and-voicemail/feed/ 7 http://conlangery.com/2011/06/20/conlangery-03-the-good-and-the-bad/ http://conlangery.com/2011/06/20/conlangery-03-the-good-and-the-bad/#comments Mon, 20 Jun 2011 16:00:28 +0000 admin http://conlangery.conlang.org/?p=17 http://conlangery.com/2011/06/20/conlangery-03-the-good-and-the-bad/feed/ 3 conlang,good and bad,ithkuil,language,linguistics,philosophical language George finally gets Bianca's last name right (it's [mæŋgəm]) and we talk a little about people mispronouncing our names.  Then we get into what makes a language good or bad, and don't come to much of a good conclusion other than the old "eye of the beh... George finally gets Bianca's last name right (it's [mæŋgəm]) and we talk a little about people mispronouncing our names.  Then we get into what makes a language good or bad, and don't come to much of a good conclusion other than the old "eye of the beholder."  Then after Bianca leaves Will and George are left to sputter about the enigmatic Ithkuil -- Well, George sputters, and Will is a little more lucid. Ithkuil George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no http://conlangery.com/2011/06/14/conlangery-02/ http://conlangery.com/2011/06/14/conlangery-02/#comments Wed, 15 Jun 2011 02:15:56 +0000 admin http://conlangery.conlang.org/?p=11 http://conlangery.com/2011/06/14/conlangery-02/feed/ 2 conlang,language,linguistics,na'vi We have William Annis of www.learnnavi.org on to talk about promoting conlangs, and also talk a little bit about Na'vi. - Learn Na'vi We have William Annis of www.learnnavi.org on to talk about promoting conlangs, and also talk a little bit about Na'vi. Learn Na'vi George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no http://conlangery.com/2011/05/31/conlangery-01-why-conlang/ http://conlangery.com/2011/05/31/conlangery-01-why-conlang/#comments Tue, 31 May 2011 08:20:42 +0000 admin http://conlangery.conlang.org/?p=8 http://conlangery.com/2011/05/31/conlangery-01-why-conlang/feed/ 8 conlang,feayran,language,linguistics,measure word Tomás insults George's Spanish, then we get into a discussion about why we conlang and just how personal the hobby is.  Then, we talk a little about measure words and genders, and about our Conlang of the Week: Feayran -- The language of a race of shap... Tomás insults George's Spanish, then we get into a discussion about why we conlang and just how personal the hobby is.  Then, we talk a little about measure words and genders, and about our Conlang of the Week: Feayran -- The language of a race of shapeshifters created by David Edwards. Links: Wikipedia on measure words Feayran George Corley, William Annis, Mike Lentine no