Conlangery SHORTS 25 medallion

Conlangery SHORTS #25: Listen Like a Conlanger – Specialized Terms

Posted by & filed under Podcast.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

George talks about how to listen to the language all around you like a conlanger, especially when you encounter weird specialized terms or senses of words.

Wiktionary entry on “wrong” (includes the sewing sense)

One Response to “Conlangery SHORTS #25: Listen Like a Conlanger – Specialized Terms”

  1. Christian Munk

    In Danish, the words for right and wrong sides of fabric are quite well known. They are called “ret” and “vrang”, which are obviously cognate with the English words. But using these words for the general meanings of ‘right’ as in ‘correct’ and ‘wrong’ as in ‘bad’ would be seen as very archaic. (For that we use “rigtig” and “forkert”. “Ret” has taken on the meaning of ‘rightfully’ or ‘pertaining to law’, and “vrang” is used in some compound words such as “vrangforestilling”, ‘delusion’ or literally ‘wrong conception or imagination’.)

    The reason that most Danish speakers are aware of this fact, is that the expression for ‘inside out’ is “på vrangen”, literally “on the wrong” or “on its wrong”. This metaphor has clearly been taken from technical clothing terminology and applied more generally.

    It might also interest you to know that the Latin terminology for the sides of parchment is “recto”, ‘right’ and “verso”, ‘turned’.

Comments are closed.