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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

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Email from Dirk Elzinga about ep #8: Read more »

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We just passed 3,000 total listens.  Thanks to everyone who is downloading the podcast or listening on the site.  We may not be one of the big boys in podcasting, but we have a strong, engaged audience.  I’m grateful for that.

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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:

Featured Conlang: Alurhsa

 

 

 

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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

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Kraamlep (comment on #04) Read more »

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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:

Featured Conlang: Tepa

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Peter (Comment on Episode 4) Read more »

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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:

Featured Conlang: Toki Pona

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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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:

Featured Conlang: Láadan

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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)

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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

Featured Conlang: Jameld

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I have created a form for people to make suggestions about main topics as well as featured conlangs for the show.  Just click on the “suggestions” tab above.  Make sure you leave a good description of topics and include links for any featured conlangs, so that we know what you are talking about.

Also, I have set up a Google Voice for people to call in with voicemails.  The number is (304) 873-6281 and is a local call in West Union, WV (USA).  Please keep voicemails to one minute or less.  You can send in a recording of yourself to our email: conlangery@gmail.com