LangTime Chat

In this episode we continue work on our beaver names to try to get things done on Sovála in time for Kopikon then announce a new fun thing at the end!

In this episode, we chat about the Suh Ankripton language, which we created for James Gunn’s Superman movie. The presentation we use throughout the episode is attached. We apologize for the belated appearance of this episode and hope you enjoy learning more about the Kryptonian language we created for the film! ltc66 Download

In this episode, we chat with Jonathan about the practice of conlanging in general, including how taking different approaches can be helpful! They talk about their experiences working with different processes (evolving a language, creating a language as is, creating languages that stretch the boundaries of how we might currently think about languages…). It was a great conversation with Jonat...

Miles joins us for this riot of an episode, where we talk about the Western and Eastern dialects of Chielúú. As a forewarning, be ready for an earful of belly laughs near the end of the episode. The document Miles prepared with talking points about the dialects is attached to this post so you can follow along! Lexical and Grammatical Differences in the Chielúú Dialects Download

Nemo joins us for this episode to chat about aspect in Isfasori (the PDF discussed in the episode is attached to this post). Nemo did some really cool things in the system, so check out this episode to hear about a singing squirrel and jumping rabbit! Isfasori TAM – Nemo Download

In this episode, Tabby joins us to talk about one of her orthographies and ideas for developing the shapes of the glyphs in different ways to reflect the materials available to the speakers. Tabby wrote a summary of the orthography as it is now and its historical development from older glyphs, which is attached here. (Don’t miss this document—the system is really cool!) We really enjoyed spe...

Jake Penny is our guest extraordinaire in this episode, where we talk about the comparative construction in Jake’s language Pánkáshku. Jake provides a quick introduction to the basic grammar of the language before they dive into the features of the comparative. A PDF of the relevant section of the language document is attached to this post. Enjoy! Comparison in Pánkáshku Download

I struggled with what to title this episode… but that’s what it is. We start with David putting out a call for volunteers to be a part of our new conlang review series, which will have varying formats, depending on what you (as a volunteer) would like to get out of the experience. Then we continue the episode with a very informal chat about our recent experiences on a work project (all...

This podcast episode was special because it was a surprise livestream for the Patrons who joined us for the end-of-month Patron stream! We reveal the results of the first ever LTS Mini Relay, which ran during the month of December, and the episode features two very special guests: Jake and Miles from Let’s Have a Bouba! Attached you’ll find the slides and the documents of the relay so...

In this episode, I give David a sample miniature relay text written in Vuochanad, and he works his way through translating the text, narrating his thought process as he works. Once he has a working English translation, he then translates the tiny text into High Valyrian, again narrating his thought process. At the end, we discuss areas where the translation had already shifted from my original int...

We unveil the results of the a posteriori challenge introduced in episode 56. Patrons helped us create a whole family of Wokuthízhű languages for communities of kangaroo rats, and the results are absolutely delightful! I have attached the slides for this presentation (really, a must for seeing all the amazing data set comparisons), and I’ve also attached the documents so you can all see the...

In this episode, we introduce the next LangTime conlang challenge: you get a chance to create an a posteriori conlang sketch built on Wokuthízhű! Tune in to find out the details, including information about the speakers of this new language. Attached here are the slideshow for the episode and guidelines for the challenge (both in Pages and PDF formats). LangTime Chat – Ep56 Guidelines Downlo...

In this episode, David and I discuss some of the a posteriori conlangs we have worked on. It is a brief intermission between two conlang challenges in our five-part mini-series on conlanging from existing material!

It’s the long-awaited episode, where we discuss results from the (in)famous FrameLang Challenge! This is a continuation of Episode 53, which introduces the challenge. All participants worked with the same data set: a sampling of English names, phrases, and clauses, which had to be treated as a base for a new conlang. It’s the same kind of process David and I use when we have to work wi...

This episode begins a five-part miniseries exploring ways to conlang using pre-existing material. In this episode, we discuss some of the processes we use when we need to incorporate material from books (material that was created without the structure of a language) in a conlang. I set out a challenge for the month, which requires taking words and phrases in English and treating them as unknown en...

I submitted the manuscript of the textbook I’ve been writing for four years now, so David chose the book as the topic for this podcast. We talk about the overall structure of the book, my goals in writing it, and some features in its current state.

In this episode, we chat about designing glyphs. David designs two glyphs based on an image of a chicken that I drew as a starting point. One glyph is in the style of High Valyrian, while the second is a style inspired by Sarkezhe. I’ve attached the images of the chickens that I drew for inspiration for David to base his work on. We did our best to narrate a very visual task… We hope y...

This is a special episode of LangTime Chat based on a career-focused presentation I gave at Georgetown University in September 2023 (right before Kopikon). David has been encouraging me ever since to record it as a podcast episode, and I’ve finally listened and done it. It’s a bit shorter than a typical episode, but I hope you enjoy it, nonetheless. I’ve attached the PDF of the p...

We were finally able to see Dune 2 in the theater this past weekend, which means we finally saw and heard our work on the Chakobsa language in the film! And in this episode, we chat about the experience of seeing the movie and working on the film. At the beginning of the episode, David claims there will be spoilers, but there aren’t. While we talk about the language, we don’t give away...

In this episode, we chat about tense and aspect in this episode, and you get to witness the unveiling of a new LangTime animation! On a podcast! (What better way of podcasting is there but to use visuals?) All joking aside, we use an animation to present a small set of events and discuss ways a tense-prioritized system might handle the verbs versus the ways an aspect-prioritized system might handl...

In this episode, we talk about linguistic theory and its place in conlanging. As a spoiler alert, we specifically talk about how theoretical approaches are not so helpful to the art of language invention. I’ve attached the PDF of slides we use throughout the episode, some of which have visual examples of theoretical approaches to show how language is analyzed in that particular approach. Lan...

In this episode, we chat about tackling academic linguistics articles, providing strategies for approaching articles and figuring out if they will be helpful to you or not. This episode is especially dedicated to anyone who has tried picking up linguistics articles but then feels overwhelmed because, well, academic articles are generally kind of notoriously cumbersome to get through. Our goal movi...

This is a Jessie-only kind of episode. In it, I walk through my thought processes as I attempt to get ready to translate a passage into Zhwadi. It focuses on how I’m thinking through decisions rather than on the actual creation of roots/words/items. The goal is to demonstrate just how much translation can help when you’re at a stage with your language where you’re ready to expand...

We give a recap of our glorious day of conlang fun, otherwise known as Kopikon. In this episode, we give a rundown of the speakers and their talks from the day, which we hope will be especially useful for anyone who couldn’t attend and wants to know more about what went on that day. We give some behind-the-scenes info throughout, and we let you know why you should go watch each and every tal...

David and I discuss common expressions in languages, including greetings and thanks. We hope it inspires you to think about some of these kinds of expressions in your own languages! (The slides used during the episode are attached here, though they really just provide the words we talk about. You can, however, see just how weird “Thank you” looks in the Noto Serif font!) LangTime Chat...