Conlangery Podcast

We’ll be back mid-to-late June.

George shares an idea he is pursuing in the historical development of Pahran. LCC5

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...

George uses an example from Tagalog to highlight one of the decisions conlangers might need to make if they use infixing.

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. Ancient Greek dialect map. From Wikipedia. Top of Show Greeting: Pali (natlang) Special Mention: Linguistics MOOC Links and Resources: Tables and tables of morphological forms Some downloadable books Grammar handout Gree...

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 Th...

Conlangery is going to become a fortnightly podcast.

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 la...

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 moo...

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 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 Birmingha...

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)

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 Nav...

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 An image of a Rikchik signing.

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 ) Tono...

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 present...

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

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

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...

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, a...

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...

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 e...

George shares his favorite chengyu (成语): 班门弄斧 Top of Show Greeting: Omlűt

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...

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 K...