LangTime Chat

In this episode, we wrap up our discussion of some best practices and other advice for Romanizing a conlang. While chatting, we used a Pages document to take some random notes, and a PDF of that document is attached here. (When I say random, though, I mean it. The notes won’t make sense without listening to the episode.) LangTime Chat Ep42 Download

In this episode, we begin a discussion on Romanization, talking about goals for Romanization and differences between an orthography, phonetic transcription, and Romanization. The PDF of the slides we used in the beginning of the episode is attached here. We didn’t quite make it to the “best practices” portion, so we are extending this discussion into a two-part series that will c...

In this episode, we talk about the kinds of information that make a conlang’s written grammar more helpful and accessible to other conlangers who want to learn about your language. (And also that make it better for you to keep track of your own language!) We provide examples from conlangers’ grammars to show strategies you can use in your documentation. The PDF of the Keynote presentat...

Jessie put together a trivia game for David based on language features provided in Grambank’s database ( https://grambank.clld.org/)! You can play along as you listen, and you can also download the attached PDF to see all the features and examples discussed. LangTime Chat – Ep39 Download

We wrap up our discussion of types of borrowings in the history of the English language and end with some book recommendations for anyone interested in learning more! At one point, we discuss the ampersand, so I’ve attached a fun poster here to show what we mean. Evolution of the ampersand Download LangTime Chat – Ep38 Download

This episode is (quite accidentally) the first of a two-part discussion on borrowing and the history of the English language. We talk about different types of borrowing into English in the hopes that it might inspire you as you think about ways your conlang may borrow from another language. The PDF of the slides used for this presentation are attached to this post! LangTime Chat – Ep37 Downl...

In this episode, we discuss conlang relays, providing an introduction to what they are and what participants can expect from them. We use some past conlang relays to give examples of how texts shift as relays progress. One of the relays we discuss specifically is the LCC5 Relay. If you want to check out the full relay texts, you can find them here: https://conlang.org/language-creation-conference/...

David leads this episode where we discuss the many options for expansion animals that Patrons are currently voting on. We hope this helps inform your decisions about what animals you’d like to see in future seasons of LangTime! LangTime-Chat-Ep35 Download

In this episode, we focus on Kezhwa, the conlang we created for Amazon’s Paper Girls TV series. We are excited to share details about the language with you because we had so much fun working on it! A PDF with the slides we used throughout the recording is attached.  Enjoy! LangTime-Chat-Ep34-Kezhwa Download

In this episode, David turns the tables on me and provides a list of words I need to create through compound, derivation, and grammaticalization strategies from the same root list used in Episode 32. You can see the words David selected for me to create in the attached PDF of the presentation we used, and I have re-uploaded the root list here so you can more easily find them! (As a side note, we w...

In this episode, titled “Create That Word!”, we play a new LangTime Chat game! We play a game where I provide David with a list of words that are basic roots in a not-as-yet-created language (all roots are English counterparts—not phonological forms), and he has to create strategies for forming new words. They aren’t just any words, though, that he’s creating: I provide spe...

In this episode, we talk about strategies for creating a conlang language family. The presentation slides we use throughout the episode are attached to this post so you can follow along if you need visual references. We hope you enjoy the episode! LangTime-Chat-Ep31 Download

In this episode, we chat about ways you can use your conlang once you’ve developed it, and I’ve attached a PDF of the Keynote presentation we use during the podcast to keep our discussion (mostly) organized. We hope you enjoy and find ideas in here that resonate with you and inspire you! LangTime-Chat-Ep30 Download

In this episode, we talk about some difficult phrases to translate, focusing the entire discussion on the many uses of “to have X” in English. We had recently needed to translate a line with such a construction and wanted to talk about other ways you could tackle taking apart some more idiomatic phrases when you translate them.  Attached to the post is the list I had open during our di...

This episode is quite different from all the others because, as you’ll quickly see, David isn’t in this one. Instead, you just get me talking to you about conlanging and my struggles with imposter syndrome. I titled the episode “Art and Anxiety” and was so nervous about the whole thing that I wrote everything I wanted to say in an essay to read aloud while recording the epi...

In this episode, we have some fun with fauna! We talk about different ways speakers come up with names for animals beyond having basic roots for them, and we hope it can inspire your own animal-name creation fun! During our conversation, David mentions a thread on Reddit about butterfly names, which you can find here: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1chmc4/eseneziri_im_david_peterson_the_cr...

In this episode of LangTime Chat, we discuss triconsonantal roots, including natlangs that have them, historical origins of triconsonantal systems, and how to approach creating one as a conlanger. Enjoy!

In this episode, we discuss the results from our LangTime Chat proto-sketch we began in Episode 24. Not only did we have our own modern forms to compare, but Patrons also submitted work, so we have a whole family of modern forms based on the same proto-sketch. To keep our discussion organized, I made an accompanying slideshow, which is attached to this post as a PDF.  This episode was a lot of fun...

We have officially been podcasting for two full years!! This episode is the first of a two-part series and is based on a Patron suggestion, and we are quite excited about it! In this episode, we work together to create proto-forms of a conlang sketch and discuss why we made particular decisions along the way. We settled on a sound system, created a series of basic roots, and decided on a basic wor...

After getting a question from a Patron about how to select an area of specialization in graduate school, we decided to devote this month’s podcast to that topic. We hope you enjoy!

In this very informal podcast episode, we discuss Jessie’s first experience at San Diego Comic Con! (Note: This was the condensed SDCC held during Thanksgiving weekend, 2021, so it wasn’t the full experience. Still, though, it was something!)

SPOILER ALERT! In this episode, we discuss the signed communication system David created for Dune . Because we talk about how it’s used in the movie, there are some (minor) spoiler alerts.!

For this episode, we took a suggestion from our Patron Miles on Discord and decided to talk about food! We talk about words for various types of food in natural languages and how to go about coining food words in a conlang. So grab a snack and enjoy!

In this episode, Jessie totally says the wrong episode number at the beginning… sigh . Eighteen is such a good number, she wanted to use it twice! In terms of content, we talk about our experiences with graduate school and linguistics programs. Also, if you’re ever in Boulder, CO, you should try out Half Fast Subs !

In this episode, we take a suggestion from Jason, one of our Patrons in Discord, and chat about Avatar: The Last Airbender and strategies we would take for creating conlangs for that world. Avatar famously didn’t employ any conlangs in their fantasy world, but instead minimally utilized bits of real world languages here and there for style. We discuss what we would have done differently!