Conlangery Podcast

Today we bring on Cecil Garvin to talk about Hoocąk a Siouan language still spoken in Wisconsin and on the Winnebago Reservation in Nebraska. Top of Show Greeting: Ulazradũn Links and Resources Hocąk Waziija Haci Language Division (some recordings there) Hoocąk hįįt’ekjawi (still waiting to hear if we can share this) Hocąk Teaching Materials (Volume... Read more »

This month we talk about grammatical number. What number distinctions can you make for a language (beyond singular and plural)? What do you mark for number? And how does number interact with agreement and other grammatical systems? We’ll help you with all of that. Top of Show Greeting: Classical Latin (translated and read by Nicholas... Read more »

We welcome Matt Boutilier on to talk about Old Irish, from the destruction of verb roots due to initial stress, to how you can incorporate initial mutations into a language. Special mention: George recommends the show Cleverman. Nothing to do with this episode, it’s just good. Top of show greeting: Dubarne /du’barnə/ Links and Resources... Read more »

Today we talk all about word-level stress systems, a part of your conlang that can be done in a few minutes or have you stressing for many days, weeks, or maybe months. It all comes down to what kind of stress system you go with. Top of Show Greeting: Modern Standard Arabic (translated and read... Read more »

William invites Ada Palmer on to talk about her new book Too Like the Lightning, which, while not so conlangy, uses language in interesting ways for world-building, including neologisms, unusual punctuation, and gratuitous Latin revivals. Links and Resources: Ada’s book on Amazon Or Barnes and Noble Ada’s Blog Ex Urbe

Today, we bring on Scott Hamilton and BenJamin P. Johnson to talk about Brooding, a language that both of them have worked on for the Riddlesbrood Touring Theater Company. Special Announcement: Britton’s film Conlanging is now crowdfunding on Indiegogo! Top of Show Greeting: Finnish (translate and recorded by Eric-Mickya Liwata) Links and Resources The Riddlesbrood... Read more »

We bring on our long time “frenemy” David Peterson to talk about Trigedasleng, the future English conlang he created for the CW show The 100. Top of Show Greeting: Noserliq (< q > = [ŋ]) Links and Resources: Trigedasleng.info David’s Tumblr answers Skaigedasleng Tumblr Memrise courses

This episode we talk all about adjectives, what you can do with them and how they fit into a language. Special Mention: Glow (2 days left on Kickstarter) Links and Resources Grune, D. (1995) Hopi Survey of an Uto-Aztecan Language.  Halling, P. H. (2012). Semantic Types and Prototypical Adjectives and Adverbs (“Dixon Specials” on page... Read more »

George brings on Sai, Christophe, and attorney Mark Randazza to talk about the LCS’s decision to file an amicus brief in Paramount v Axanar. Links and Resources: LCS press release (with links to press articles) Amicus brief (and exhibits) The Dentons legal memo The Visual Artists Rights Act (- Wiki — closest thing the US... Read more »

This month we present you with a bunch of online linguistics databases to help get an idea of what possibilities there are for languages. Top of Show Greeting: Maruħani Links and Resources: WALS (general typology) APiCS (pidgin and creole typology) eWAVE (English dialects and English-based creoles) SSWL (syntactic typology) PBase (common phonological rules) PHOIBLE (phonological... Read more »

Today, after a brief digression about Pahlavi, we get into last year’s Smiley winner Kash.   Links Cindu website David Peterson’s Smiley writeup

Today we take some time to suggest a few books that conlangers should check out. Linguistics Books Heine, B., & Kuteva, T. (2002). World lexicon of grammaticalization. Cambridge University Press. Bybee, J., Perkins, R., & Pagliuca, W. (1994). The evolution of grammar: Tense, aspect, and modality in the languages of the world. University of Chicago... Read more »

George gives another short about what you can do with your Lexember words after lexember.

In this short episode, George puts together some of his favorites from the last Lexember! Also, a note, he also wrote a thing for Fiat Lingua. #Lexember #kardak #conlang #conscript #WOD #29 #languages pic.twitter.com/sAWio7VyXo — DachiiKardak (@dachiikardak) December 30, 2015 http://olilonien.tumblr.com/post/135933221852/lexember-day-25 This is probably the #lexember coinage I’m proudest of – pic.twitter.com/UaLD3ss5h9 — Zeke Fordsmender... Read more »

Victor Raymond joins us today to talk about the language Tsolyáni, created by MAR Barker and implemented in his campaign setting Tékumel in Empire of the Petal Throne. Top of Show Greeting: Proto-Continental Links and Resources: Tékumel official site Tékumel Foundation The Tsolyáni Language The Tsolyáni Primer All Tekumel books on DriveThruRPG

This month Britton joined us and we talked about the wonders of reduplication and nicknames in Thai. Top of Show Greeting: Dzuish (English-based conlang) Wikipedia on Thai Thai-language.com Noss, R. B. (1964). Thai reference grammar. Foreign Service Institute. Haiman, J. (2013). Decorative morphology in Khmer. In The Aesthetics of Grammar: Sound and Meaning in …... Read more »

Top of Show Greeting: Zametulian Announcements Radio West interview and Video West feature of Trent Pehrson The Art of Language Invention (George’s review, William’s review) Links and Resources Lamoureaux, S. V. D. (2004). Applicative Constructions in Maasai. Linguistics, (August). Austin, P. K. (2005). Causative and applicative constructions in Australian Aboriginal Languages. The Dative and Related... Read more »

In this very special episode, we interview Britton Watkins about his upcoming documentary Conlanging: The Art of Crafting Tongues while his husband films us for said documentary. Keep your eye out for their crowdfunding to start, and look forward to seeing our faces when the film is released next year. You can see information on... Read more »

George discusses his own observations about the use of kinship terms in his wife’s village in Henan province, China. NOTE: We’re going to change how our audio is hosted soon. This might mean some oddness in the feeds in the coming weeks.

Today we have a long talk with author and conlanger JS Bangs about conlanging, worldbuilding, and writing. Top of the Show Greeting: Praseo Links and Resources: JS Bangs’s conlang site JSBangs.com