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LangTime Chat, Episode 37: Borrowing and English, Part I


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!

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LangTime Chat, Episode 36: Conlang Relays


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/lcc5/lcc5-relay/.

You’ll find the PDF of the slides we used for the episode attached to this post.

***SPOILER ALERT***

What I’m about to type below gives away some details of the LCC5 Relay, so if you want to be surprised by how the text shifted during the relay, do NOT keep reading! Listen to the episode first and then come back to check out this super cool information.

***SPOILING COMMENCING***

Three animals are included in the LCC5 Relay text. In the original, the animals are, in this order:

  • turtle(s)
  • horse
  • goat

I traced the evolution of these animals in the translations across the texts, and I was shocked to find out the turtle is what became the great lion!!! It started in Leg 4 (John Clifford’s text), where “turtle” became “reptile.” Then Zach Wellstood translated that as “dragon.” It stayed a dragon until Jan Strasser’s text, where it was translated as yuksa, a word specific to Jan’s conlang, which is glossed as “a legendary creature that eats people.” He goes on to describe it as an animal that looks similar to a panther with a long dinosaur-ish tail. Alex Fink translates that as “big people-eating cat,” and then Tony Harris turns that into “lion.” Jeff Jones calls it a “large cat,” and David translates it into Dothraki for the final text as “great lion.”

The horse stayed a horse AAAALLLLLLL the way to Jeff Jones, the 12th (and final) leg before the text was returned to David. That’s where the horse became a unicorn.

The same thing happened with “goat,” where Jeff translated that as “antelopes,” and then David translated as “deer” into Dothraki.

As for the plums and carrots… I translated these as “purple fruit” and “edible orange root” because Hiutsath did not have words for either (and wouldn’t because my speakers didn’t eat human food and had no interest in naming them). They stayed “purple fruit” and “orange root” for a few legs until Zach translated the “orange root” as an “orange fruit.” When that got to John Quijada, it turned into “red fruit.” (The “purple fruit” was still there at this stage.) But then it took a super interesting turn when Jim Henry conflated the two as apples, where the “real apples” are purple (assuming here that the red ones are not real!). That trend continued, where there were real/true apples versus bad/evil apples. When it got to Alex, the apples became “fruits” or “sweet fruits.”

It’s so much fun to trace these twists and turns that relay texts take!! I encourage you to read through all the English translations of the texts because there are delightful surprises in each one!

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Podcast

LangTime Chat, Episode 35: LangTime Expansion Animals


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!

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LangTime Studio, Episode 34: Kezhwa Overview


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!

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LangTime Studio, Episode 33: Create That Word! (Part II)


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 were recording this in Seattle, and… um… the audio is not its usual quality.)

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LangTime Studio, Episode 32: Create That Word! (Part I)


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 specific words for him to create from those existing roots. 

We have three rounds of the game, focusing on different strategies: compounds, derivations, and grammaticalizations.

If you want to play along, I’ve attached a PDF of the root list and the presentation slides that provide the new words that need to be semantically formed.

We hope you enjoy the episode and have a happy start to your October!

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LangTime Studio, Episode 31: Creating a Language Family


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!

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LangTime Studio, Episode 30: What To Do With Your Conlang


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!

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LangTime Studio, Episode 29: Difficult Phrases to Translate


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 discussion (which also had David’s entries, apparently). Even though it isn’t organized in the best way possible, you’ll see exactly what we were staring at as we discussed translating the phrases!

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LangTime Chat, Episode 28: Art and Anxiety


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 episode. And, of course, I made an accompanying presentation to keep on the screen while I talked. I attached both the written essay (which is essentially a transcript for the episode) and the presentation here.

Stay grammar!