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In this episode, we finally introduce sound changes that incorporate tone into our language sketch! During the episode, we reference an article on tonogenesis by Michaud and Sands, which is attached as a PDF to this post. We hope you enjoy listening!
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In episode 14, we began a language sketch that will eventually incorporate tone as a way of addressing tonogenesis in language. We continue that language sketch in this episode, as we add more details to the phonological inventory and sound shifts. While we don’t quite make it to tone (there is always more to add as you conlang!), we end in a place where we are fairly certain tone will be the focus of episode 16. We are getting there!
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In this episode, we start a new conlang sketch to target Mike K.’s suggestion that we focus on tones in the podcast. Rather than just talking about tone, we are crafting a language with tone in it, taking opportunities to discuss options and reasons for making particular decisions along the way. This will be a series of episodes, and in this first one, we introduce the sound system and create some preliminary sound changes. You can check out the work we completed in the attached PDF, too!
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This episode focuses on how to create fanlangs, or conlangs created for existing fantasy worlds. The episode provides advice for conlanging within an existing framework and things to think about as you work, such as remembering that fanlangs don’t have to be true to every aspect of the canon, especially where the canon has incongruities.
If you’d like some examples of fanlangs for inspiration, you should check out Nina-Kristine Johnson’s Va Eheniv (http://va-eheniv.conlang.org/gerudolang1.html), a language for the Gerudo in Legends of Zelda (you can also find her on Twitter: @GerudosEheniv). Other fanlangs include the Mando’a language (for Star Warsuniverse), which was started by Karen Traviss but has since been taken over by fans (https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Mando%27a/Legends), and languages created for Andrew Smith’s Brithenig universe, such as Jan van Steenbergen’s Wenedyk. Perhaps less classically considered “fanlangs,” there are also spin-offs of the Toki Pona conlang.
We hope you enjoy the episode, and stay grammar!
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In this episode, we talk about teaching and conlanging (otherwise known as conlang pedagogy)!
After recording this episode, David let me know that my terminology may not be universally known, specifically my use of “made” in a sentence like “The course made.” For me, that means the minimum number of students enrolled in the course to allow it to run—every university has a minimum standard for enrollment that will allow a course to run, and for Stephen F. Austin State University (where I teach), the minimum is 10 students. So when I say the courses made, it means I have at least 10 students in the course. And that’s exciting! 🙂
We hope you enjoy this episode!
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Neither David nor I can believe we have already reached episode 10 of our podcast! That fact will become pretty evident in the opening 15 seconds when we try to remember how long we’ve been recording these episodes. This episode is titled “Jessie’s Conlangs.”
In this episode, I introduce five of my conlangs, which are all at different stages in how developed they are, but they all have enough structure that I can translate sentences into the conlang. I briefly introduce each conlang, providing a bit about the speakers and the language’s typological information, and then I send David a sentence or two in IPA, putting him on the spot to serve as the reader.
Here are the IPA transcriptions David reads in the episode; acute accents mark primary stress, and any grave accents mark secondary stress. Otherwise, these sentences are written in standard IPA. Where I had the interlinear glosses handy, I have provided those, too.
Conlang #1: Hiutsath
luxɑkɑθíto tɑɸíhɑ θesúsu luletotóɑʃ letɑɸíhɑhomɑ ɸɑleámo.
‘may your tree grow and have four branches’
Conlang #2: Xyrab
ɣe by ger
(question marker) you understand
‘Do you understand?’ / ‘Understand?’ / ‘See?’
ɣe wə βwɑ Jessie gwe eβ
(question marker) I find Jessie where please
‘Where can I find Jessie?’
Conlang #3: Gnomá
jadúgra bijanns twai gumannim gibmut dzabíjann wasjaka ja waiθaika jadwa bainn.
wizard seed-PL-ACC two man-PL-DAT give-GEN.PAST PROX-seed-PL grow-FUT and become-FUT magical tree-PL
‘A wizard gave two men seeds that would grow into magical trees.’
Conlang #4: gineso
tʃe jibók’ado ata anlúfeje ómwati hédi tajománad.
3sg,hum,nom c4,pl-berry-acc dem c3,sg-tree-loc tall-att near 3sg-3pl-past-find
‘She/He found berries near that tall tree’
Conlang #5: woxtjanato
wúakladɛn àllelát ʀet. fáidɛn itové jiféɛn swa adzé tomúgwe iùɲolenáox íkside dézu adzé totjávi.
‘A tree grows in a field. She believes that she herself possesses strength because of this: her branches are near to the sky goddesses.’
Along with these conlangs, I have created some conlang sketches, but they are so woefully incomplete that they are really more of playthings than something sharable. And I have created one other fully developed conlang, but that work was done for a project that is not my own. While I can’t really share the details of the language or project right now, someday I hope to be able to share that one with you, too.
Thank you to everyone who has shown interest in my conlangs in the livestream comments, and I hope you enjoy this episode!
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Not to build up too much hype, but this episode will be an instant classic! It features a “conlang” game that David had no idea was coming.
As resources for the episode, here is a link to the Wiki mentioned:
https://wiki.languageinvention.com/index.php?title=Main_Page.
And here is a photo of the cards used during the game:
We hope you enjoy the episode as much as we did!
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This episode’s focus is dictionaries–a favorite topic of mine! Throughout the episode, we talk about several resources, including…
The ConWorkShop: https://conworkshop.com/
Polyglot: https://draquet.github.io/PolyGlot/
David’s Language Creation template (Pages): https://artoflanguageinvention.com/papers/djp_template.pages
David’s Language Creation template (PDF): https://artoflanguageinvention.com/papers/djp_template.pdf
And an image from the self-published grammar of my first conlang (Hiutsath), which provides a dictionary in a spreadsheet format:
We hope you enjoy listening and pondering the many wonders of dictionaries!
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This episode is a wild ride beginning with a story about a vent and ending with a story about raunchy pizza. In between those two points, we discuss children’s language use and basic vocabulary in conlangs. There are several resources to accompany, including some photos and PDF documents.
One discussion takes us into the territory of snow-covered gloves. In case you are like David and have no experience with snow sticking to your gloves as you play outside, here is a photo of a very young Will in the snow. If you look closely at his gloves, you’ll see how snow sticks right to them.
The discussion veers into Meridian’s “permanent hat,” and you all need a photo to see that darling hat!
The final photo is a screenshot of a chart I drew about basic vocabulary as we talked about words in conlangs. If you follow us on Instagram or Twitter, you’ll recognize this photo!
Attached to this post are two PDF documents: the Swadesh List and the Leipzig-Jakarta List, both of which are discussed in the podcast.
And, finally, here is the transcript. Enjoy!
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This episode’s theme was “inspiration,” and David and I were so inspired that we managed to abandon all plans I had made for the podcast and talked about everything from music to breviloquence, from airport mishaps to our initial enemy-ship. It’s a wild ride!
This episode also comes with resources: there are two pictures discussed in the podcast that we decided you just had to see, so you can see for yourself the psychology behind our first-ever photo together.
DAVID AND JESSIE’S FIRST PICTURE TOGETHER: 2013
DAVID AND JESSIE ARE NO LONGER BITTER ENEMIES: 2019
See? Even enemies can become friends.
As an additional bonus, I created a transcript for this episode! I hope this is something we can regularly offer, but I can’t make promises because it relies on technology… And we all know how that can go.