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This podcast episode was special because it was a surprise livestream for the Patrons who joined us for the end-of-month Patron stream! We reveal the results of the first ever LTS Mini Relay, which ran during the month of December, and the episode features two very special guests: Jake and Miles from Let’s Have a Bouba!
Attached you’ll find the slides and the documents of the relay so you can follow along with all the texts.
Enjoy!
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In this episode, I give David a sample miniature relay text written in Vuochanad, and he works his way through translating the text, narrating his thought process as he works. Once he has a working English translation, he then translates the tiny text into High Valyrian, again narrating his thought process.
At the end, we discuss areas where the translation had already shifted from my original intentions, and we introduce the upcoming challenge of this month: a very mini conlang relay!
If you are interested in participating, let me know as soon as possible, so we can get the ball rolling. The relay is super informal and will be a very short text, so it will be a good way to test out a language you’re working on, to get introduced to what a conlang relay is like, or to just spend an evening of conlang fun doing a little challenge!
Attached are the slides we used, the document David received (with the typos I found later…), and the document where David typed notes and did his translations.
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In this episode, David and I discuss some of the a posteriori conlangs we have worked on. It is a brief intermission between two conlang challenges in our five-part mini-series on conlanging from existing material!
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It’s the long-awaited episode, where we discuss results from the (in)famous FrameLang Challenge! This is a continuation of Episode 53, which introduces the challenge.
All participants worked with the same data set: a sampling of English names, phrases, and clauses, which had to be treated as a base for a new conlang. It’s the same kind of process David and I use when we have to work with existing material in books/shows that incorporate bits of “language” that aren’t actually part of a full language system (i.e. varying degrees of gibberish) and then create an actual language built from those bits.
Along with David and me, six Patrons submitted sketches based on the data. Attached to this post, you’ll find all the sketches and the slides we used in the podcast.
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This episode begins a five-part miniseries exploring ways to conlang using pre-existing material.
In this episode, we discuss some of the processes we use when we need to incorporate material from books (material that was created without the structure of a language) in a conlang.
I set out a challenge for the month, which requires taking words and phrases in English and treating them as unknown entities, as source material collected from a book that needs a language built around it. Our next episode will present the results from that challenge.
If you are interested in participating and having your results included in the next episode, send me your work via email or a DM on Discord before July 27, 2024.
I’ve attached a PDF of the slides that accompany the episode, and I’ve also attached the Language Sketch document David and I will be using in three different formats (PDF, Pages, and Word). I have no idea how well the conversion from Pages to Word worked, so the formatting may be wonky on that version!
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In this episode, we chat about designing glyphs. David designs two glyphs based on an image of a chicken that I drew as a starting point. One glyph is in the style of High Valyrian, while the second is a style inspired by Sarkezhe.
I’ve attached the images of the chickens that I drew for inspiration for David to base his work on.
We did our best to narrate a very visual task… We hope you enjoy!
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In this episode, we chat about tackling academic linguistics articles, providing strategies for approaching articles and figuring out if they will be helpful to you or not. This episode is especially dedicated to anyone who has tried picking up linguistics articles but then feels overwhelmed because, well, academic articles are generally kind of notoriously cumbersome to get through. Our goal moving forward is to have episodes dedicated to specific articles that maybe you want to have read but don’t want to read–we will read them for you and tell you what they’re about!
I have attached the PDF of the slides we used (complete with all the original typos…), and I have attached the Haspelmath article we used for a focused discussion on reading strategies.
Happy reading (and happy sending us your reading wish lists)!
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This is a Jessie-only kind of episode. In it, I walk through my thought processes as I attempt to get ready to translate a passage into Zhwadi. It focuses on how I’m thinking through decisions rather than on the actual creation of roots/words/items. The goal is to demonstrate just how much translation can help when you’re at a stage with your language where you’re ready to expand its features but aren’t sure what direction to go. Translation as an exercise can really push you to better understand your language and the features you most want to incorporate.
Attached is the PDF of the Keynote slides I used while talking through decisions. Also attached is the final translation of the passage(s) with notes throughout. If you want to hear the thought processes before seeing the final decisions, wait to look at that PDF until you’ve listened to the episode!
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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.)
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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 continue in next month’s episode!