We give you a podcast today about how you can do without tense, and what other things in the language can be used to fill in the gaps. Also, we have special guest Jeffrey Jones on to talk about his conlang.
Conlangery hosts:
I’m writing to say how much I enjoy your podcast. I only became aware
of its existence a few weeks ago, and since then I’ve been doing what
I always do when I discover a new podcast that I like: listening to
the archives from the beginning.
Just today I happened to listen to episode 23, in which I discovered,
to my shock and delight, that my OWN conlang Yivrian had been
featured. I thought you guys said a lot of complimentary things about
it, and your criticisms were completely valid. In particular, I agree
with Bianca that the verbal system is a little bit overstuffed, and
with William that the modal prefixes are annoyingly regular. Both of
these things are the result of a disease that afflicts people who work
on the same language for a very long time: different parts of the
language are designed at different times, often with different
philosophies and different goals. In this case, the modal prefixes
date from a period when total regularity was a design goal, while the
verbal complex dates from the ALL OF THE MORPHEMES stage that followed
shortly thereafter. It’s a good thing I had never heard of
evidentiality or animacy hierarchies at the time I initially designed
the verbs, or I would doubtlessly have found a way to include those as
well.
Your podcast has also inspired me to consider other neglected aspects
of my languages. In particular, I’ve been mulling over the ways that
Yivrian expresses formality, and reconsidering the entire concept of
adjectives.
You discussed my ancient essay “An Artlanger’s Rant” when you covered
my conlang, and it’s very interesting to see how that post has aged
ten years on. If you ever were interested as having me on as a guest,
I’d be happy to discuss it (or anything else conlang-related) with
you.
—
JS Bangs
jaspax@gmail.com
http://jsbangs.wordpress.com
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle” -Philo of Alexandria
