Conlangery Podcast Andrea Weilgart and the Language of Space
May 20, 2025
Andrea Weilgart, daughter of W. John Weilgart, continues her father’s mission with the constructed language aUi, designed to foster peace and understanding. She shares personal experiences and challenges faced in the linguistic community. The discussion delves into the connection between language and physiological responses, revealing how different words evoke varied reactions. Weilgart also explores the complexities of language formation and the societal implications of conlangs, emphasizing the artistic and philosophical dimensions of language creation.
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Growing up with AUI
- Andrea Weilgart and her sister were her father's guinea pigs for learning and testing AUI in informal home settings and college seminars.
- They engaged in activities like writing symbols and word guessing games, immersing in the language practically from a young age.
Semantic Primitives Selection
- W. John Weilgart chose semantic primitives shared across languages by identifying simplest, circular definitions in a dictionary.
- This helped him find potentially universal concepts to assign unique phonemes and morphemes in AUI.
Arbitrariness on a Scale
- Arbitrariness in language exists on a spectrum, not as fully arbitrary or fully non-arbitrary.
- Connecting symbols and sounds to reality can make a language like AUI less arbitrary than natural languages.