Overview of Linguistic Databases

This episode of the podcast discusses various online linguistics databases that have emerged in recent years. These databases provide valuable resources for both researchers and conlangers. The speaker emphasizes the usefulness of these tools, despite acknowledging that they may contain errors and limitations. The first tool mentioned is the World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS), which offers typological information on features such as grammatical gender. The speaker also highlights other databases such as Apics, CALS, and eWave, which provide data on Creole languages and conlangs. Additionally, the podcast explores databases like Syntactic Structures of the World's Languages, which provides information on word order, and the Foible database, which focuses on phonemes. The speaker mentions the availability of downloadable data in some of these databases. The episode also introduces the Survey of Some Vowel Systems as a useful resource for vowel system patterns. Finally, the podcast concludes with discussions on the Valency Patterns Database, the ConLanG version, the Stead Database for Sino-Tibetan languages, and the Database of Semantic Shifts. The speaker provides insights on how these resources can contribute to conlang creation and encourages conlangers to use them for inspiration while maintaining creative freedom.