Conlangery Podcast

Apologies for posting this so late.  Technical difficulties. In this episode we explore the curious Himmaswa and its Chinese-inspired writing system. Top of Show Greeting: Swiss German (Zurich dialect) Links for Himmaswa: KneeQuickie ZBB Fkeuswa Feedback: Hi dudes…      I’m still loving the podcast I’ve got a question for you guys this time. I was trying to use obviation in my language, Nashtuku, so I ended up going down a rabbit hole of papers trying to grok the entirety of the effects it has on a language. I was reading a paper about how it can be used with word order for focus ( Focus, obvation, and word order in East Cree http://tinyurl.com/c2xshhf) and I realized that I now have three options: pameni re‘agwidi ‘akireseseli’ pameni re-‘agwi-di ‘aki-re- seseli -’ child obv-dog-acc prog-3(obv)-see- 3   re’agwidi pameni ‘akireseseli’ re-’agwi-di pameni ‘aki- re- seseli-’ obv-dog-acc child prog-3(obv)-see- 3   pameni ‘akiagwisechali’ pameni ‘aki-agwi-sechali-’   ** the change in the verb is because of transitivity madness, I can explain                                                     more if you’re interested   child prog-dog- see- 3   I was thinking of making the leftmost position the focus position, so the first sentence would be ‘it is the child that sees the dog’ the second would be ‘It is a dog that the child sees” and the third is where I got stuck… I think it would be the most basic so “the child sees the dog”. I’m wondering if this is too subtle of a distinction to make with just word order trickery, or do other languages do this? I know from what I’ve been reading that at least the first two are distinctions made in natural languages, I was just wondering about the third. Could perhaps you do a show about obvation? I’ve been reading about the algonquin languages, but apparantly there are other languages in Africa and Asia that use it as well…     Also, I have a suggestion (since my last suggestion caused what sounded like a lively debate ) It would be neat to put out a sound chart and ask people to make a language using those sounds, then you guys either create one as a show, or separatly create one, so you can compare all the madness and wonderful crazyness that can be done with just a simple phonology. If you wanted to go completely nuts, leave that and when you do a practum, ask people to restrict themselves to those sounds to make a language that wields whatever topic you’re talking about. It could be a lot of fun             Joe Schelin /’ʃəlin/ (you got it exactly right last time, and I squee every time I listen to that episode :D)  

This week, we have a relatively short discussion on the creation and fictional portrayal of multilingual conworlds.  It’s a linguistics-light topic, but we thought it might be useful. Links: Dragoman Feedback: Email: Azul*, guys: So, I’ve just got done with the Tone episode (#81), and at the end someone mentioned “bogolangs,” which put me in mind of one I had found many moons ago, called Frangléi, which (obviously) is French+English. Anyway, I felt it might merit a look-see. Kind of an old site (2007), so the creator might be a bit elusive. Home page: http://davrie.net/franglei/ n.b. The three links you’ll probably want to look at don’t work, because of some strange goings-on with the link. If the link has stuff between “davrie.net/” and “franglei,”just delete that bit. So, the link given for the grammar is this: http://davrie.net/My%20Documents/My%20Web%20Sites/Personal/franglei/grammar2.html But actually, it should be this: http://davrie.net/franglei/grammar2.html *Azul = “hello” in Talossan. I’m a citizen of the Kingdom and a member of the CÚG (the language committee). I’ve actually been on the show before, though not in person, as I was the person who translated/read “La Coraziun Profanind”/”The Tell-tale Heart” ontalossan.com (along with most of the other translations there). Iustì Canun

George talks about how we borrow words for cultural concepts, even when the concept isn’t all that alien to our culture. Links: Xenia Guanxi (关系) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenia_(Greek)

George and Mike have a wonderful conversation with Nizar Habash, creator of Delason. Featured Conlang: Delason Feedback: Hi! I discovered this podcast almost a month ago and I’m on episode 46. I’m actually not a conlanger, but I love linguistics and I love the discussions you guys have about different aspects of language. Thank you for producing such a fascinating show. -Shaw Birmingham, AL

Today we tell you some techniques for using translations to flesh out your conlang. Top of Show Greeting: Pahran (George’s work-in-progress conlang) Links and Resources: Conlang Syntax Tests Aesop’s Fables (online collection)

William Annis gives us a wonderful review of how classification occurs in natural languages, and the many ways you can incorporate it in your langs. (Small note, we will no longer be putting translated greetings on the short episodes.) Links and Resources: Austronesian Possession (and another link) List of Chinese Classifiers (Wikipedia) Noun Classification in Dakelh Bantu Noun Class Systems Navajo Classifacatory Verbs (Wikipedia)

Today we talk to Denis Moskowitz about his wonderful experiment Rikchik and the strange aliens who speak it. Top of Show Greeting:  Forkëzoq Feature Conlang: Rikchik Rikchik physiology Smiley award An image of a Rikchik signing.

It took us two tries, but we managed to record an episode focusing entirely on tone systems.  Learn about how tonal languages work, how they develop historically, and a few little bits you can play with. Top of Show Greeting: Frenkisch Links and Resources: Wobé Wè Nobiin Thai writing system IPA Tone Markings Hmong Gwoyeu Romatzyh (Yes, that is how it’s spelled.  Characters: 国语罗马字 ) Tonogenesis WALS on tone Feedback: Email: Hi George & co After several months, I have finally caught up with all the Conlangery podcasts. I’m very impressed that you’ve kept them going so long and kept the standard up. Can I suggest another area you might like to look at – language contact, particularly creoles and pidgins. A lot of conlangers model change within a family but there’s not many conlangs with more than one ancestor. Creoles and pidgins with their restricted vocabulary, morphology and word order might be good for beginners or for someone looking for a quick, fun project. Yet they can form larger projects to, e.g. if different registers are taken into account. You could base one on real world languages or on conlangs. There’s some theoretical debate to be had there, too – Bickerton and other universalists versus those who favour socio-cultural explanations. <Removed some links from the email for brevity, though those may surface in a future episode on creoles and pidgins>

Today, George and William have an interesting discussion on the phenomenon of “zonal” auxiliary languages,  which seek to unite a region rather than the whole world. Top of Show Greeting: Ponuhi Links and Resources: – Germanic auxlangs Euronord Teutonish Folksprak Frenkish – Slavic auxlangs A big giant list of them Neoslavonic Interslavic Jan van Steenbergen’s presentation at LCC4 – Dnghu – Afrihili Feedback: Email: Dear George, Mike and DJP (et al), Perhaps it’s not a topic worthy of an entire episode, but I thought I’d ask, and maybe sometime in feedback you’ll tell me a better way to go about learning.  Can you guys do an episode on tone?  I’ve studied (English,) German, French, Czech, Japanese, and Korean, so tone has never come up.  I can almost hear them, but I can never produce them with any degree of fluency.  There are a few sounds that I don’t think I am articulating correctly (e.g. pharyngealization) so I never include them in my conlangs.  The same is true with tone.  I remember William repeatedly suggested we write a two-tone language, but I couldn’t find any good examples to listen to online.  Could you guys maybe do a practicum? Thanks for making a great show so regularly.  George is a good sergeant York! Sincerely, Robert Marshall Murphy Navajo spoken with text on the screen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFayFUiyv20 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiS_bF_ihp4

I ended up cutting out about 10 minutes worth of excellent material in episode 13 that I’ve been sitting on forever just waiting for a chance to share it, so here you have it. Top of show Greeting: nQaixhaþ Maħàr