Episodes

Today we talk about a language of dragons. It’s really, really hard to pronounce. Top of show Greeting: Jesesç Srínawésin grammar and dictionary: Section I Section II and III Section IV Section V Section VI Section VII Section VIII Lexicon of Verb Roots and Thesaurus

We resurrect the podcast with an episode that’s all answering listener feedback. We hope to keep this thing going for a good long time. Top of Show Greeting: French (translation and recording by Christophe Grandsire-Koevoets) Emails below the fold: Hi! I’m a rather bad natlanger. I’m too tempted to make Lojban-ish languages, where things are unambigous and make sense. I often make up languages that have a terminator for relative clauses. I wonder if you know any real languages that have them...

George continues his phrasebook series with a few musings about telling time. Long form episodes returning soon.

George continues his phrasebook series by considering what you say when you ask “How do you say …?” and “What does that mean?”

George starts off on a sort of informal “series” of shorts on phrasebook phrases with some talk about greetings and farewells.

We’ll be back mid-to-late June.

George shares an idea he is pursuing in the historical development of Pahran. LCC5

Today, we take a little time to talk about the topic of polysynthesis Top of Show Greeting: Gothic (translated by Roman Rausch) Links and Resources: Nootkan/Southern Wakashan grammar (featured on episode 41) ZBB thread on polysynthesis Nice Inuit article Iñupiatun Eskimo dictionary Ancient Egyptian (Amazon link) Feedback: Hello, I’ve posted in the comments as Panglott a couple of times. I have a couple of episode suggestions and a small offer below. There’s no need to read this email on t...

George uses an example from Tagalog to highlight one of the decisions conlangers might need to make if they use infixing.

This week, we are going to focus on a language you’ve probably heard us talk about quite a bit in passing: Ancient Greek. Learn how it is the oddball of European languages. Ancient Greek dialect map. From Wikipedia. Top of Show Greeting: Pali (natlang) Special Mention: Linguistics MOOC Links and Resources: Tables and tables of morphological forms Some downloadable books Grammar handout Greek Phonology Info on those diacritics we derailed on Feedback: Hi George and co. It’s a pity you can’...

This week, we do a little talking about determiners, a topic that has come up before in many episodes but that we hadn’t really treated on its own. Also, we get to reading some iTunes reviews we’ve been forgetting about. Top of Show Greeting: Brazilian Portuguese (Vítor) Links and Resources: WALS: Conjunctions and Universal Quantifiers A book about determiners The Conlanger’s Thesaurus Wikipedia on Determiners

Conlangery is going to become a fortnightly 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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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...

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

William tells us how lexemes need not be one continuous word or morpheme, using his characteristically exotic examples (and some not so exotic. Top of Show Greeting: fangait Links and Resources: Navajo Verb Template Asheninca Campa

In our last full episode of 2012, we talk all about Cherokee. Top of Show Greeting: Emberyad Announcements: Profile of John Quijada in The New Yorker Jim Henry Medical Trust Featured NATLANG: Cherokee Reference Grammar Lexicon Valley on Sequoyah’s syllabary Short lesson on classifiers Feedback: Email: Good Afternoon, I just finished listening to you podcast on Khangabyagon and it struck me that you all said that this was a conlang for a ‘magical language’. And I know from Arika Okrent’...