LangTime Chat, Episode 65: Chatting with Jonathan about Conlanging

In this episode we continue work on our beaver names to try to get things done on Sovála in time for Kopikon then announce a new fun thing at the end!

In this episode, we chat about the Suh Ankripton language, which we created for James Gunn’s Superman movie. The presentation we use throughout the episode is attached. We apologize for the belated appearance of this episode and hope you enjoy learning more about the Kryptonian language we created for the film! ltc66Download

In this episode, we chat with Jonathan about the practice of conlanging in general, including how taking different approaches can be helpful! They talk about their experiences working with different processes (evolving a language, creating a language as is, creating languages that stretch the boundaries of how we might currently think about languages…). It was a great conversation with Jonathan, and we hope you all enjoy it!

Miles joins us for this riot of an episode, where we talk about the Western and Eastern dialects of Chielúú. As a forewarning, be ready for an earful of belly laughs near the end of the episode. The document Miles prepared with talking points about the dialects is attached to this post so you can follow along! Lexical and Grammatical Differences in the Chielúú DialectsDownload

Nemo joins us for this episode to chat about aspect in Isfasori (the PDF discussed in the episode is attached to this post). Nemo did some really cool things in the system, so check out this episode to hear about a singing squirrel and jumping rabbit! Isfasori TAM – NemoDownload

In this episode, Tabby joins us to talk about one of her orthographies and ideas for developing the shapes of the glyphs in different ways to reflect the materials available to the speakers. Tabby wrote a summary of the orthography as it is now and its historical development from older glyphs, which is attached here. (Don’t miss this document—the system is really cool!) We really enjoyed speaking with Tabby and hope you enjoy listening to the episode! Neography Langtime CritiqueDownload

Jake Penny is our guest extraordinaire in this episode, where we talk about the comparative construction in Jake’s language Pánkáshku. Jake provides a quick introduction to the basic grammar of the language before they dive into the features of the comparative. A PDF of the relevant section of the language document is attached to this post. Enjoy! Comparison in PánkáshkuDownload

I struggled with what to title this episode… but that’s what it is. We start with David putting out a call for volunteers to be a part of our new conlang review series, which will have varying formats, depending on what you (as a volunteer) would like to get out of the experience. Then we continue the episode with a very informal chat about our recent experiences on a work project (all under NDA, so the chatting is very informal, vague, and, at times, nebulous). This episode marks the wrapping up of our first five years of LangTime Chat! We look forward to what the sixth year brings!

This podcast episode was special because it was a surprise livestream for the Patrons who joined us for the end-of-month Patron stream! We reveal the results of the first ever LTS Mini Relay, which ran during the month of December, and the episode features two very special guests: Jake and Miles from Let’s Have a Bouba! Attached you’ll find the slides and the documents of the relay so you can follow along with all the texts. Enjoy! LTS Mini Relay ResultsDownload LTS Mini Relay_Full relayDownload LTS Mini Relay Results_codedDownload

In this episode, I give David a sample miniature relay text written in Vuochanad, and he works his way through translating the text, narrating his thought process as he works. Once he has a working English translation, he then translates the tiny text into High Valyrian, again narrating his thought process. At the end, we discuss areas where the translation had already shifted from my original intentions, and we introduce the upcoming challenge of this month: a very mini conlang relay! If you are interested in participating, let me know as soon as possible, so we can get the ball rolling. The relay is super informal and will be a very short text, so it will be a good way to test out a language you’re working on, to get introduced to what a conlang relay is like, or to just spend an evening of conlang fun doing a little challenge! Attached are the slides we used, the document David received (with the typos I found later…), and the document where David typed notes and did his translations. LangTime Chat Ep58Download Vuochanad relay text with David’s translationDownload Vuochanad relay textDownload