Conlangery Podcast

I have a chat with linguistics short-form creator  Human1011⁩ about his language, itræχnâħyq̇, or Draconic. We compare it to my dragon language, Ndăkaga, and discuss the challenges of making short form conlanging content.

Links and Resources:

David and Jessie of  @LangTimeStudio  come on with an update on their conlangy projects.

Check out Kopikon II

Preorder Jessie’s book, How to Create a Language

Superman (2025)

William Annis has come back to the show to talk to us about subordinate clauses! This will be a broad overview of the topic, which we may dive deeper on in future episodes.

Links and resources:

Lingweenie: https://lingweenie.org/conlang/

Wikipedia on balancing and deranking: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balancing_and_deranking

Dixon, Robert M. W., and Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald. Semantics of Clause Linking: A Cross-Linguistic Typology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.

Cristofaro, Sonia. “Is There Really a Syntactic Category of Subordination?” In Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, edited by L...

We have a special episode today. Andrea Weilgart, the daughter of W. John Weilgart, the creator of aUi, came on to discuss her father’s language and her work to continue his legacy.

aUi website

The Ersatz Academy

I had a nice discussion with author Madeline James about how she has just begun learning conlanging to create naming languages and formulaic spells. Join us as we discuss how she focuses on limited conlangs for the needs of her story and about her journey learning the craft.

You can see a continuation of this conversation on Madeline’s channel here.

Today, ZeWei joins us to talk about their music and conlanging, as well as the Cursed Conlang Circus and more.

ZeWei’s channel.

Jake and Miles of Let’s have a Bouba come on to talk about conlanging on YouTube.

Carl Buck joins us to discuss his work as co-creator of Sangheili on Halo as well as his own personal conlanging work.

Links:

I interview Jessie Peterson of  @LangTimeStudio  about her Conlang Year project, as well as her other conlanging education and promotion projects. See Conlang Year here: https://www.quothalinguist.com/

I talked to  Artifexian about his work on Abheski and the new conlanging community on YouTube.

Today, I interview Agma Schwa about dog languages, cursed conlangs, and creativity. Make sure to check out this year’s Cursed Conlang Circus!

https://youtu.be/KpLt4v2PhQA
George talked to Paul Frommer, the creator of Na'vi, about his work creating languages for movies.

Resources mentioned:




Looking at Languages by Paul Frommer and Edward Finegan



An Annotated Dictionary of Na'vi by Stefan G. Müller



Conlanging: The Art of Crafting Tongues



A Guide to Barsoom by John Flint Roy



Possible and Probable Languages by Frederick J. Newmeyer

George breaks down a paper that discusses ChatGPT’s supposed ability to create languages. It is not impressive. Citations Diamond, Justin. “Genlangs and Zipf’s Law.” ArXiv Computer Science, 2023. https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/2304/2304.12191.pdf De Marzo, Giordano, Francesco Sylos Labini, and Luciano Pietronero. “Zipf’s Law for Cosmic Structures: How Large Are the Greatest Structures in the Universe?” Astronomy & Astrophysics... Read more »

George interviews Marc Okrand on his work on Klingon and Atlantean and his experiences with both the Klingon speaker community and the greater conlanging community.

I’m announcing a new streaming series: Tongues and Runes. You can find the first stream scheduled here.

George talks to CD Covington about her upcoming book about linguistic worldbuilding, funding through Kickstarter. Links:

George interviews Biblaridion on conlanging, worldbuilding, and YouTube.

George has obtained information on the conlang Rasharnian created for Immortals of Aveum. This is a critique of that language as well as a discussion of issues surrounding it that were brought up in the conlanging community.

George has David and Jesse on to talk about Kopikon! Links:

Here’s the audio of my talk at LCC10. The video version can be seen here.

We have two conlang conferences coming up this year. LCC10 is this weekend, and in September, we’ll have Kopikon!

George talks about his experience streaming during Lexember. NOTE: This episode was written and recorded in the middle of the D&D OGL debacle. The way it was resolved changes some calculations slightly, but I’m still a bit perturbed by it. Original Script

Aidan Aannestad comes on the show to talk about information structure, which included discussions on topic and focus and how they can be realized in language. Links and Resources

George will be streaming word creation for Lexember every Saturday of the month at 1 PM US Central Time! You can check it out here!

Today, Logan Kearsley joins us to talk about whistled registers, and to let us know about his whistle synthesizer that can help you make one. Links and Resources:

George discusses word substitutions people use to avoid Internet censorship, and how that could be applied in worldbuilding. Original Script One of the interesting things you find in internet spaces is the presence of content filtering and the attempts to get around them. On the one hand, the people who have control of a given... Read more »

George talks about some interesting terms he encountered in his most recent job, and how you can pay attention to language around you at work for inspiration. Original Script Welcome to Conlangery, the podcast about constructed languages and the people who create them. I’m George Corley. Today, I want to continue my occasional “listen like... Read more »

This episode, George gives a short discussion of the idea of language as having infinite fractal complexity, and what this means for conlangers building fictional worlds. Special Mention: Resources on the Line 3 protest: Stop Line 3, Center for Protest Law and Litigation, Sierra Club Fact Sheet, Line 3 Legal Defense Fund Original Script Welcome... Read more »

George talks to Jasper Charlet and his opera, Heyra, written entirely in the Carite language, which is currently in crowdfunding. Top of Show Greeting: Opaki Aŋkuati Links Heyra on Indiegogo Carite

William comes back on the show to tell us all about the category of Associated Motion. Links and Resources: Wikipedia – Andative and Venitive de la Fuente, J. A. A., & Jacques, G. (2017) Associated motion in Manchu in typological perspective. Language and Linguistics. 語言暨語言學, 19(4), 501–524. https://doi.org/10.1075/LALI.00018.ALO Jacques, G., Lahaussois, A., & Zhang, S.... Read more »

George takes some time with Kenan Kigunda to talk about his conlang Zevy and how writing gets standardized. Top of show greeting: Fysh A Links and resources: Kenan’s LCC talk Zevy wordbook Zevy grammar notes Transcript coming soon!

George interviews Lauren Gawne of Superlinguo and Lingthusiasm about her work on Aramteskan for the Shadowscent book series as well as her other work with authors. Top of Show Greeting: Swedish (Umeå dialect, translated by Ruben Drott) Links and Resources: Shadowscent: The Darkest Bloom Superlinguo Lingthusiasm Transcript coming soon

George gives a little info about his current conlanging project, a set of naming languages for a story. Original Script (below the fold) Welcome to Conlangery, the podcast about constructed languages and the people who create them. I’m George Corley. I thought it was time for another personal conlanging update. I’ve been doing something interesting... Read more »

George wants to talk to writers, filmmakers, and creatives about how conlangs can benefit worldbuilding, and how you can go about getting one made. Links: Language Creation Society Resources Page LCS Jobs Board Original Script In this episode, I want to talk to authors, directors, and other creatives who are creating fictional worlds and cultures... Read more »

George uses some research into the etymology of coronavirus to launch into a way to build a story around the etymology of a word. Links and Resources: Coronavirus on Wikipedia Almeida JD, Berry DM, Cunningham CH, Hamre D, Hofstad MS, Mallucci L, McIntosh K, Tyrrell DA (November 1968). “Virology: Coronaviruses”. Nature. 220 (5168): 650. Bibcode:1968Natur.220..650..... Read more »

George and Joey Windsor use the various names of COVID-19 as a jumping off point to talk about naming diseases. Note that this episode was recorded in May, and quite a lot has changed in the intervening time. Top of Show Greeting: Chátsu Special mentions (from top of show note): A list of BLM charities,... Read more »

George shares some ambitious plans for a new world with lots of naming languages. Links: Ankong Family Ingar Family X Family Lexifer Phonix Songs of the Eons Script: Welcome to Conlangery, the podcast about constructed languages and the people who create them. I’m George Corley. I’m doing a short this month, as being at home... Read more »

George brings on David J Peterson and Jesse Sams to talk about their new livestreaming adventure, LangTime Studio. Top of Show Greeting: Nekāchti Transcript {00:00:00} {Greeting} {Music} George: Welcome to Conlangery, the podcast about constructed languages and the people who create them. I’m George Corley. In plague-ridden California we’ve got David J. Peterson. David: {Clears... Read more »

George brings on Ezekiel Fordsmender and Margaret Randsdell-Green to talk about techniques for creating polysemous lexical entries. Top of Show Greeting: Chicken Links and Resources: CLICS3 Wiktionary (esp. Arabic, Latvian, Scottish Gaelic words) STEDT Lakoff, G. (2008) Women, fire, and dangerous things: What categories reveal about the mind. University of Chicago press. Heine, B., Bernd,... Read more »

George brings on two conlanger DMs, Joey Windsor and David J Peterson, to discuss how to incorporate conlanging into Dungeons and Dragons and other role-playing games. Top of Show Greeting: Boral (by Jack Keynes) Links and Resources: The 5E d20 Standard Reference Document Matt Colville’s YouTube channel The Chain Matt Colville speaking “Gith” D&D Beyond... Read more »