Podcast – Conlangery Podcast
Conlangery is the podcast for language creators and enthusiasts of constructed languages. We cover conlangs, natural languages, and linguistics topics in order to share techniques and inspiration with the community.
Kopikon, Superman, and more with David and Jessie!
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)
Subordinate Clauses with William!
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...
Andrea Weilgart and the Language of Space
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
Madeline James on Conlanging for Writing
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.
ZeWei Discusses Conlang Music and Cursed Pronouns
Today, ZeWei joins us to talk about their music and conlanging, as well as the Cursed Conlang Circus and more.
ZeWei’s channel.
Conlangery Has a Bouba
Jake and Miles of Let’s have a Bouba come on to talk about conlanging on YouTube.
Carl Buck on Conlanging for Halo
Carl Buck joins us to discuss his work as co-creator of Sangheili on Halo as well as his own personal conlanging work.
Links:
Halo (TV series) Omyatloko Logosyllabary for Kala Carl’s BlogJessie Peterson's Conlang Year
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/
Interview with Artifexian
I talked to Artifexian about his work on Abheski and the new conlanging community on YouTube.
Cursed Conlanging with Agma Schwa
Today, I interview Agma Schwa about dog languages, cursed conlangs, and creativity. Make sure to check out this year’s Cursed Conlang Circus!
Talking Movie Conlanging with Paul Frommer
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
Can ChatGPT Create a Language?
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 651 (July 2021): A114. https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202141081.
Gabaix, X. “Zipf’s Law for Cities: An Explanation.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 114, no. 3 (August 1, 1999): 739–67. https://doi.org/10.1162/003355399556133.
Li, Wentian. “Analyses of Baby Name Po...
Marc Okrand on Klingon and Conlanging
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.
Announcement for Tongues and Runes
I’m announcing a new streaming series: Tongues and Runes. You can find the first stream scheduled here.
CD Covington's Guide to Linguistic Worldbuilding
George talks to CD Covington about her upcoming book about linguistic worldbuilding, funding through Kickstarter.
Links:
The Kickstarter SFF Linguistics YouTube Channel The Tor Column A post about the KickstarterInterview with Biblaridion
George interviews Biblaridion on conlanging, worldbuilding, and YouTube.
David and Jessie Talk Kopikon
George has David and Jesse on to talk about Kopikon!
Links:
Kopikon @LangTimeStudio LangTime Engine Cecil Garvin earns honorary degreeGeorge's talk at LCC10
Here’s the audio of my talk at LCC10. The video version can be seen here.
Announcements: LCC10 and Kopikon
We have two conlang conferences coming up this year. LCC10 is this weekend, and in September, we’ll have Kopikon!
Short: Streaming my Lexember
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
Information Structure with Aidan Aannestad
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
Aannestad, Aidan Alexander. “A Typology of Morphological Argument Focus Marking.” University of North Dakota, 2021. Büring, Daniel. “Towards a Typology of Focus Realization.” In Information Structure, edited by Malte Zimmermann and Caroline Féry, 1st ed., 177–205. Oxford University PressOxford, 2009. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199570959.003.0008. Wal, Jenneke van der. “Diagnosing Focus.” Studies in Language 40, no. 2 (July 1, 2016): 259–301. https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.40.2.01van.Announcing Conlangery Lexember Streams!
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!
Whistle Registers with Logan Kearsley
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:
Logan’s whistle synthesizer Meyer, J. 2008. Typology and Acoustic Strategies of Whistled Languages: Phonetic Comparison and Perceptual Cues of Whistled Vowels. Journal of the International Phonetic Association , 38 ,1, pp. 69 – 94, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025100308003277 Rialland, A., 2005. Phonological and phonetic aspects of whistled languages. Phonology, 22(2), pp.237-271. Meyer, J., 2007. Whistled Turkish: statistical analysis of vowel distribution and consonant modulations. In XVI International Conference of Phonetic Sciences (pp. 284-288).Short: Word Avoidance on the Internet
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 space have impressive control over the language that is allowed to be used on their platforms. Yet, on the other hand, many of their tools are fairly easy to circumvent, especially if there aren’t expensive human reviewers involved.
...
Short: Listening Like a Conlanger at Work
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 a conlanger” series talking about how you can think like a conlanger at work. Language is everywhere at the workplace, and by having language on your mind as you work, you may be able to improve your craft...
Short: Infinite Fractal Complexity
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 to Conlangery, the podcast abou t constructed languages and the people who create them. I’m George Corley.
Today, I’m going to talk a little about the realities of what naturalistic conlangers are trying to simulate. What does it m...
Jasper Charlet and Conlang Opera
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 IndiegogoCariteAssociated Motion
William comes back on the show to tell us all about the category of Associated Motion.
Links and Resources:
Wikipedia – Andative and Venitivede 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.ALOJacques, G., Lahaussois, A., & Zhang, S. (2018) Associated motion in Sino-Tibetan/Trans-Himalayan. In The 12th conference of the Association of Linguistic Typology: workship on” Associated Motion.Ross, D. (2017) A Cross-Linguistic Survey of Associated Motion and Directionals. Data Handout. Presented at the international workshop on Associated Motion at the 12th Conference of the Association for Linguistic Typ...Interview with Kenan Kigunda
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 talkZevy wordbookZevy grammar notesTranscript coming soon!
Short: Musings on Etymology
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 regarding historical development that I thought I might share with y’all.
Before we get to that, Conlangery is entirely supported by our patrons on Patreon. I know that there’s a lot of uncertai...
Conlangery Shorts 35: You Need a Conlang
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 PageLCS Jobs BoardOriginal Script
In this episode, I want to talk to authors, directors, and other creatives who are creating fictional worlds and cultures where a conlang might be really helpful for their work. I am going to talk to you about how creating a conlang or hiring a conlanger to create a conlang can help you add depth to your world and...
Short: Musings on Etymology
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 WikipediaAlmeida 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.. doi:10.1038/220650b0Tyrrell DA, Fielder M (2002). Cold Wars: The Fight Against the Common Cold. Oxford University Press. p. 96. ISBN978-0-19-263285-2.Original Script
Welcome to Conlangery, the podcast about constructed languages, and the people who create them, I’m George Corley...
Conlangery 147: Naming a disease
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, When We Stay In, Corley English (YouTube, Bilibili, website)
LInks and Resources:
World Health Organization Best Practices for the Naming of New Human Infectious Diseases/r/linguistics discussion on Asian language terms for COVID-19Wikipedia on V...Conlangery 146: LangTime Studio
George brings on David J Peterson and Jesse Sams to talk about their new livestreaming adventure, LangTime Studio.
Top of Show Greeting: Nekāchti
Transcript
Conlangery146.pdfDownload Conlangery146.txtDownload {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 throat several times} We have who? George: What? David: I mean, you weren’t even going to say the “illustrious,” the “respectable,” uh, the “fragrant”? George: It’s probably not actually a good joke to be using beca...Conlangery 144: Conlanging for Dungeons and Dragons
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 DocumentMatt Colville’s YouTube channelThe ChainMatt Colville speaking “Gith”D&D BeyondShadowrunA list of role-playing gamesTranscript
PDFDownload Plain TextDownload{00:00:00}
Greeting: Nos som Ideologofaction, l’astravocal lengaç costroit e lour y ci hom realisour partenent.
/no ˈsɔm ˌideoˌlogofakˈʦjɔn | ˌlastʀavoˈkal lɛnˌgaʦ kosˈtʀɔjt e ˌl...
Conlangery Shorts 32: Lexember Themes
George talks a little bit about how choosing a theme for Lexember can be helpful for your conlanging.
Original script
Welcome to Conlangery, the podcast about constructed languages and the people who create them. I’m George Corley.
I went on social media recently to ask what people wanted covered before Lexember and got some great suggestions. The one that I’m going to cover today is creating your words based on a theme. Many lexember entrants do themes throughout the month or follow lists of prompt words from places like ConWorkShop, and...
Conlangery Shorts 31: Listen Like a Conlanger — Child Language
George talks a little about little tidbits of his daughter’s linguistic development, and talks about how listening to child language might help conlangers find inspiration.
Conlangery 143: Music of Aeniith
Margaret Ransdell-Green and Eric Barker come on to talk about the music they created for Margaret’s concultures in the world of Aeniith, which they performed at LCC8.
Top of Show Greeting: Muipidan
Transcript
PDFDownload Plain TextDownload{00:00:00}
{Greeting}
{Music}
George: Welcome to Conlangery, the podcast about constructed languages and the people who create them. I’m George Corley. With me in Hawaii, we have Margaret Ransdell-Green.
Margaret: Hello.
George: Also, Eric Barker.
Eric: Nice to be here.
George: Yes. All right. So, if you have listened to – what is it – Conlangery 140, I think, where we covered the 8th Language Cr...
Conlangery 142: Mike McCubbins on Anasazi (comic)
We bring Mike McCubbins on to talk about his new Kickstarter project, Anasazi, a comic which uses simple constructed written languages to tell a story in a visual medium.
You can find the Kickstarter here!
Top of Show Greeting: Salbécyk / Salbekian
Conlangery 141: The Eighth Language Creation Conference
George brings on Christophe and Joey to talk about their experience at the Eighth Language Creation Conference. We also have clips from interviews Joey made at the conference.
Top of Show Greeting: Bizhida
Links:
8th Language Creation ConferenceLivestream: Day 1, Day 2
