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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
We unveil the results of the a posteriori challenge introduced in episode 56. Patrons helped us create a whole family of Wokuthízhű languages for communities of kangaroo rats, and the results are absolutely delightful! I have attached the slides for this presentation (really, a must for seeing all the amazing data set comparisons), and I’ve […]
In this episode, we introduce the next LangTime conlang challenge: you get a chance to create an a posteriori conlang sketch built on Wokuthízhű! Tune in to find out the details, including information about the speakers of this new language. Attached here are the slideshow for the episode and guidelines for the challenge (both in […]
In this episode, David and I discuss some of the a posteriori conlangs we have worked on. It is a brief intermission between two conlang challenges in our five-part mini-series on conlanging from existing material!
It’s the long-awaited episode, where we discuss results from the (in)famous FrameLang Challenge! This is a continuation of Episode 53, which introduces the challenge. All participants worked with the same data set: a sampling of English names, phrases, and clauses, which had to be treated as a base for a new conlang. It’s the same […]
This episode begins a five-part miniseries exploring ways to conlang using pre-existing material. In this episode, we discuss some of the processes we use when we need to incorporate material from books (material that was created without the structure of a language) in a conlang. I set out a challenge for the month, which requires […]
I submitted the manuscript of the textbook I’ve been writing for four years now, so David chose the book as the topic for this podcast. We talk about the overall structure of the book, my goals in writing it, and some features in its current state.
In this episode, we chat about designing glyphs. David designs two glyphs based on an image of a chicken that I drew as a starting point. One glyph is in the style of High Valyrian, while the second is a style inspired by Sarkezhe. I’ve attached the images of the chickens that I drew for […]
This is a special episode of LangTime Chat based on a career-focused presentation I gave at Georgetown University in September 2023 (right before Kopikon). David has been encouraging me ever since to record it as a podcast episode, and I’ve finally listened and done it. It’s a bit shorter than a typical episode, but I […]
We were finally able to see Dune 2 in the theater this past weekend, which means we finally saw and heard our work on the Chakobsa language in the film! And in this episode, we chat about the experience of seeing the movie and working on the film. At the beginning of the episode, David […]
In this episode, we chat about tense and aspect in this episode, and you get to witness the unveiling of a new LangTime animation! On a podcast! (What better way of podcasting is there but to use visuals?) All joking aside, we use an animation to present a small set of events and discuss ways […]
In this episode, we talk about linguistic theory and its place in conlanging. As a spoiler alert, we specifically talk about how theoretical approaches are not so helpful to the art of language invention. I’ve attached the PDF of slides we use throughout the episode, some of which have visual examples of theoretical approaches to […]
In this episode, we chat about tackling academic linguistics articles, providing strategies for approaching articles and figuring out if they will be helpful to you or not. This episode is especially dedicated to anyone who has tried picking up linguistics articles but then feels overwhelmed because, well, academic articles are generally kind of notoriously cumbersome […]
This is a Jessie-only kind of episode. In it, I walk through my thought processes as I attempt to get ready to translate a passage into Zhwadi. It focuses on how I’m thinking through decisions rather than on the actual creation of roots/words/items. The goal is to demonstrate just how much translation can help when […]
We give a recap of our glorious day of conlang fun, otherwise known as Kopikon. In this episode, we give a rundown of the speakers and their talks from the day, which we hope will be especially useful for anyone who couldn’t attend and wants to know more about what went on that day. We […]
David and I discuss common expressions in languages, including greetings and thanks. We hope it inspires you to think about some of these kinds of expressions in your own languages! (The slides used during the episode are attached here, though they really just provide the words we talk about. You can, however, see just how […]
In this episode, we wrap up our discussion of some best practices and other advice for Romanizing a conlang. While chatting, we used a Pages document to take some random notes, and a PDF of that document is attached here. (When I say random, though, I mean it. The notes won’t make sense without listening […]
In this episode, we begin a discussion on Romanization, talking about goals for Romanization and differences between an orthography, phonetic transcription, and Romanization. The PDF of the slides we used in the beginning of the episode is attached here. We didn’t quite make it to the “best practices” portion, so we are extending this discussion […]
In this episode, we talk about the kinds of information that make a conlang’s written grammar more helpful and accessible to other conlangers who want to learn about your language. (And also that make it better for you to keep track of your own language!) We provide examples from conlangers’ grammars to show strategies you […]
Jessie put together a trivia game for David based on language features provided in Grambank’s database (https://grambank.clld.org/)! You can play along as you listen, and you can also download the attached PDF to see all the features and examples discussed.
We wrap up our discussion of types of borrowings in the history of the English language and end with some book recommendations for anyone interested in learning more! At one point, we discuss the ampersand, so I’ve attached a fun poster here to show what we mean.
This episode is (quite accidentally) the first of a two-part discussion on borrowing and the history of the English language. We talk about different types of borrowing into English in the hopes that it might inspire you as you think about ways your conlang may borrow from another language. The PDF of the slides used […]
In this episode, we discuss conlang relays, providing an introduction to what they are and what participants can expect from them. We use some past conlang relays to give examples of how texts shift as relays progress. One of the relays we discuss specifically is the LCC5 Relay. If you want to check out the […]
David leads this episode where we discuss the many options for expansion animals that Patrons are currently voting on. We hope this helps inform your decisions about what animals you’d like to see in future seasons of LangTime!
In this episode, we focus on Kezhwa, the conlang we created for Amazon’s Paper Girls TV series. We are excited to share details about the language with you because we had so much fun working on it! A PDF with the slides we used throughout the recording is attached. Enjoy!
In this episode, David turns the tables on me and provides a list of words I need to create through compound, derivation, and grammaticalization strategies from the same root list used in Episode 32. You can see the words David selected for me to create in the attached PDF of the presentation we used, and […]
In this episode, titled “Create That Word!”, we play a new LangTime Chat game! We play a game where I provide David with a list of words that are basic roots in a not-as-yet-created language (all roots are English counterparts—not phonological forms), and he has to create strategies for forming new words. They aren’t just […]
In this episode, we talk about strategies for creating a conlang language family. The presentation slides we use throughout the episode are attached to this post so you can follow along if you need visual references. We hope you enjoy the episode!
