Nicolaus

#Linguistics, #philology and #conlanging. Member of fiatlingua and valyrianwiki editor. My Twitter: @NicoCampi For lovers of #Tolkien and elvish: lambendil For lovers of High #Valyrian: valyrianwiki

[fenmere]

Hello! Do you know any nice and active conlanging communities? Besides Reddit.

Reddit is super toxic and it makes me feel like crap every time I use it, so my system is declaring it forbidden territory, but I hadn't find anything to replace r/conlangs.

I'd also like somewhere I could be openly plural since our conlangs are depply rooted in our system and I don't like to keep changing stuff and hiding information to present to others.

Unfortunately, no.

We did most of our work on our conlangs in 2014 in r/conlangs, and haven't been back there since. Back then, it wasn't so toxic and was a great little community. But, peeking in since we have not seen anything encouraging. So, we're kind of in the same boat as you.

If anybody else has any leads, we've got two systems here now looking for good conlanging resources and communities.

[fiatlingua]

Have you considered looking into or even joining the Language Creation Society? We're a striving community on top of being an organisation devoted to supporting and promoting conlanging.

We also have a communities page (which we try to keep updated but as it's a manual process it will not contain every conlanging community under the sun). Have a look, there may be a community there for you.

[nicoconlangs]

Actually I think your best bet would be Facebook, there’s a great community there which I’m sure are gonna make both of you feel very welcome and free! The group name is Constructed Languages.

[fiatlingua]

10th Language Creation Conference Video Links

Last weekend was the 10th Language Creation Conference, and it was a big success!

If you missed it (or if you want to watch the presentations again), don't worry: everything was recorded, and the recordings (fully captioned!) are available on our YouTube channel. Go over there if you want to (re-)watch:

The Day 1 livestream;

The Day 2 livestream.

The presentations are also all available as separate videos assembled into the LCC10 Playlist.

In the coming weeks we will also feature every presentation video on this tumblr, so keep an eye on us!

Thanks to the presenters, audience, live captioner, and everyone else who was involved in making this conference a success. We'll see everyone again at the 11th Language Creation Conference, this time hopefully face to face!

Fiat Lingua!

[dedalvs]

A textbook called Grammatical Theory by Stefan Müller just came out, and man, he's dropping some truth bombs!

Furthermore, the claim that first language acquisition is effortless and rapid when compared to second language acquisition is a myth as has been shown by estimations by Klein (1986: 9): if we assume that children hear linguistic utterances for five hours a day (as a conservative estimate), then in the first five years of their lives, they have 9100 hours of linguistic training. But at the age of five, they have still not acquired all complex constructions. In comparison, second-language learners, assuming the necessary motivation, can learn the grammar of a language rather well in a six-week crash course with twelve hours a day (500 hours in total).

And then...

In Chapter 13, it was shown that all the evidence that has previously been brought forward in favor of innate linguistic knowledge is in fact controversial. In some cases, the facts are irrelevant to the discussion and in other cases, they could be explained in other ways. Sometimes, the chains of argumentation are not logically sound or the premises are not supported. In other cases, the argumentation is circular. As a result, the question of whether is innate linguistic knowledge remains unanswered. All theories that presuppose the existence of this kind of knowledge are making very strong assumptions.

In short: Human linguistic abilities aren't magic, and children aren't elves.

In meme form:

[fiatlingua]

Orthographies: Enriching Language Creation and World Building, by Margaret Ransdell-Green for the LCC9

[dedalvs]

Fiat Lingua Top 10 for 2022

It's been a good year over at Fiat Lingua, the once-monthly conlang journal that's been posting steadily since September, 2011. I created Fiat Lingua over ten years ago with the idea that it could be something like the Rutgers Optimality Archive: A place where conlangers could post work that either they wanted to showcase, or work that was in progress. We've had tons of contributors over the years, and some standout work I'm really proud of.

Behind the scenes, we have a number of metrics available to us, and one of them allows us to know what the top posts are over a given amount of time. So, for fun, here are the top 10 visited posts for this year (though, note, the numbers for the December post will be down a little bit, since it didn't have a full month. Still, though, it's incredible, so if you get a chance, take a look at this full novel Jim Hopkins wrote in his language Itlani).

NUMBER 10

We have a tie...

"Moya Abugida" (June, 2022) by Carl Buck: A detailed description of how to write the unique abugida of the Moya language.

"Die Wichtigkeit von Conlangs in Medien" (November, 2021) by Jonah Behring: A German language article on the importance of using authentically created conlangs in films and television shows.

NUMBER 9

"Wóxtjanato: A grammar" (January, 2022) by Jessie Sams: A conlang by the amazing @quothalinguist about a culture whose planet has suddenly and unexpectedly acquired a second moon.

NUMBER 7

We have a tie...

"Names Aren't Neutral: David J. Peterson on Creating a Fantasy Language" (March, 2019) by David J. Peterson: This was an article I wrote for an online magazine, but then the magazine went under, so I reclaimed it and put it up on Fiat Lingua. It's about why coming with "random" names for sff can often prove problematic.

"Tone for Conlangers: A Basic Introduction" (April, 2018) by Aidan Aannestad: A lot of conlangers are interested in having tone in their language, but don't really know how to go about it, and this is a great introduction.

NUMBER 6

"Afrihili: An African Interlanguage" (April, 2014) by William S. Annis: Afrihili is an a posteriori auxlang from the late 60s that uses Bantu languages as its source, and it is fascinating! One of my all-time favorite auxlangs, and William provides a wonderful introduction.

NUMBER 5

"An Itlani Wedding Blessing" (August, 2014) by James E. Hopkins: A lovely wedding blessing Jim wrote for, if I remember right, a friend's daughter who was getting married.

NUMBER 4

"Dothraki & the Nostratic Super Family" (February, 2015) by Charlotte Peak: For her MA thesis, Charlotte wrote a paper on how Dothraki could fit into the theoretical Nostratic super family. A fun read!

NUMBER 3

"Patterns of Allophony" (April, 2015) by William S. Annis: Definitely one of the most popular papers on Fiat Lingua, William illustrates graphically a number of very common sound changes.

NUMBER 2

"Slides for Linguistics 183: The Linguistics of Game of Thrones and the Art of Language Invention" (September, 2018) by David J. Peterson: In the summer of 2017 I taught a class on language creation at UC Berkeley. I uploaded all the slides I used in that course as one massive .pdf to Fiat Lingua.

And now for the top viewed article for 2022 on Fiat Lingua...

NUMBER 1

"A Conlanger's Thesaurus" (September, 2014) by William S. Annis: This is consistently the most accessed article on Fiat Lingua, and I don't expect that to change. The article is relatively short, compared to the information and use you can get out of it. William Annis details ways in which languages relate words to other similar words. For conlangers who struggle either with coming up with words that are different from English in meaning, or who struggle with coming up with words at all, this reference article should prove very useful. Using the word maps in this article, you might be able to come up with words you never dreamt of before, but words which could exist in some language. A great resource for conlangers who are desperately trying to break out of the influence of their L1 or L2!

* * * * *

And that's it for 2022! I'm looking forward to posting more conlang articles next year. If you are a conlanger, a conlang-researcher, or conlang fan who has something to say in .pdf format about a conlang or conlanging in general, please consider submitting something to Fiat Lingua! We take any and all articles related to conlanging in whatever form you have them. I'm also happy to help you think up ideas, or refine those ideas you have. There is no strong review like in a fancy journal: I just want to get what you have up. I'm especially in interested in hosting personal conlang stories—stories about how or why you started to create a language, or your experience creating your own language—personal stories that are often lost, but are so vital, as there is an absolute dearth of literature about conlangers! If you think you have even the seed of an idea, please get a hold of me! I want to share as many stories and ideas as I can.

[nicoconlangs]

Learning and education in Anglo-Saxon England

https://www.bl.uk/anglo-saxons/articles/learning-and-education-in-anglo-saxon-england

Learning and education in Anglo-Saxon England

What was it like to be a student in early medieval England? We go on a journey from the Anglo-Saxon church to the classroom, and also encoun

[fiatlingua]

Announcement: Call for Presentations for the 10th Language Creation Conference

The Language Creation Society is currently accepting submissions from those wishing to present at the 10th Language Creation Conference (LCC 10). LCC 10 will be a virtual conference, hosted on Zoom and YouTube live on April 22–23, 2023.

To submit an abstract for presentation, please email your abstract to president<at>conlang<;dot>org by January 23, 2023.

Your abstract should not exceed 250 words (title/authors, pictures/graphs/figures, and references do not count towards word limit) and include the following important information:

Title

Author(s) names (with optional affiliation)

Author(s) email address(es)

Your local time zone (will be used for scheduling presentation of successful abstracts)

After January 23rd, we will review abstracts and provide notifications of acceptance/decline by February 22, 2023. Note: The length of presentations will not be finalized until presentations are confirmed. We will aim for presenters to have a 30-minute window, including a 10-minute question period; a select few presenters will be offered a 60-minute slot, including a 15-minute question period. Talks devoted to a specific conlang will be considered for lightning talks, which will be 15 minutes, including a 5-minute question period. These times may be adjusted based on requirements of the final program.

Additionally, we are also seeking proposals for panel discussions. You may submit a proposal for a panel discussion on a topic relevant to conlanging (Examples: at LCC 7, we had a panel discussion on the role of conlanging in the academy; at LCC 8, we had a panel discussion on conlangs in popular fiction; and at LCC 9, we had a panel discussion on the benefits of natlang study groups for conlangers). If you wish to submit a panel proposal, please give a short description of the topic to be discussed; a couple example questions that the moderator could start off the discussion with; and three-to-five panelists to populate the panel, with a brief bio for each panelist. You should discuss the proposal with your suggested panelists before submission to confirm that the panelists are willing to be involved, and that they plan to attend the conference.

All documents should be submitted in PDF format.

Stay tuned: More information on LCC 10 will be available soon, and in the New Year, we will announce the call for participants for the LCC 10 conlang relay!

Fiat Lingua!

[fiatlingua]

Creating New Verbs in Okuna: Motion, Means, and Manner, by Matt Pearson for the LCC9

[nicoconlangs]

http://www.languagecrawler.com/2016/07/25-must-see-movies-featuring-linguists.html?m=1

25 Must-See Movies Featuring Linguists, Linguistics and Languages

A blog about languages and linguistics for linguaphiles, polyglots, language lovers & language geeks

[fiatlingua]

Benefits of Natlang Study Groups for Conlangers, Panel by Kearsey, Walker, Aannestad, & Chatterjee for the LCC9

[nicoconlangs]

http://www.lingoblog.dk/en/lingolit-a-linguists-quarantine-reading-guide/

LingoLit: A Linguist’s Quarantine Reading Guide

Blogger’s note: I originally wrote this blog entry with the intention of asking the editors of Lingoblog to release it shortly before the su

[fiatlingua]

MAGN(idea) = big: colocations for lexicon building, by William S. Annis for the LCC9

[lambendil]

i Perian. The Hobbit. Quenya in Quenya mode.

[lambendil]

Gondolin. Beleriand mode.

[lambendil]

Eldar ar Atani. Elves and Men. Quenya mode.

[nicoconlangs]

https://oldnorse.org/runes/

Old Norse Runes

old norse, old norse language, viking, viking language, torfi rulinius, university of iceland, haskoli islands, gods, old norse gods, archae

[nicoconlangs]

https://www.academia.edu/41751521/Grammaticalization_in_creole_languages_Accelerated_functionalization_and_semantic_imitation

Grammaticalization in creole languages: Accelerated functionalization and semantic imitation

Grammaticalization in creole languages: Accelerated functionalization and semantic imitation