#kēlen

[dedalvs]

Announcing a New Conlang Conference: Kopikon

Jessie Sams and I are hosting a conlang conference called Kopikon at Georgetown University on Saturday, September 23rd. So far we'll be having talks from the following:

David Peterson (House of the Dragon, The 100)

Jessie Sams (Shadow and Bone, Motherland: Fort Salem)

Carl Buck (Halo)

John Quijada (creator of Ithkuil)

Sally Caves (creator of Teonaht and Reginald Barclay)

Sylvia Sotomayor (creator of Kēlen)

Marc Okrand (Star Trek)

More to be announced soon! If you're interested, you can register here.

[yourfavespeaksaconlang]

baba would probably know kēlen, let’s be honest

Baba from Baba Is You speaks Kēlen!

[janmisali]

Kēlen

[dedalvs]

Kopikon Live Stream (September 23, 2023)

This is the official live stream link for Kopikon: A Conlang Conference! It was held at Georgetown University on September 23rd, 2023 from 1

Kopikon is coming!!! Kopikon is a conlang conference to be held at Georgetown University on September 23rd, 2023. It's a live in person event, but I'm now happy to report WE WILL BE LIVE STREAMING! The link above is your live stream link! Save it, and come check it out on September 23rd! The schedule is below:

10:00 a.m. Opening remarks by Jessie & David

10:15 a.m. Sally Caves

10:45 a.m. Carl Buck

11:15 a.m. Break (20 minutes)

11:35 a.m. Sylvia Sotomayor

12:00 p.m. David Peterson

12:30 p.m. Lunch (90 minutes)

2:00 p.m. Paul Frommer

2:30 p.m. John Quijada

3:15 p.m. Break (30 minutes)

3:45 p.m. Music (Jillian and Andrew Aversa)

4:15 p.m. Jessie Sams

4:45 p.m. Break (15 minutes)

5:00 p.m. Biblaridion

5:45 p.m. Marc Okrand

6:30 p.m. Closing remarks by David & Jessie

Thanks for your patience! We look forward to you tuning in!

[dedalvs]

Lexember (December 22nd)

Today's Valyrian glyph is atroksia "owl". As someone pointed out, this word actually came from a Tumblr contest a while back, and was named after a user with the handle Atrox! So that's why it's that way. Bit of trivia. Duolingo commissioned an actual sword to give away as a contest for whoever earned the most experience in the High Valyrian Duolingo course concurrent with the release of House of the Dragon. With my blessing, they created a new glyph for atroksia (as an inscription on the blade) that looked more like Duo than this owl. I thought it was great. I can't find an image of it (one side had the Romanization the other side had the glyphs), and I'd show you a picture of mine, but DUOLINGO DIDN'T GIVE ME ONE. Still salty about that.

Oh, by the way, the word sylvia "wisdom" was coined in honor of Sylvia Sotomayor, easily a top three conlanger all time. She's the creator of Kēlen.

[dedalvs]

Kopikon Presenters: Sylvia Sotomayor

Today we continue with introductions to our Kopikon presenters with Sylvia Sotomayor!

Sylvia is a long time conlanger who's well known for her conlang Kēlen (winner of the 2009 Smiley Award). Kēlen is an experiment in creating a conlang without verbs. Kēlen has a series of four operators which relate arguments to one another, and then a whole mass of nouns, including most verbal ideas expressed or conceptualized as nominal concepts (so instead of there being a verb for "to run", the concept of "running" is a noun, and that noun is related to other nouns in much the way that, say, a word like "boy" is related to "mother" in the expression "the boy's mother"). Over the past ten years, Sylvia's been working on new and wild conlang experiments that try to break down both what is necessary in a language, and what is usual.

Sylvia will be following Sally Caves at 11:35 a.m. in Copley Formal Lounge at Georgetown University, September 23rd, 2023. To register, go here. The full schedule is listed below:

10:00 a.m. Opening remarks by David & Jessie

10:15 a.m. Sally Caves

10:45 a.m. Carl Buck

11:15 a.m. Break (20 minutes)

11:35 a.m. Sylvia Sotomayor

12:00 p.m. David Peterson

12:30 p.m. Lunch (90 minutes)

2:00 p.m. Paul Frommer

2:30 p.m. John Quijada

3:15 p.m. Break (30 minutes)

3:45 p.m. Music (Jillian and Andrew Aversa)

4:15 p.m. Jessie Sams

4:45 p.m. Break (15 minutes)

5:00 p.m. Biblaridion

5:45 p.m. Marc Okrand

6:30 p.m. Closing remarks by David & Jessie

[dedalvs]

In your Smiley award for Kēlen: "a language with no nouns? Easy!" My thinking: "a language with no verbs? Easier!" So, for you, my question: this ask here, fully without verbs?

Little awkward, but very impressive! You should try a kids book that teaches children parts of speech. Have one without verbs, one without nouns, one without adjectives, etc. lol

[dedalvs]

What are some conlang you feel are underrated/more empleo need to know about and learn them?

Know about, plenty. Learn them…? None, unless you want to…? Learning to actually speak/use a conlang is something that goes beyond appreciating it. You need not learn a conlang to appreciate it. It’s an investment to learn any language, so you shouldn’t feel pressured to learn a language, created or otherwise, unless you want to.

As for languages I think more people should take a look at, I actually have a growing list, in that I’ve been giving an award to a conlang every year for the past twelve years. It’s called the Smiley Award. If you follow that link, I have a write up for all twelve of the languages that have won a Smiley Award, and links to their websites (or archives of their websites, if the websites are no longer on the web). The winners thus far have been Kalusa (group project initiated by Gary Shannon), Teonaht (Sally Caves), Ithkuil (John Quijada), Kēlen (Sylvia Sotomayor), ámman îar (David Bell), Okuna (Matt Pearson), Rikchik (Denis Moskowitz), Brithenig (Andrew Smith), Skerre (Doug Ball), Kash (Roger Mills), Ilaini (Irina Rempt), and Idrani (Trent Pehrson).