#lhab

[dedalvs]

Me, Jessie Peterson, Biblaridion, Keras, and Jake Penny in front of the Rosetta Stone.

[levunalangs]

This Tuesday, join me and Jake of @letshaveabouba as we livestream the creation of a language for Capybaras! It’ll be at 4:30-6:00 PM EDT, and the link below should show you what time it is for you:

It’ll be the first of two parts in which Jake and I revisit a language sketch that we started at the beginning of last year. The project stalled for various reasons but we both really liked a lot of the ideas we came up with for it, so we’re going back to it!

We’ll start by looking over what we’ve done so far to see what we can do with it. That might mean picking up where we left off, competely restarting with some of the same basic ideas, or, most likely, something in between. Regardless, it should be a fun time! I’m sure we’ll stay completely on topic and won’t get side-tracked at all.

As a little preview, here are some key words in Proto-Capybaran and the modern language, or at least the latest stage we got to:

*dzuət → dzᵝot “to speak”

*neʔmui → nèmwi “squirrel monkey”

*kasiil → kasíl “spider monkey”

*dzəur → dzór “river”

*xər → ɣr “rock”

*nəʔ → n “nose”

[infiniteshawn]

Let’s Have A Baby | Dad!Shawn | Part 10

soft and fluffy, sharing the news with Shawn’s parents

You sat around the table with Shawn’s family, eating dinner in silence. Shawn was to your left and Aaliyah to your right, Karen and Manny across from you. You were waiting for a cue from Shawn, something to signal the conversation you’d come over here to have. Karen was eyeing you, waiting for it, but Manny and Aaliyah were completely oblivious to the child growing in your stomach.

Waiting for Shawn to speak up, your fingers rubbed little circles on his denim-clad thigh underneath the table. He laced your hand with his, bringing it up to his lips and planting a soft kiss on each of your knuckles before he cleared his throat.

“There’s a reason we’re here, guys,” Shawn spoke, calm as ever, meanwhile you felt like your stomach was about to fall out of your ass. How the hell was he keeping his shit together right now?

“Mmmm?” Manny responded, twirling his fork in his spaghetti. You watched as Karen set her utensils down on her plate, resting her chin on her hands as she fought the smile creeping up her lips.

“There’s kind of something we need to tell you,” you added, sitting up a bit in your chair. Aaliyah remained silent, unsure of what the hell was about to come out of your mouth.

Manny set his cutlery down and turned to Shawn, focusing all of his attention on you guys. You could see disappointment crossing his face, as Shawn’s serious tone was kind of alluding to divorce, which was so incredibly far from reality.

“Dad, it’s not what you think,” Shawn giggled, looking over at you with stars in his eyes. Precious. Karen now had her hand over her mouth, tears forming in the corners of her eyes while you were still shitting a brick.

“We’re pregnant,” Shawn spoke, his face erupting in a wide, toothy smile. We’re pregnant, he said. Not you’re pregnant. We. He was so soft.

You tilted your head to rest on his shoulder, but it wasn’t long before Karen was out of her seat and pulling you up for a hug. “You serious?” Aaliyah asked, a grin gracing her face. Shawn nodded, focusing his attention back to his father, who still hadn’t spoke. 

“Dad, you okay?” Shawn asked, placing a large hand on Manny’s shoulder. Karen had released you from her death-grip, and you each stared at your husbands, watching for what was going to happen next. 

Manny looked up a Shawn as his face broke into a smile, “Come here!” he exclaimed, pulling Shawn into an embrace, motioning for you to join in. Shawn let go first, stepping over to his sister to give her a hug.

“Congratulations, Auntie Aaliyah,” he said through his smile, closing his eyes and enjoying the moment. You sat back down, suddenly hungry again. They took it so well and you were able to collect yourself, free of nerves. 

“Six weeks,” Karen said, looking down at her food.

A look of shock crossed Manny’s face as he looked from his son to his wife, “You knew?” he asked, a tinge of hurt lacing his voice.

Karen stuttered on her words, and you spoke up to defend her, “She pulled it out of me ages ago. Could tell something was off and then asked, and I couldn’t lie. She knew before Shawn did,” you said, meeting your father-in-law’s gaze. He let out a sigh of relief.

Shawn’s hand had found your knee under the table, and you were completely at peace. Everything was going to be fine, and you had the best family anyone could ask for by your side.

Manny and Karen asked all sorts of questions over dessert, from names to the ultrasound to how Shawn was going to handle his next tour with a family back in Toronto. You were a little overwhelmed and explained that you’re taking everything day-by-day, and it was true, you were too excited to be experiencing this with Shawn to even worry about that stuff. You said your goodbyes and headed out to the Jeep, Shawn holding your hand all the way to the passenger door. He planted a little kiss in your cheek before you got in, and then closed the door behind you and jogged over to the driver’s side.

You waved to his family at the front door as Shawn pulled out of the driveway and cruised down the suburban street, his tattooed hand lacing with yours. After a few minutes, he spoke, “You know my dad’s gonna give me a talk, right?”

“What? What do you mean?” you asked, puzzled by what Manny possibly needed to tell Shawn at this point. He had been handling his own life perfectly, what was he doing wrong?

“You know. My job, maintaining a family, how hard it is. But he doesn’t really get it,” Shawn released your hand to scratch as his scalp, bringing it back down to play with your fingers, “We’re so strong, hun. I’m not worried, I’m really not. I love you so much,” his voice broke and you looked over at him. His eyes were trained on the road as a little tear fell down his right cheek.

“Oh, honey,” you said, pulling his hand up to your mouth to give it a little kiss, “Shawn, baby, I love you. You don’t have to worry about anything, okay? We’re gonna be fine,” you spoke, rubbing his hand with your thumb. 

The whole ride home was pretty quiet, Shawn’s fingers never leaving yours. He pulled into the underground parking complex and put the Jeep in its spot, and then the two of you walked over to the elevators and got up to your condo, Shawn’s hand on your lower back the entire time. Once he closed the front door behind you, he pulled you into a hug, holding your head with his massive hand.

“I love you,” he whispered in your ear, squeezing you a little tighter as he planted a kiss on your head, “To bed?” he asked, already pulling you toward the bedroom.

You changed into your pyjamas and Shawn stripped down to his boxer briefs, peeling back the covers and pulling you tight to his chest. Within minutes he was out cold, completely at peace with the world.

You admired his face in the soft city light streaming in through the windows, wondering how you ever got so lucky to call someone like him your own. 

[dedalvs]

Do you have any personal language making projects that you fiddle with as of currently?

I appreciate the sentiment of the question, but (a) no language project I've ever worked on, personal or otherwise, is finished, so even if I haven't worked on a language in over ten years it doesn't mean I'm not working on it; and (b) I draw absolutely no distinction between languages I've created for television shows and films and those I've created on my own. I consider every language I've ever created an open project, and I'm liable to work on any of them at any time. In fact, I'm going to have to dust off Megdevi as I agreed to use it in a relay coming up next year…

[dedalvs]

Hey, I wanted to share some conlang news with you all. A friend of mine named Jake Penny just released a video describing their creation of a new conlang—Pankashku—for the movie Madame Web.

Now if you've actually seen Madame Web (unlikely, I know), you may recall not hearing a conlang in it at all. This is because the actual Pankashku dialogue that Jake translated for the film was cut in its entirety, and Jake was not credited.

As a professional conlanger, I can tell you this does happen, and it always sucks, but it especially sucks when it happens with your first and only job. Jake isn't alone this. Bill Welden created a conlang for the movie Noah, and it, too, was cut and Bill wasn't credited. Both were paid, and, of course, the contract states that your work will be used at the company's discretion (which includes not at all), so it wasn't like they were taken advantage of, but when your work isn't used and you're not credited it means no one hears about you, and industry word of mouth doesn't spread to get you future work. It really, really sucks, given that there are so few opportunities for conlang artists to be compensated for their work.

That is why I'm sharing this here! If you're interested, please give it a watch, but if not, please reblog it around, if you would. A lot of work goes into creating a language, and the least we can hope is that our work will be heard/seen and appreciated.

Also, if you'd like to support Jake, they and Miles Wronkovich have a YouTube series/podcast which you can support on Patreon here.

Thanks for your time! <3

[dedalvs]

Kopikon II Presenters: Jake Penny

Kopikon II is about three months away, so I'm presenting each speaker in the order they’ll be presenting on October 10th at the University of Edinburgh. Up second: Jake Penny.

Jake is the cohost of the YouTube series Let's Have a Bouba, which streams every Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. Pacific Time (and, yes, today, is Tuesday!). Jake is a long time conlanger with an academic background in language and linguistics, and they also contributed the language Pankashkú to Sony's Madame Web, only to have it cut (for that whole story check out their video recap here).

Jake will be batting second at Kopikon II for us at 1:50 p.m. at the University of Edinburgh (George Square), October 10th, 2025. To register, go here. The full schedule is listed below:

1:00 p.m. Opening remarks by David & Jessie

1:10 p.m. Keras Saryan

1:50 p.m. Jake Penny

2:30 p.m. Biblaridion

3:10 p.m. Intermission (20 minutes)

3:30 p.m. David Peterson

4:10 p.m. Jessie Peterson

4:50 p.m. Closing remarks by David & Jessie

[dedalvs]

The latest Fiat Lingua is a grammar of Yaatláw, a language created by Jake Penny (creator of the Pankashku language from Madame Webb) and Miles Wronkovich, collectively the pair behind the YouTube series Let's Have a Bouba. It's good stuff; check it out!

[dedalvs]

Let's Have a Relay: Jake's Ring

The second half of the second let's have a relay, this time we see David fulfil his promise to use Megdevi, and see if this time the structu

In two and a half hours Jake's ring of the Let's Have a Bouba Relay will be unveiled, and you'll get to hear the first text in Megdevi in 20 years. You...may want to miss it.