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Showing posts from 2009

Conlang Relay & New Insights on Conlanging

The Third Language Creation Conference is THIS WEEKEND ! If you aren't going, it will be simulcast on the web at the previous link. I'll be there, when I'm not working. The podcast is my translation of the conlang relay text into Pitak (pee-tawk) from Kapakwonak. Translation: Li pisu na mul kiso funefemu - I close to sea seated in-a-time En molfos kotiko i a mol fimilu pumo - A wave up-broke and the water over-me swept Li tepo molfous netokwa i ama nami tilwato - I tried the-wave to-not-fight and this to-me happied Li meno onos molfousi pumisu puma - I dreamt about the waves away-me sweeping Wo la tiko, li komanu kuso - When it broke, I continuously-it felt A molfos komanu moso sapwa i pumisu teko - The wave continuously was-able to-go and away-me took First of all, participating in the relay was a great experience for a bunch of reasons, and I highly recommend participating in one on the ZBB or other conlanging forums! One reason was that it forced me to really get int...

Sound Changes - PLUS First Podcast!

Sound changes are when an established sound in a language shifts into another sound or sounds. This is, in my opinion, a fun part of conlanging, and a great way to lend some pseudo-reality or aging into your conlang. However, as my mantra has always been to SIMPLIFY, I need to say up front that this is also a great way to make your conlang much more complicated, so experiment and play with this but use with caution . No language is ever truly static, but is constantly changing and shifting as new cultural influences rise, new celebrities make new things cool (or uncool), and create new vocabulary or import words from other languages, possibly bringing new sounds into the language. In this article by Jeff Henning he mentions sound changes and shows a table of common sound changes (look for a 10 X 9 table). Sound changes can be something that happen over time in a language, or in a region (New England vs. Southern vs. California dude accents) and/or something grammatical. I wanted to s...

Free Font Creation

I want to share some new resources I just found out about. This is for everyone that wants their own font for their conlangs, but don't want to spend the money for font software. Go to www.yourfonts.com NOW, and follow the easy steps. You can have your own conlang font in MINUTES for FREE. It doesn't get any easier or cheaper than this, folks. This is designed for you to make a font out of your own handwriting in English, but there's no reason it can't work for conlanging purposes! If you don't want a hand-written font, the other resource I found is called FontStruct and you can check it out at Fontstruct.com . Free!

Deconstructing Ubese - a Star Wars conlang extrapolation

And now for something completely different. I don't know about you, but I was always intrigued by the language Boushh/Leia spoke in Return of the Jedi. There were only a few examples of it in the film: "Yatay, yatay, yotoh," supposedly meant "I have come for the bounty on this wookie." "Yotoh, yotoh" = "$50,000, no less." "Ey, yotoh" = C-3PO paraphrases this as "Because he's holding a thermal detenator!" "Yatoh, cha" = C-3PO paraphrases this as "He agrees." There is something else Boushh/Leia says after the business with Jabba is concluded but I can't really make it out. But the 'yatay yotoh' stuff is what fascinates me. After a bit of searching I discovered that it was called Ubese . After all this research into linguistics and blogging about conlangs, I thought it would be fun to explore an unknown language, and see if I can deconstruct it, and extrapolate on it. Of course, ...