sign in sign up
<<
Home , A (musical note), Balaibalan, Constructed language, Constructed script, Damin, D (musical note)

Constructed

Day 2 - What is ConLang? ▪ We talked about “Far Cry Primal” ▪ Now let’ talk about you

–What brings you to ConLangs? What is a ConLang?

▪ Short for “Constructed ” ▪ I.., not a “” (NatLang)

Artistic Languages

▪ , , and Dothraki are all ArtLangs ▪ ArtLangs are “created for aesthetic, fictional, or otherwise artistic purposes” (Peterson, 2015: 21) Famous ConLangs

▪ First appearances of what modern scholars call ConLangs were for religious / magical purposes

1. , 12th . CE 2. (Baleybelen), 14th c. CE 3. , 16th c. CE 4. (???)

▪ Many consider these to be ArtLangs as well Lingua Ignota, 12th c. CE

▪ St. Hildegard von Bingen – , Christian mystic – Suffered from terrible migraines – Viewed as source of religious visions – Patron saint of ConLangers Lingua Ignota, 12th c. CE

▪ In early 1140s, . Bingen received command from God to write down what she experienced – Divine revelation led to list of 1012 , which primarily have to do with church ▪ Glossary from Ignota lingua per simplicem hominem Hildegardem prolata

▪ aigonz "God" ▪ zizia "beard" ▪ aieganz "angel" ▪ galschiriz "battle ▪ inimois "human being" axe" ▪ iur "" ▪ ualueria "bat" ▪ vanix "woman" ▪ gabia "quail" ▪ peueriz "father" ▪ gluziaz ▪ maiz "mother" "spearmint" ▪ limzkil "infant" ▪ orschibuz "oak" ▪ subizo "servant" ▪ sapiduz "bee" Lingua Ignota : Example

O orzchis Ecclesia, armis divinis praecincta, et hyacinto ornata, tu caldemia stigmatum loifolum et urbs scienciarum. , o tu es etiam crizanta in alto sono, et es chorzta gemma. Conjectured : O measureless Church, girded with divine arms and adorned with jacinth, you are the fragrance of the wounds of nations and the city of . O, o, and you are anointed amid noble sound, and you are a sparkling gem. Ritual ConLangs : Balaibalan ▪ Created in Timurid or Safavid , in 14 - 15th century CE – Creator ▪ mystic Fadel Allah (Fazlullah) from Asterabad, founder of – Sufi doctrine, Azerbaijan ▪ or one of his followers ▪ or Muhyi-i Gulshani of Edirne, member of the Gulshani sufi order of Cairo – Means “Giving tongues to the tongue” in Balaibalan Ritual ConLangs : Balaibalan

▪ Only existing source of language is the Baleybelen- in the Bibliotheque nationale de & the Princeton U library Ritual ConLangs : Balaibalan (14th-15th c. CE)

▪ Lexically, by and large an a priori language (vs. a posteriori) – ConLang whose features are not based on existing languages – Perhaps a secret language, designed as a holy or poetic language for religious purposes – Why? Was believed that each time God reveals himself to humans, was done so in a new language (Abraham [Hebrew], Jesus [Aramaic], Muhammad [], etc.) – Language viewed as a sign that new revelation would happen soon ▪ However, looks to Persian, Turkish, & Arabic – E.., agglutinative ▪ Written in Ottoman variant of Arabic abjad g gh p v c Balaibalan v u i s a e Balaibalan : Example

-at ‘INF’ ▪ karat ‘to do’ -a ‘PROG’ ▪ karea ‘doing’ -e ‘DESID’ ▪ kare ‘want to do’ -i ‘PST’ ▪ kari ‘did’ -u ‘perfective’ ▪ karu ‘done’ ▪ eba kar ‘will do’ ▪ ebu kar ‘would do’ ▪ rea kar ‘have done’ ▪ reu kar ‘had done’ ▪ shuk kar ‘can do’, etc. Balaibalan : Example

Bašāna y-Āna yafnāna yahabān. Yasnam ray-Ān čunā wazanas ragiwzāwa inaša fājā, afajaš famīma imafnā ra‘ālābī qājā, airfam aimafam ja maknad Sanaš zāt jāma inanšanā ayaxšanā, aja maqri almnābī čunāyā raikarfanā rāyā ya‘šanā.

In the name of God, the Indulgent, the Merciful, Praise (be) to God, the Creator of the origin of all things (as) light, who (as) revelation originated from the mouth of those who praise his signs; ... and prayer and praise (be) to our Lord the Praised (Muhammad), origin of all derived and simple things, and (praise) to his family and his companions, who work for those well-meaning to them as mediator. Ritual Languages : Enochian (late 16th c. CE)

▪ Angelic language recorded by (right) & colleague in England – Dee : occult philosopher, mathematician, astronomer, advisor to Queen Elizabeth I – Kelley: spirit medium Ritual Languages : Enochian (late 16th c. CE)

▪ Claimed language revealed to them by Enochian angels – Why Enochian? Acc. to Dee, Biblical patriarch Enoch last human to know language – Required to perform Enochian Enochian (R to L) Enochian Example, beginning of First Call

Ol sonf vorsg, goho Iad balt, lansh calz vonpho. I reign over you, sayeth the God of Justice, in Power exalted above the Firmaments of Wrath.

Actual new language? Shows signs of glossolalia. (Laycock 2001) Enochian in the Media Ritual Language : Damin (??? - 1980s) ▪ Lardil Demiin ‘being silent’ ▪ Spoken only by initiated men on 3 islands in Gulf of Carpentaria, south of PNG – most notably by Lardil tribe on (Hale 1997) ▪ Lardil & people believe created by mythological feature in the Dreamtime – Scholars believe invented by elders ▪ Only non-African language to use clicks as part of regular phonemic inventory Damin, from Dixon 1980, The

“The striking feature of Damin is its phonology - besides the consonantal inventory of everyday Lardil (six stops, six nasals, a lateral, two rhotics and two semi-), Damin also has four nasalized clicks - bilabial /m!/, dental /nh!/, apico-alveolar /n!/ and apico-domal /n.!/ - an ingressive lateral /L/, a glottalised, or ejective, velar stop /k'/ and an ejective bilabial stop /p'/. No other language in Australia has sounds of this nature; Hale remarks that the nasalised clicks are like those found in Khosian languages of southern Africa but that he knows of no language with sounds like those which he symbolises by /L/ and /p'/ (the latter is formed not with glottalic pressure, but by creating pressure between the tongue and the bilabial closure). Damin has a system of only three vowels, a, i, and u, with contrastive length, whereas everyday Lardil distinguishes long and short varieties of four vowels, a, i, u and e.” Damin, from Dixon 1980, The Languages of Australia

“The phonetician J. C. Catford has pointed out that Damin employs five phonetic initiation types - pulmonic egressive (which characterises ALL sounds in most other Australian languages), pulmonic ingressive (/L/), velaric ingressive (the clicks), velaric egressive (/p'/) and glottalic egressive (/k'/). No other language in the world has this variety of initiation types, leading Catford to 'perhaps hypothesize that [Damin's] sound system is a deliberately invented one.' (Interestingly, the Lardil attribute Damin to a legendary personality called Kalthad 'yellow trevally.')” Damin, from Dixon 1980

“Damin has a small , perhaps no more than 250 words in all. It works mostly in terms of generics - m!i refers to any member of the class of vegetable foods, thuu is used for large sea-dwelling mammals such as dugongs and turtles, thii for elasmobranch fish (stingrays and sharks), Li for bony fish, n!un!u for liquids, and so on. Detailed specification is possible in Damin by appropriate modification of the generic : wiitjpur is the Damin term for various woods and wooden objects but a precise correspondent of Lardil mungkumu 'wooden axe' can be given by m!iwu titi-i-n wiitjpur, literally 'sugar-bag (= honey) chopping stick,' a reference to one of its major uses.” Damin, from Dixon 1980

“There is a Damin form for the negative pole of each major adjectival opposition, the positive term being derived by preposing kuri-, e.g. tjitjuu 'small,' kuritjituu 'large.' While Lardil has nineteen and several , Damin has a two- term opposition, n!a 'ego' and n!u 'other' (no other language in the world is known to lack a contrast between first, second and third person singular pronouns). All bound grammatical forms are, however, identical to everyday Lardil. The fact that the used with Damin words are from Lardil (rather than being related to Lardil) can be seen from the occurrence of the normal four vowels of Lardil in these suffixes, as against the three- system of Damin roots. Damin plainly involves the same semantic and grammatical system as Lardil, although lexical representation is at a more generic level; despite the phonological differences it is essentially a further variety of the Lardil language, rather than being any sort of separate language.” Damin : Example ()

Ordinary ngithu dunji-kan ngawa waang-kur werneng-kiyath- Lardil n ur. gloss my wife's.younger.brother- dog go-fut food-go-fut gen[4] translation My brother-in-law's dog is going to go hunting. Damin n!aa n!2a-kan nh!2u tiitith-ur m!ii-ngkiyath-ur. Other types of ConLangs

▪ Auxlang (auxiliary language): created for international/intercultural – a created ▪ Examples of Auxlangs: a. b.Volapük c. () d., , e. Famous ConLangs

▪ AuxLangs’ purpose is to replace natural languages (NatLangs) as a means of communication across cultures. ▪ Why not already use an existing language? AuxLang : Solresol

▪ Devised by Francois Sudre, a French violinist, composer, and music teacher, in 1827 – His book Langue musicale universelle published 4 years after his death in 1866

▪ Was popular for a short period of time, until the rise of Volapük and Esperanto AuxLang : Solresol AuxLang : Solresol AuxLang : Solresol ▪ Words made from 1-5 syllables (notes) – Syllables may be accented or lengthened – : ▪ Feminine marked by stressed final note – resimire ‘brother’ but resimiré ‘sister’ Solresol Example ▪ marked by lengthened final note – resimiree ‘brothers’, resimiréé ‘sisters’ ▪ Conversion via lengthening as well – midofa ‘to prefer’, miidofa ‘preference’, midoofa ‘preferable’, midofaa ‘preferably’ – Negation ▪ fala ‘good, tasty’ ~ lafa ‘bad’ AuxLang : Volapük

▪ Created by Johann Martin Shleyer, Roman Catholic priest from Baden, , 1879-1880 – Told in a dream by God to create an international language ▪ By 1889: – 283 clubs – 25 periodicals – 316 textbooks in 25 different languages – claimed 1 million adherents (likely too high) – Held 3rd convention on language exclusively in Volapük ▪ this had never been done before … ever AuxLang : Volapük

1880 Schleyer Volapük 1930 de Jong Volapük

O Fat obas, kel binol in süls, O Fat obas, kel binol in süls! paisaludomöz nem ola! Nem olik pasalüdükonöd! Kömomöd monargän ola! Regän ola kömonöd! Jenomöz vil olik, äs in sül, i su tal! Vil olik jenonöd, äsä in sül, i su tal! Bodi obsik vädeliki givolös obes adelo! Givolös obes adelo bodi aldelik obsik! E pardolös obes debis obsik, E pardolös obes döbotis obsik, äs id obs aipardobs debeles obas. äsä i obs pardobs utanes, kels edöbons kol obs. E no obis nindukolös in tendadi; E no blufodolös obis, sod aidalivolös obis de bad. ab livükolös obis de bad! (Ibä dutons lü ol regän, e nämäd e glor jü ün laidüp.) Jenosöd! So binosös! But in 1890... AuxLang : Esperanto (Unua Libra, 1887)

L.L. Zamenhof AuxLang : Esperanto (& Ido) AuxLang : Esperanto AuxLang : Esperanto > Ido

▪ In the early 1900s, there were a significant number of Esperanto “elders” who wanted to reform the language ▪ Wanted changes such as: – Eliminating the accusative – Scrapping accented letters – Changing plural from -j to -i (cf. Italian) – Zamenhof proposed reforms in 1907, but rejected by vote from community – Group of leaders (20%) and non-leaders (3-4%) defected, creating Ido ▪ Ido still spoken today, but to a much lesser extent than Esperanto AuxLang : Esperanto

I want… to... speak… Esperanto... Esperanto’s Community

Surprising Find AuxLangs : Latino sine Flexione, Basic English, Globish

▪ Simplified versions of natural languages: – Latino sine Flexione (, 1903) ▪ “Patre nostro, qui es in celos, que tuo nomine fi sanctificato” ▪ “Pater noster, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum.” – Basic English (Charles Ogden, 1930) ▪ “At the first God made the heaven and the earth. And the earth was waste and without form ; and it was dark on the face of the deep : and the Spirit of God was moving on the face of the waters.” – Globish (Madhukar Gogate, 1998) ▪ “hee is fain” (He is fine) ▪ “too kaats went tu siti (Two cats went to city.) ▪ “du yu no wear tha lybrari is?” (Do you know where the library is?) AuxLang : Lingwa de Planeta (Lidepla)

▪ Designed by group of Russians, led by Dmitri Ivanov, 2010 ▪ Based on most widely spoken languages of the world : Arabic, Chinese, English, Spanish, German, , Persian, Portuguese, Russian, and French

Last type of ConLang:

EngeLang

Later : Szemerenyi’s Law (Sandell & Byrd) Most famous EngeLang : /

▪ Created by Dr. James Cooke Brown in 1955 – Devised to test Sapir-Whorf hypothesis ▪ If people spoke more logical language, would they think more logically? – Revised in 1987 by Logical Language Group to create Lojban ▪ Brown tried to stop it by copyright bans -- group changed vocab ▪ Grammar: – simplification : no distinction between N, V, A, Adv – Only three types of words: ▪ cmene names ▪ brivla ‘predicate’ words ▪ cmavo ‘structure words’ EngeLang : Lojban

John speaking Lojban To Review

1.ArtLangs a.For Art (Film, TV, Games, Books, etc.) b.For Religion / Magic

1.AuxLangs

1.EngeLangs Let’s look at some examples

1. Is it a conlang, yes or no?

1. If no, what is it?

1. If yes, what type of conlang is it? a. ArtLang, AuxLang, or Engelang? b. A priori or a posteriori? ConLang, Y/N? And what type? Ah: touching, holding boh: be ah-mah: have boh: to be ah-may: pet boh-bay: worried ah-noo: help boh-dah: live ah-tah: feed / food boo: no, negative, bad, stop ay: lightness boo: no ay-ay: look boo-dah: bad ay-ay-lee-koo: listen boo-koo: rock ay-koo: diamond boo-noo-loo: sad ay-loh: light boo-tay: change ay-loh-may-lah: cloud ay-tay: hungry / eat For more ay-way: dizzy Furbish wee-tah-kah-loo-loo: Tell me a joke. wee-tah-kah-wee-loo: Tell me a story. wee-tee-kah-wah-tee: Sing me a song. u-nye-loo-lay-doo?: Do you want to play? u-nye-ay-tay-doo?: Are you hungry? u-nye-boh-doo?: How are you? u-nye-way-loh-nee-way: Go to sleep now. u-nye-noh-lah: Show me a dance. ConLang, Y/N? And what type?

Language Games 1. Pig 2. (H)aigy Paigy 3. Cockney Rhyming Slang 4. Fo’ shizzle / -iz- 5. Spoonerisms ConLang, Y/N? And what type?

Example of Polari Let’s Revisit... ConLang, Y/N? And what type?

Constructed Languages

Day 2 - Phonemic Inventories Sounds

or Okay, let’s begin with humans...

1. Typically how many vowels and exist in a natural language’s phonemic inventory? ○ What is the minimal distinction needed for a language sound system? 2. What are possible sounds for human language? ○ What are impossible sounds? 3. Which sounds are typologically common? 4. Which sounds tend to occur as pairs or triads in language? Esperanto Lingwa de Planeta p = p, as in pie parcha b = b, as in ball baya m = m, as in mop mamaf f = f, as in father fumaygan w = w, as in water wadar t = t, as in team tashi d = d, as in dad dashya n = n, as in noon nawa s = s, as in sock sasa z = z, as in zoo Izila r = r, as in Spanish r (i.e., trill / tap the r, no r) hiraka l = l, as in log laykwa ch = ch, as in check charwa j = j, as in jam jaysa sh = sh, as in shoot shantiya y = y, as in yes yaka k = k, as in kick kaka g = g, as in go gasuri kw = qu, as in quick kwala http://speakingprimal.blogspot.com/ gw = gw, as in gwen gwana h = h, as in hello haya a = Spanish a, as in llama, similar to English father kaka ay = English i, as in hi nay aw = English ow, as in cow chawgra i = English ee, as in cheese hisu u = English oo, as in boot udam Language Brands Skwerl

Prisencolinensinaincisol Dothraki

Let’s Look at Your Languages For Next Time

1.Read Carlisle - Syllable Structure Universals and SLA

1.Continue work on your own ConLang a.Identify your Language’s i. Syllable structure ii.Minimal Word Requirement b.Identify / create at least five phonological rules for your language