Constructed Languages

Instructors: Andrew Byrd & Brenna Byrd, U of Kentucky Time: Tues & Fri 11-12:50pm Overview of Course Today : What is a ConLang? 7/11 : Sounds, Part 1 7/14 : Sounds, Part 2 7/18 : Words 7/21 : Syntax 7/25 : Writing Systems 7/28 : Language Change 8/1 : Presentations Overview of Course

1.Readings before Class 2.Regular work on your own conlang 3.Presentation of conlang in final class What is Far Cry Primal? Udam

Wenja

Izila What are Wenja & Izila?

• Artistic Conlangs based in reality

• Both based on Proto-Indo-European • Source of: • English • Spanish • Russian • Farsi • Greek • Hindi, etc. Why us? Going Viral: Andrew Byrd Sample of PIE

Once there was a king. He was childless. The king wanted a son. He asked his priest: "May a son be born to me!"

PIE: h3rḗḱs h1est; só n̥putlós. h3rḗḱs súhxnum u̯l̥nh1to. tósi̯o ǵʰéu̯torm̥ prēḱst: ”súhxnus moi̯ ǵn̥h1i̯etōd!” The Indo-European Languages How do we even know what PIE looked like?

1. Compare segments across languages. 2. Set up correspondence sets.

Greek Latin Sanskrit English Old Irish Definition phrater frater bhratar brother bráthair ‘brother’ pher- fer- bhar- bear -ber ‘carry’ How do we even know what PIE looked like?

1. Compare segments across languages. 2. Set up correspondence sets.

Greek Latin Sanskrit English Old Irish Definition phrater frater bhratar brother bráthair ‘brother’ pher- fer- bhar- bear -ber ‘carry’

PIE: *bhraχter PIE: *bher- Why PIE for Primal (and not Caveman English)? Some numbers... 3 tribes 2,400 unique words 40,000 word-long • translated • recorded Our Team: UCLA PIE folks

Jessica DeLisi Chiara Bozzone Ryan Sandell

Making Izila

• Stay as true to PIE as possible

• Avoid overlong words

• Eliminate grammar that is unnecessary for in-game translation

• Make as phonologically distinct from Wenja as possible

• Not too hard, though, actors have to pronounce it! Making Wenja & Udam

• Design to be more archaic : proto-PIE • How? • kick – kicked, kiss – kissed, hug – hugged • but: sing – sang – sung, ring – rang – rung, etc. • cf. Lat. tego ‘cover’ ~ toga ‘covering’ • alternation goes back to PIE • Identify funny alternations in PIE, assume those to be part of earlier stage of the language • Example : • kwis ‘who’, kwid ‘what’, etc. = question words • Wenja ku ‘?’ Final Product Once there was a king. He was childless. The king wanted a son. He asked his priest: "May a son be born to me!"

PIE: h3rḗḱs h1est; só n̥putlós. h3rḗḱs súhxnum u̯l̥nh1to. tósi̯o ǵʰéu̯torm̥ prēḱst: ”súhxnus moi̯ ǵn̥h1i̯etōd!"

Izila: hréks hest; só nputlós. hréks súxnum welhet. tósyo blágmenəm préket: “súxnus moy génhetu!”

Wenja: sams fraji. san putila. fraji sushnu walha. si-blajiman pracha: “u sushnu miyi janha!”

Audio Recordings Teaching Wenja as a Living Language Wenja Warm-up

• saywa ‘hard’

• shash ‘rock’

• saywa shash-way ‘hard like rock’

• damsha ‘to build’

• damshi ‘hut’

• damshmas ‘we build’

• damshi dam-damshmas ‘we keep building huts’ Conversational Wenja

• Let’ start with a little conversational Wenja.

• I' going to speak ONLY Wenja, and I ask that you do the same.

• Try to save questions for afterwards and just go with the flow. Try and figure out meanings from context (what makes sense here?). Nu haywa Winja! Smarkaka! • Mu Brenna. • Mu Brenna. = • Miyi nashman “Brenna”. • Tiyi, kway nashman?

• Miyi nashman ______. / Mu ______. Partner practice

• Introduce yourself to a couple people in Wenja. You can use either "Mu..." or "Miyi nashman..."

• Don’ forget to say ‘hello’! • Smarkaka! (Hello) • Mu ____. / Miyi nashman ____. • Q: Tiyi, kway nashman? su dus Su shayar! Su sada!

Mash Dabu Mash hadam

Dabu hadam

tushi chlawta

Pantomime I’m going to give you commands in Winja and you should act them out as if this was part of the game. I’ll start with images to illustrate the actions, but as we progress, I’ll remove the images and test your memory. After a couple, we’ll switch positions and you’ll have a chance to order everyone else around! U ubi tasha! U ni sada! U ubi tasha! U ni sada! U mash hada! U wadar pafi! U wisya pafi! U mash hada! U wadar pafi! U wisya pafi! U ubi tasha! U gwaru yaha! U kanan yaha! U gwaru yaha! U kanan yaha! U ni sada! Take turns with a partner giving orders in Wenja. See how much you can remember without the board.

U mash hada!

U wadar pafi!

U wisya pafi!

U gwaru yaha!

U kanan yaha! Common Phrases: Let’s practice!

• Q: Kwarim hayta? 'Where are you going?' A: Waycham hayam. 'I'm going to the village.' Chawham hayam. 'I'm going to the cave.'

• Q: Kwati shalta? 'How's it going?' A: Su shalam. 'It's going well.' Dus shalam. 'It's not going well.’

• U Winja wayda. 'Find the Wenja.' • U gwar wayda. 'Find the beast.' • Gwar (lawhan, hars, etc.) pacham. 'I see a beast (lion, bear, etc.)' • Ku dabu Winja warhatan?

Shrash!

Dabu Winja warhamas! Filming the Scenes Sayla:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEs5tBVjhJM Tensay (Wenja)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjbH-nSYoes Batari (Izila)

https://youtu.be/JexrTnlPMBY?t=937 Sayla Scenes

gwama ‘come’ : gwam

Normal: https://youtu.be/hbwwfHUIyVI?t=90

bar, barta ‘carry’ : bara, barata darsh ‘see’ : darcha

Angry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpfETA_WdkU Break - 10 min Constructed Languages

What is a ConLang? What is a ConLang?

▪ Short for “” ▪ Term was coined in early 1990s, won out over other terms through official use for ConLang listserv in 1991 (Boston U) Can you name some examples of ConLangs?

Qapla’!

Mae govannen, Legolas Thranduillon

Dothraki

Khal Drogo & Daenerys Targaryen Artistic Languages

▪ Klingon, Sindarin, and Dothraki are all ArtLangs ▪ ArtLangs are “created for aesthetic, fictional, or otherwise artistic purposes” (Peterson, 2015: 21) ▪ Other examples of ArtLangs? 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 – Abbess, Christian mystic – Suffered from terrible migraines – Viewed as source of religious visions – Patron saint of ConLangers Lingua Ignota, 12th c. CE ▪ In early 1140s, v. Bingen received command from God to write down what she experienced – Divine revelation led to list of 1012 nouns, 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 "man" ▪ ualueria "bat" ▪ vanix "woman" ▪ gabia "quail" ▪ peueriz "father" ▪ gluziaz ▪ maiz "mother" "spearmint" ▪ limzkil "infant" ▪ orschibuz "oak" ▪ subizo "servant" ▪ sapiduz "bee" Lingua Ignota : Example orzchis Ecclesia, armis divinis praecincta, et hyacinto ornata, tu caldemia stigmatum loifolum et urbs scienciarum. O, o tu es etiam crizanta in alto sono, et es chorzta gemma. Conjectured translation: O measureless Church, girded with divine arms and adorned with jacinth, you are the fragrance of the wounds of nations and the city of sciences. O, o, and you are anointed amid noble sound, and you are a sparkling gem. Ritual ConLangs : Balaibalan ▪ Created in Timurid or Safavid Iran, in 14 - 15th century CE – Creator ▪ mystic Fadel Allah (Fazlullah) from Asterabad, founder of Hurufism ▪ 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-dictionary in the Bibliotheque nationale de France & the Princeton U library Ritual ConLangs : Balaibalan (14th-15th c. CE)

▪ By and large an a priori language – 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 [Arabic], etc.) – Language viewed as a sign that new revelation would happen soon ▪ However, grammar looks to Persian, Turkish, & Arabic – .., agglutinative ▪ Written in Ottoman variant of Arabic t g gh p v m sh c Balaibalan Phonology v ch 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 John Dee (right) & colleague Edward Kelley 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 magic 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) ▪ Spoken only by initiated men on 3 islands in Gulf of Carpentaria, south of PNG – most notably by Lardil tribe on Mornington Island (Hale 1997) ▪ Lardil & Yangkaal 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 Languages of Australia

“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-vowels), Damin also has four nasalized clicks - bilabial /m!/, dental /nh!/, apico-alveolar /n!/ and apico-domal /n.!/ - an ingressive lateral fricative /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 vocabulary, 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 noun: 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 pronouns and several demonstratives, 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 suffixes 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-vowel 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 (Wikipedia)

Ordinary Lardil ngithun dunji-kan ngawa waang-kur werneng-kiyath-ur. gloss my wife's.younger.brother-gen[4] dog go-fut food-go-fut 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 communication – 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 – Morphology: ▪ Feminine marked by stressed final note – resimire ‘brother’ but resimiré ‘sister’ Solresol Example ▪ Plural 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, Germany, 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! AuxLang : Volapük

▪ Pronunciation similar to German, but: – /r/ avoided to facilitate learning by Chinese speakers – Stress on final syllable ▪ Vocabulary – Mostly from English, some from German and French ▪ Grammar – Agglutinative

Case Singular Plural

Nom vol vols

Gen vola volas

Dat vole voles

Acc voli volis 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 Esperanto’s Community

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

▪ Simplified versions of natural languages: – Latino sine Flexione (Giuseppe Peano, 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, Hindi, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, and French

Why create AuxLangs?

▪ Herder: Nationhood as inextricably linked to shared language and culture ▪ So international language -

–no specific culture? –no privileged culture? –How does that work? Why Create AuxLangs?

▪ Can languages (even ConLangs) exist without cultural lens through which to interpret meaning? ▪ Would communication problems still exist between two speakers of Esperanto from very different cultures? ▪ (Can communication problems exist between two English speakers from different cultural backgrounds?) 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: – Predicate 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 For Next Time

1.Read chapter 1 of Peterson (on Canvas)

1.Begin work on your own ConLang a. Pick an existing one or construct one of your own b.Determine the function : AuxLang, ArtLang, etc.? c. Determine the sound system of your ConLang d.Write out a phonemic inventory of your ConLang in IPA ConLang, Y/N? And what type?

Furbish ConLang, Y/N? And what type?

Language Games ConLang, Y/N? And what type?

Cockney Rhyming Slang ConLang, Y/N? And what type?

Polari ConLang, Y/N? And what type?

Láadan Modern Hebrew