Conlangers

The AT Away Team will be presenting on various science fiction linguistics topics at InConJunction, an Indianapolis SF convention, July 1st through July 3rd!

… admittedly we won’t be presenting continuously for three days. Probably. We don’t have the schedule yet.

Tracy (from AT) and Michael Roney, Jr., the professional Klingon translator, will be doing a presentation called “Learn Klingon!” in which you will learn enough Klingon basics to spend the rest of the convention cursing and shouting abuse in the warrior tongue with confidence. (Since Klingon can be hard on your voice, we will also spend some time talking about how Marc Okrand created the language, and how he drew on what’s known about human languages to create a convincingly alien language.)

Both Tracy and Chris are scheduled for a Xenolinguistics panel, in which we’ll talk about how alien languages might plausibly differ from human languages – imagine a language based on taste or color, for example. We’ll also touch on good (and bad) alien languages in SF, and, of course, answer your questions about SF linguistics.

(It’s possible that Chris might not be able to appear in person, but we’ll prep the talk together regardless.)

Klingon musician Jon Silpayamanant, whose comments on AT are always honorable and most welcome, will be performing, and he’ll also be presenting on Xenomusicology, which explores what alien music might sound like. (Slightly farther afield from SF languages and linguistics, Jon and Tracy will be doing a presentation on “Opera for SF and Fantasy Fans”, discussing – among many other works old and new – ‘u’, the Klingon opera.)

If you’re doing the Klingon language workshop and want an impressive forehead to match your newfound language skills, Varra – the quartermaster of the Indianapolis-based Klingon ship, the IKS lIywI’ – will be demonstrating how to make latex costume prosthetics.

And of course there’ll be all the other excitement you’d expect of a Midwestern SF convention. Check the InConJunction website for schedule details (and to save money by buying tickets ahead of time.) See you there!

Torn Tongue contains a thorough set of terms for sea monsters, as we discussed in the posts for A-C and D-F. You can read more about sea monsters in the "Articles" section of the Torn World website. This week we're covering terms G-L.


English ....................... Torn Tongue
giant (noun) ................... daarb
giant (adjective) ............. daabo
giant sea turtle .............. raadorb (aka daarb)
giant sea turtle egg ........ eyirg
gill ................................ letarsh

harpoon ...................... jafolk
harpoon snail .............. jafork (aka jaff)
heat ........................... afer
heat-thief .................... afejerm (aka jerm)

in/into/inside/within ..... igri
interior ....................... igi
interior blimpfish ........ igikigirth
interior soldierfish ...... igofamirth
interior weed-eater ..... igotathirj

jaw ............................................... berf
jelly, gel (natural) ........................... yorb
jelly, gelatin, gel (technological) ...... yolb
jellyrigger ...................................... keiyorg

to kiss ..................................... amoi
kiss-scar, ring leech scar ........ amoinarl

leather ........................ kelsh
leech ........................... urth
line .............................. raiv
lung ............................. radersh

The implications of this article are important to us conlangers. http://www.cracked.com/article_18823_5-insane-ways-words-can-control-your-mind.html

The conlang list was talking about this link a week ago as I write. Without considering the debate on the list I wondered how the sentences would work in Bâha:

Ta yablok tí kidmit, The apple is red.
Ta tí yablok a Yônú, It is John's apple.
Bodú dô ta yablok kapena Yône, I give the apple to John.
Nas dôyen ta yablok kapena tamú, We give him the apple.
Ta dôt ten kapena Yône, He gives it to John.
Da dôt ten kapena damú, She gives it to her.

Bodú mí múhant dôyant ten kapena tamú, I must give it to him.
Bodú wol dôyant ten kapena damú, I want to give it to her.

Well, creating the sentences and comparing them proved to be an interesting exercise. The first sentence shows how to use a predicative adjective, although says nothing about attributive adjectives. The rest of the first group of sentences give examples of various pronouns with number and gender and how they work. More enquiry would fill in more gaps. There is no example of a noun as subject. It also shows that Bâha declines nouns. From the examples above a learner has all the forms of the present tense finite verb, which is lucky.

And, my god, this is a long-winded language, especially when auxiliaries are used!

I think the theory has merit. A learner could be introduced to a language. It would take longer to master it, at least to the point ordering beer!

The conlang list was talking about this link a week ago as I write. Without considering the debate on the list I wondered how the sentences would work in Bâha:

Ta yablok tí kidmit, The apple is red.
Ta tí yablok a Yônú, It is John's apple.
Bodú dô ta yablok kapena Yône, I give the apple to John.
Nas dôyen ta yablok kapena tamú, We give him the apple.
Ta dôt ten kapena Yône, He gives it to John.
Da dôt ten kapena damú, She gives it to her.

Bodú mí múhant dôyant ten kapena tamú, I must give it to him.
Bodú wol dôyant ten kapena damú, I want to give it to her.

Well, creating the sentences and comparing them proved to be an interesting exercise. The first sentence shows how to use a predicative adjective, although says nothing about attributive adjectives. The rest of the first group of sentences give examples of various pronouns with number and gender and how they work. More enquiry would fill in more gaps. There is no example of a noun as subject. It also shows that Bâha declines nouns. From the examples above a learner has all the forms of the present tense finite verb, which is lucky.

And, my god, this is a long-winded language, especially when auxiliaries are used!

I think the theory has merit. A learner could be introduced to a language. It would take longer to master it, at least to the point ordering beer!

The conlang list was talking about this link a week ago as I write. Without considering the debate on the list I wondered how the sentences would work in Bâha:

Ta yablok tí kidmit, The apple is red.
Ta tí yablok a Yônú, It is John's apple.
Bodú dô ta yablok kapena Yône, I give the apple to John.
Nas dôyen ta yablok kapena tamú, We give him the apple.
Ta dôt ten kapena Yône, He gives it to John.
Da dôt ten kapena damú, She gives it to her.

Bodú mí múhant dôyant ten kapena tamú, I must give it to him.
Bodú wol dôyant ten kapena damú, I want to give it to her.

Well, creating the sentences and comparing them proved to be an interesting exercise. The first sentence shows how to use a predicative adjective, although says nothing about attributive adjectives. The rest of the first group of sentences give examples of various pronouns with number and gender and how they work. More enquiry would fill in more gaps. There is no example of a noun as subject. It also shows that Bâha declines nouns. From the examples above a learner has all the forms of the present tense finite verb, which is lucky.

And, my god, this is a long-winded language, especially when auxiliaries are used!

I think the theory has merit. A learner could be introduced to a language. It would take longer to master it, at least to the point ordering beer!