KaryuSkxawng
@karyu-skxawng.bsky.social
AskHistorians's resident #conlang history nerd + subreddit moderator. Eterna komencanto en Esperanto. Occasional theatre discourse?
live footage from when I FAQ-found for the forum
March 28, 2025 at 2:13 AM
live footage from when I FAQ-found for the forum
Thinking about #conlang history on #InternationalWomensDay, the obvious story goes to Suzette Haden Elgin (1936-2015). Sci-fi writer, feminist, and linguist, she merged these interests when she created Láadan, a women-centric language for her "Native Tongue" novels as a plot device—and an experiment
March 8, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Thinking about #conlang history on #InternationalWomensDay, the obvious story goes to Suzette Haden Elgin (1936-2015). Sci-fi writer, feminist, and linguist, she merged these interests when she created Láadan, a women-centric language for her "Native Tongue" novels as a plot device—and an experiment
live footage of me joining the mod team this summer
![An image macro built on top of a meme from the episode "Chidi sees the Time Knife" of The Good Place [the original scene can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYAqbzqANTY]
An exasperated Chidi, labelled as "new mods", says "I just saw… trillions of comments taht were bigoted, unsourced, misinformed, bad jokes, and more… insisting they deserved to stay up"
A dismissive and uninterested Michael, implied to be a veteran moderator of AskHistorians, says in response, "Yeah yeah, the [removed] section. We've all seen it"](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:af7t7vabqug3vgkvc7d3c4z2/bafkreicvfececuxf6hpcbfbuja3q2wmuzca4jbd6ge6jqak4i4uo5d4m5y@jpeg)
December 3, 2024 at 6:27 PM
live footage of me joining the mod team this summer
There are early instances, like Victoria Fromkin creating Pakuni for "Land of the Lost" (1974), or M.A.R. Barker creating Tsolyani (1940s) and its related languages for his fictional world Tékumel without influence from Tolkien. Neither seem to really start or contribute to the trend though.
![[1976 TV Guide article by Leslie Raddatz]
What do you say if your child comes up to you and inquires, "Me tobi ye, abimi?"
Now, in my day, admittedly a while back, if a kid said. "Ellohay. Owhay are ouyay, anmay?" you knew he was
saying, "Hello. How are you, man?" in pig Latin, and vou answered in kind. Every child and his parents knew pig Latin, a nice simple language formed by moving the first consonant of a word to the end and adding "ay."
But now these modern kids are starting to speak Paku, the language which that precocious nipper in the first paragraph is saying. "Hello. How areyou, man?" Paku is the language of the Pakuni, a tribe of monkey people who may be seen and heard Saturday mornings in the NBC series Land of the Lost. Their language, which sounds primitive to the untutored ear, is anything but. The inspiration of a network vice president and the creation of a professor of linguistics, it may well be the first truly original language created from, to use a term appropriate for the world of monkey people, scratch. (Such "universal" language as Esperanto has Indo-European roots.)
The network vice president responsible for Paku is Joe Taritero, who was in charge of children's programs at NBC when Land of the Lost was first projected almost three years ago. He says, "At first, we talked about using pig Latin or English words spelled back-wards, but finally we decided that if we were going to have people speaking foreign sounds, those sounds should be a real language." Also, Taritero says, "teacher pressure" was mounting to have chidren's programs aid in the development of the learning process. "I decided to commission a language that would be fun Saturday morning, but then might translate into learning Spanish the following week."
He phoned the Dean of the College of Letters and Sciences at UCLA and said. "I'd like to talk to somebody who could create a language for me." When he finally convinced the Dean he was serious.
[continued in next image…]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:af7t7vabqug3vgkvc7d3c4z2/bafkreic7sv34skiohl2a7akn524ggg7fwsmhupvmwep2y7irlvvwqgcnfa@jpeg)
![[…continued from last pic]
He was referred to Victoria Fromkin, head of the university's department of linguistics.
After receiving her bachelor's degree in economics, Fromkin turned to linguistics, got her Ph.D. at UCLA in 1965 and has been there ever since. She was delighted by Taritero's proposal: "The idea of creating a language that could be learned by children was an exciting challenge—not just 'Me Tarzan, you Jane' sort of thing."
Fromkin insists that "any linguist worth his salt" could construct a new language. Languages have certain universal properties, she says. For instance. all languages have sounds (vowels and consonants) that combine into words to express certain meanings. Add rules for combining these words (syntax), and you have a language. Fromkin decided to use English sounds but to make them "different enough to be exotic, yet easy for a child to pick up.
She set up simple rules for sentence structure—subject, verb, object—like English except that adjectives follow nouns. All common nouns are polysyllabic and start with a vowel, which is actually a prefix denoting a semantic class. Plurals are formed by adding "ni" (pronounced "knee"). Thus, man is abimi, men abimini. Verbs, adjectives and adverbs begin with a consonant. Adjectives are formed from nouns by adding "sa", adverbs by adding "chi." Thus, abu is child, busa childish, and busachi childishly.
There are more rules, all logical and linguistically sound, and a vocabulary of, so far, some 300 words. The vocabulary grows, of course, as the producers of Land of the Lost send Fromkin scripts to translate into Paku. "It's a nice little language." she says. "It's still very fragmentary, but it's a possible language." So possible, in fact, that it has excited considerable interest in the linguistic fraternity. Fromkin has received letters from professors and university students throughout the U.S.. inquiring about Paku.
Which is all very well, but as for me, I'm going to stick to igpay atinlay.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:af7t7vabqug3vgkvc7d3c4z2/bafkreic7dml5quepdhq7d5eyja6xgsbdtibxkyjsmk5rsxrkxshpmfek3i@jpeg)
December 1, 2024 at 1:01 AM
There are early instances, like Victoria Fromkin creating Pakuni for "Land of the Lost" (1974), or M.A.R. Barker creating Tsolyani (1940s) and its related languages for his fictional world Tékumel without influence from Tolkien. Neither seem to really start or contribute to the trend though.
Thomas More's "Utopia" (1516) goes a little further. Along with describing the perfect society's language as one "in which a man can fully express his mind", we also get a sample poem, composed by More's friend Peter Giles.
It's clearly inspired by Greek and Latin, but doesn't have true grammar.
It's clearly inspired by Greek and Latin, but doesn't have true grammar.
December 1, 2024 at 1:01 AM
Thomas More's "Utopia" (1516) goes a little further. Along with describing the perfect society's language as one "in which a man can fully express his mind", we also get a sample poem, composed by More's friend Peter Giles.
It's clearly inspired by Greek and Latin, but doesn't have true grammar.
It's clearly inspired by Greek and Latin, but doesn't have true grammar.
19th century conlang names get very repetitive. There's a bajillion variations of "Universal Language" or "International Language" or "World Language" or something like that. Many of the conlangs Okrent omits from her list follow that trend, and you don't need to see every version to get the point.
![List of conlangs from Arika Okrent's appendix, starting at #39 and ending at #68. Order is Conlang name, Creator's name, and Year published.
Lingua Slavica Universallis (J. Herkel, 1826)
A Universal Language (J. Ruggles, 1829)
Genegrafia Italiana (G. Matraya, 1831)
Vilagnyelv (J. Bolyai, 1832)
Langue Universelle (A. Grosselin, 1836)
Communicationssprache (J. Schipfer, 1839)
Phonarithmon (W.H. Henslowe, 1849)
Lugar 9S. Herpain, 1843)
Langue Universelle et Analytique (E. T. Vidal, 1844)
Orbidáie (J. Bazin, 1844)
Pangraphie (S. Iviċeviċ, 1848)
Lengua Universal (P. L. Martinez, 1852)
Lengua Universal y Filosofica (B. Sotos Ochando, 1852)
Universal Language (G. Edmonds, 1855)
Monopanglosse ( (p. Gagne, 1858)
Pantos-Dimou-Glossa (L. de Rudelle, 1858)
Nouvelle Numératon Parlée (Dr. Verdu, 1859)
Pasigraphie (M. Paiċ, 1859)
Alevato (S. P. Andrews, 1862)
Mundographie [Gablenzographia] (M. H. von Gablenz, 1864)
Uzajmeni Slavjanski Jezik (M. Majar, 1865)
Solresol (J. F. Sudre, 1866)
Langue Universelle (A. Caumont, 1867)
Pasigraphie (A. Bachmaier, 1868)
Universalglot (J. Pirro, 1868)
Universal Dolmetscher Sprache (C. Stewart, 1869)
New Universal Cipher Language (C. Stewart, 1876)
Lingua Lumina (J. W. Dyer, 1875)
Langue Internationale Étymologique (F. Reimann, 1877)
Ixessoire (L. and R. Poincaré, 1879)](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:af7t7vabqug3vgkvc7d3c4z2/bafkreiavqcapvmvljdzhwydp37mvqnkbmmjq2pplekykikuc6wmeh4giza@jpeg)
![Continued list of conlangs from Arika Okrent's appendix, starting at #69 and ending at #100. Order is Conlang name, Creator's name, and Year published.
Volapük (J. M. Schleyer, 1879)
Weltsprache (A. Volk and R. Fuchs, 1879)
Blaia Zimondal (C. Meriggi, 1884)
Néo-Latine (E. Courtonne, 1884)
Neulatein (A. Sturmhöfel, 1884)
Pasilingua (P. Steiner, 1885)
Chabé-Aban [Langue Naturelle] (E. Maldant, 1886)
Sprachwissenschaftliche Kombinatorik (J. Bauer, 1886)
Langue Universelle (C. Menet, 1886)
Langue Universelle (C.L.A. Letellier, 1886)
Nal Bino (S. Verheggen, 1886)
Pasigraphia (J. Bobula, 1886)
Rosentalographia (Rosenthal, 1886)
Balta (E. Dormoy, 1887)
Bopal (M. Streiff [S. de Max], 1887)
Esperanto (L. L. Zamenhof, 1887)
Kokographie (F. Friedrich, 1887)
Nuvo-Volapük (A. Kerchoffs, 1887)
Pasilingua Hebraica (F. Lenz, 1887)
Visona (Dr. Sivartha, 1887)
Weltsprache (N. Eichorn, 1887)
American Language (E. Molee, 1888)
Kosmos (E. A. Lauda, 1888)
Langua Universal (T. Escriche y Mieg, 1888)
Lingua Franca Nova (S. Bernhard, 1888)
Mundolinco (J. Braakmann, 1888)
Spelin (J. Bauer, 1888)
Verkehrssprache (J. Lott, 1888)
Anglo-Franca (G.J. Henderson, 1889)
Comrpomiss-Sprache (J. Lott, 18889)
Lengua Universal (E.G. Ugarte, 1889)
Myrana (J. Stempfl, 1889)](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:af7t7vabqug3vgkvc7d3c4z2/bafkreig23tjhyxtwhfa2ggee2g4xld66aib2ctzb3ousorno7fzk4wbery@jpeg)
December 1, 2024 at 1:01 AM
19th century conlang names get very repetitive. There's a bajillion variations of "Universal Language" or "International Language" or "World Language" or something like that. Many of the conlangs Okrent omits from her list follow that trend, and you don't need to see every version to get the point.
Did everyone get this question right on Jeopardy the other day?
November 29, 2024 at 3:09 PM
Did everyone get this question right on Jeopardy the other day?
Star Wars typically doesn’t use conlangs.The main exception is Mando’a, mostly developed by Karen Traviss for the Republic Commando series.While the books are no longer canon, Mando’a has appeared in newer works, like Rebels and The Mandalorian.
Here are some samples that have been on my mind lately
Here are some samples that have been on my mind lately
November 24, 2024 at 3:29 PM
Star Wars typically doesn’t use conlangs.The main exception is Mando’a, mostly developed by Karen Traviss for the Republic Commando series.While the books are no longer canon, Mando’a has appeared in newer works, like Rebels and The Mandalorian.
Here are some samples that have been on my mind lately
Here are some samples that have been on my mind lately
me checking my phone's notifications for the last 24 hours
November 19, 2024 at 11:09 PM
me checking my phone's notifications for the last 24 hours
Wasn't planning to join a new app today, but here we are. Curious what tomorrow brings.
Enjoy a passage from my favorite play, "The Universal Language" by David Ives (from his collection "All In The Timing"). It's a beautiful and hilarious intersection of 'conlangs' (language in general) and theatre
Enjoy a passage from my favorite play, "The Universal Language" by David Ives (from his collection "All In The Timing"). It's a beautiful and hilarious intersection of 'conlangs' (language in general) and theatre
November 19, 2024 at 2:39 AM
Wasn't planning to join a new app today, but here we are. Curious what tomorrow brings.
Enjoy a passage from my favorite play, "The Universal Language" by David Ives (from his collection "All In The Timing"). It's a beautiful and hilarious intersection of 'conlangs' (language in general) and theatre
Enjoy a passage from my favorite play, "The Universal Language" by David Ives (from his collection "All In The Timing"). It's a beautiful and hilarious intersection of 'conlangs' (language in general) and theatre