Great New York Times Column
A March 10, 2010, column from the New York Times has been posted to the Newspaper Articles in TCL. Arika Okrent and Paul Frommer have responded to readers’ questions about “invented languages” and provided some very in-depth answers. Enjoy!
John Quijada and Ithkuil Article
John Quijada, creator of Ithkuil and Ilaksh, has achieved prominence in the conlang community as well as international acclaim. A new article from the Russian magazine Komputerra has been been posted in PDF format to the Magazine section of The Conlanger’s Library. Although the interview appeared in Komputerra in April 2009, the original interview took place in 2004. John has also graciously donated a transcript of the original interview as well as a follow-up and this is also available at TCL.
Universals. We have Universals.
We have a new link to Dr. Greenberg’s Universals at the Internet Resources page. This database from the Universität Konstanz is a great place for browsing or searching for specific linguistic characteristics and finding what naturally occurs so you can include it in your conlang (or do the exact opposite, if that’s what you wish). Enjoy!
New Newspaper Article
A new article on the Na’vi language of James Cameron’s Avatar has been posted in TCL’s Newspaper articles section.
Another article of note has also been found online, although this isn’t a conlang so it won’t be added to TCL. This one has to do with Cockney rhyming slang on bank machines. The article, from the Times Online, has a great image of the machine’s screen with choices like “Sausage and Mash with Receipt”.
Enjoy
An Article and a Link
Two new resources have been added to TCL:
The first is an article from the University of Minnesota’s Minnesota Daily newspaper posted in Newspaper Articles. It’s about the local Minnesota company that wrote the app for the Klingon Dictionary (but also include information about d’Armond Speers’ 3-year “experiment” in speaking Klingon to his son).
The other resource, posted in the Linguistics Online Resources page, is a handy online tool for converting IPA characters into HTML: θæŋk ju
Enjoy
James A. Garfield, Part II
Yes, that James A. Garfield. A while ago, The Conlanging Librarian posted some information on James A. Garfield. Well, something that many people don’t know about the man who would become the 20th President of the United States was that the courtship with his future wife, Lucretia “Crete” Rudolph, began (in a series of letters) as a back-and-forth discussion on the value of studying ancient languages and why the “diversity of languages was given”. You’ll now find relevant quotations from these letters, dating from January 1854, posted at The Conlanger’s Library in Quotations under Language and Specific Natural Languages. Enjoy!
New Book Added to Sci-Fi
I came across a new “old” book recently and have added it’s Google Books page to the Sci-Fi section of TCL. The book is by Frederick Spencer Oliver and was published originally in 1894. The Atlantean or Poseid language is featured in it. For more details:
Frederick Spencer Oliver
A Dweller on Two Planets or, The Dividing of the Way
[Atlantean or Poseid language]
This novel, first published in 1894, purports to be the biography of the author’s past live as an Atlantean names Phylos.
New Movie Added to TCL
From some recent posts on CONLANG-L and the LCS, a new movie with a conlang in it has surfaced and been posted at Films:
Youth Without Youth (2007)
starring Tim Roth, directed by Francis Ford Coppola
[unnamed artificial language]
This film was based on the book by Mircea Eliade. To get more information about the artificial language (created by Dr. David Shulman) check out the official site under the “Languages” section of The Production.
New Addition to TCL
Yet another new addition to TCL: There is now a new page on the conlang exhibit that appeared at Cleveland Public Library in 2008. In addition to information on how the exhibit came about and what’s going on with it now, a slideshow (from the Flickr-posted photos of the exhibit) is now available embedded on the page.
(Slightly) New Look
The Conlanger’s Library Homepage has received a slightly new look. Being a sub-domain of the Language Creation Society (LCS), I felt it was appropriate to provide a more visible connection with the society’s page. Therefore, you’ll see a new “disclaimer” and the LCS logo proudly displayed front-and-center.
An even bigger change took place in the About pages. The Who Did This? page has finally been filled in. Turn there to learn more about me. I’ve also brought Arcimboldo’s painting into the About pages as well.