Words for Granted – An etymology and linguistics podcast
Words for Granted is a podcast that looks at how words change over time. Each episode looks at the evolution of a single word. Host Ray Belli uses language—more specifically, individual words—to examine history, culture, society, religion, and more.
Words for Granted is a podcast that looks at how words change over time. Host Ray Belli uses linguistic evolution as a way of understanding larger historical and cultural changes.
How does someone “invent” a language? And why invent a language in the first place?
In this episode, Ray chats with George Corley (Conlangery) about the world of constructed languages, or conlangs. From Esperanto to Tolkien’s Elvish and Klingon and beyond, they explore the history of language invention, what distinguishes a fully fledged language from a simple code, and how conlangers build grammatical systems that evolve like natural languages. George also lays the foundation for what it takes to get started on creating one’s own language from scratch.
00:00 – What Is a Conlang? 02:28 – “Real” Conlangs vs Fake Ones 11:34 – Early Conlang History 14:01 – Auxlangs and Esperanto 17:45 – Tolkien’s Influence on Conlanging 23:12 – Conlangs in Film and TV 26:47 – Modern Conlang Community 28:36 – How to Start Conlanging 33:59 – How to Emulate Natural Language Evolution in Conlangs 36:21 – Irregularity and Exceptions 40:35 – Conclusion
Hosts
Ray Belli
