Constructed Language
Ghor Conlang in Andor
Play video(skip to 7:03 in the video)
Parts of season 2 of Andor take place on the fictional planet Ghorman, which is modeled after France. Alongside costume and scenic design, they also designed a language inspired by French, which is frequently used during scenes on Ghorman. Since it has such a similar phonology, it carries with it the indexical associations we have with French. These associated traits give viewers a further understanding of what the Ghor people are like.
HAN "I GOT IT" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-RECORD]
Play videoInstance of English-Korean wordplay in k-pop/k-rap. The Korean-accented English pronunciation of "I GOT IT" in the chorus is homophonous with the Korean "아가리" which is a curse word/harsh way of saying "shut up". There are other uses of wordplay throughout, especially in the final few lines of the song. This is a commonly used tactic in k-pop to tiptoe around explicit language. When Korean swears are turned into English words (and vice versa), fans typically tend to think that the songs are cooler and the artists are smarter and edgier than normal—in other words, the lyricists index themselves and their work as sophisticated. This does not just apply to explicit language, and it carries different connotations depending on the exact wordplay being used.
Official Toki Pona Bluesky Account Shares Reed Quest Article
The official Toki Pona Bluesky account shares an article from the 2025 Quest April Fool's edition about Reed faculty voting to introduce courses in Toki Pona to help meet demand for the new language requirement. Toki Pona is a minimalist conlang designed around the Sapir-Whorf-inspired belief that a minimally complex language will help speakers focus on basic things and live in harmony with the Dào.
How to Speak Like a Catperson
A DeviantArt user with no formal linguistics knowledge explains a set of phonetic rules they follow when replacing English syllables with /njɑ/ or /nju/, or more generally appending /j/ to nasals in specific environments in order to imitate the sounds of a cat. They refer to this style of speech as their 'nyaccent.' [Published on 09-25-2013]
The constructed languages of JRR Tolkien
Play videoPretty in depth overview of Tolkien's various languages present in LOTR. Their influences, history, reception and legacy.
Conlang Critic: Lingwa de Planeta
Play videoA video talking about how languages ought to be constructed, using a specific example of a constructed language as an example.
Prisencolinensinainciusol
Play videoA song by Adriano Celentano that is supposed to sound similar to what English sounds like to non-English speakers.
Influencer Accent
Play videoAn explanation of the intonation patterns as well as other aspects of the 'influencer accent' and how its a designed speech style to steal your attention
empathic language model
An language model that detects the emotional state of the speaker and responds accordingly. Interestingly, the model will use certain features, including ones we've studied in class like derhoticization, to indicate certain emotional states. It likely also has learned, inadvertently, to detect/classify human emotion by paying attention to these variables.
An open question is how language models like these will affect language change, if at all.
we're ✨english majors✨
we're ✨english majors✨ #fyp #foryou #trending [Published on 02-13-2024]
Gibberish by KayPaige
Some lyrics to kaypaige's song Gibberish which she created because of her ability to speak gibberish and have it sound like a real language. Some of the lyric are in english.
Anglish Home
This wiki contains a brief overview of the Anglish movement. Some of the major works, like the YouTube video by Rob Words, and also the history of the movement all the way back to Paul Jennings coining the term "Anglish". In addition to the history, there are also links to major Anglish related resources, such as a wordbook (dictionary), the Anglish subreddit, and chat groups. [Published on 05-18-2023]
The World's TINIEST Language? (TOKI PONA)
Play videoA short video about the conlang Toki Pona by a YouTuber who talks about language. Toki Pona was created "to simplify thought and communication by cutting our communication down to the most important universal concepts, and expressing more complex concepts by combining simple ones."
Interview with linguistics consultant on 2016 movie Arrival
NPR interview with Jessica Coon, a field linguist at McGill University, on her work on the 2016 sci-fi movie "Arrival." She discusses what the process was like and what the creators of the film got right and wrong about linguistics in the movie, whose main character is a linguistics professor trying to figure out a way to communicate with aliens that have landed on earth. [Published on 08-21-2020]
Accent Expert Breaks Down 6 Fictional Languages From Film & TV | WIRED
Play videoThis has a lot of cool stuff in it (and this dialect coach does other really interesting breakdowns), but what I thought was relevant in this video, and what he touched on a little bit, is how a lot of fake languages are invented in terms of which phonemes apparently sound "powerful" or "scary," although these ideas are obviously not entirely true and euro-centric. My roommate even defended the idea, saying that some sounds are inherently powerful sounding, like the voiceless velar fricative. Hm.
The 100 Language Ideology
Play videoIn the episode series, The 100, there are three groups of people, the mountainmen, the ark, and the grounders. The mountainmen and the Ark have both been living in conditions with a school system and a more systematic type of life in general. They both speak Standard English and after 97 years apart come back together and can communicate. The grounders, who live on the ground in a less "civilized" way in the modern worlds eyes, speak a language called “Trigedasleng”, which is supposed to be a descendant of modern English. The grounders have to speak English in order to communicate with the mountainmen and the ark. There is a language ideology within the show that seems similar to the English-only ideology around today. This idea that English is the best language and should be the language to communicate with others as well as the most civilized language (Crawford, 2000). I have attached a video of the language spoken by the grounders and one can also see how they are depicted within the show in accordance to the ideology that they are “less civilized”.
English = civilized language
Play videoIn the episode series, The 100, there are three groups of people, the mountainmen, the ark, and the grounders. The mountainmen and the Ark have both been living in conditions with a school system and a more systematic type of life in general. They both speak Standard English and after 97 years apart come back together and can communicate. The grounders, who live on the ground in a less "civilized" way in the modern worlds eyes, speak a language called “Trigedasleng”, which is supposed to be a descendant of modern English. The grounders have to speak English in order to communicate with the mountainmen and the ark. There is a language ideology within the show that seems similar to the English-only ideology around today. This idea that English is the best language and should be the language to communicate with others as well as the most civilized language (Crawford, 2000). I have attached a video of the language spoken by the grounders and one can also see how they are depicted within the show in accordance to the ideology that they are “less civilized”.
Phineas and Ferb: Ferb Latin
Play videoIn this episode of Phineas and Ferb, Ferb comes up with a new language to "accommodate new customs". He takes the first letter of the word, places it at the end, and then adds -erb. The characters even go on to replace normal dialects, such as saying "Bless you", by replacing them with an action. The action for "Bless you" being you play a flugelhorn and give them your left shoe. They describe it as a 'phoenetic caboose'.
How Dothraki was made
This video discusses what's needed to "create a language" [Published on 04-13-2015]