About
What Is the Language Creation Conference?
The Conference is a set of talks and panel discussions about various issues related to language creation, from several different perspectives. It includes both fairly technical linguistic discussions as well as more general, sociological, or philosophical ones and examples of craft in action; voices from many parts of the conlanging community; and people from all over the world. The conference is open to the public; preregistration requested. Lunch and snacks will be provided.
What Is Language Creation?
Language creation (or "conlanging" -- "conlang" is short for "constructed language") is the process of inventing and (usually) describing a new language. Though the extent to which a language is created varies, creators might include sound systems, grammars, and writing systems for their languages. Some creators are also interested in cosmogenesis: the creation of cultures and worlds in which their languages are used.
What's the Point?
People create constructed languages for a number of reasons. Artistic languages are often included in fictional works: for example, Tolkien's Quenya in The Lord of the Rings or Klingon in Star Trek. International auxiliary languages (auxlangs) are intended for communication between people of different native languages, usually to prevent one being elevated over others or to making learning easier; some famous examples are Esperanto, Ido, and Interlingua. Logical and philosophical languages are used to test linguistic (and other) theories; Loglan and Lojban are well-known examples of the former, and Suzette Haden Elgin's Láadan is an example of the latter -- which she incorporated into the Native Tongue series of novels.