What Language is That?

Esperanto. Sindarin. Láadan. How were they invented? Why they were invented? Are there any native speakers I could actually invite for a full detailed conversation? What are constructed/artificial/planned/invented languages to begin with? Can you create one all by yourself? And more in this special bonus episode.

Extra links:

For Láadan 

More about Láadan here and here  

Story in Láadan 

Phonetics taken from here 

For Sindarin

Elvish Linguistic Fellowship (ELF) 

Take a look at Tengwar 

“In dreams” by Howard Shore 

Sindarian poem 

Namárië read by J.R.R. Tolkien 

Phonetics taken from here 

For Esperanto 

Esperanto Association 

Esperanto poem 

Esperanto Anthem (final sound) 

Phonetics taken from here

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Original artwork by Cahyani

Music by Lee Rosevere

Is French a Romance language or a romance language? How did it form and transform? What business does “beaucoup” have being spelled like this? What makes a swear word? Is French really that beautiful? Why then? Also how languages influence the way we think, Canadian French, accents, the th-sounds and more. Extra links: “La chanson de Prévert” by Serge Gainsbourg  “Le dormeur du Val” by Arthur Rimbaud  Alice on the Roof Interview and ZAZ Interview “Les Tontons Flingueurs” scene Dante and the Occitan language Support the podcast: on Patreon   via Donations with Merch Follow on Instagram and Twitter Original artwork by Cahyani Music by Lee Rosevere

Is Russian grammar the literal worst? Are Russian and Ukrainian the same? Where those bear stereotypes came from? How to proclaim your love for life in Spanish? Is there an alternative to patronyms? What are they even are anyways? Also being joyous, a *lot* of poetry, a tip to improve you Russian spelling and more.

Extra links:

"For the insight of Russia you should not use your brain" by Fyodor Tutchev 

"Eugene Onegin" by Alexander Pushkin read by Stephen Fry 

"The Lost Tram" by Nikolay Gumilev 

Ukrainian social ad

You can find Kate here and here

Support the podcast:

on Patreon  

via Donations 

with Merch 

Follow on Instagram and Twitter 

Original artwork by Cahyani

Music by Lee Rosevere

How did Arabic come about? How many dialects are out there? Which should one to pick? Why did Spanish steal so many words from Arabic? Why we started writing from left to right? Which German words can communicate more than a paragraph in English? Also cultural serendipities, stereotypes about Arabic language, poetry and more.

Extra links: 

Al-Mutanabbi's poem

Lebanese podcast "7 minute motivation" 

Support the podcast: 

on Patreon   

via Donations  

with Merch  

Follow Instagram and Twitter 

Original artwork by Cahyani 

Music by Lee Rosevere

Hi there! Hello! I’m Irin and I am fascinated by the way we evolved to form sounds and then also point at things and say it’s a dog or un chien or собака. There is no actual reason for those words to be so different, but they just…are. It blows my mind every time! There are so many languages, and there are even people who know a bunch of them (and this blows my mind approximately 7 times as hard). And so I decided to try to find some of those humans and ask them all about their bilingual or multilingual experience, how they manage to live with this blessing/curse, if there are any words missing in either of the languages and what’s their relationship with their native ones (also what in the hell they are doing in St. Petersburg, where the podcast is created).

So welcome to the episode zero! Listen to find out more about the show (and possibly yourself).

Support the podcast:

on Patreon  

via Donations

with Merch

Follow on Instagram and Twitter

Original artwork by Cahyani

Music by Lee Rosevere