[Conlangs] Commission Work

Taking the first step toward following my dreams of becoming the next David J. Peterson... I have decided that I should continue to flex my conlanging brain and offer commission work!

Conlanging as a hobby can often be an on-and-off process that breathes alongside the work that I do outside of linguistics. I also find motivation to be scarce unless it comes from outside incentives. So I have decided to start doing conlang commissions!

The price of commission work will vary on the nature of the project in question and the scale of the project, but for now I can outline a few different works available with price and time estimates:

• Naming Language / Sketch (~ $50):
• approximately 50 lexical items, phonology, and romanization
• anywhere between 1-3 weeks
• Beginning Conlang (~ $150): 
• approximately 100 lexical items, phonology, romanization, basic morphology and syntax
• anywhere between 3 weeks and 1.5 months
• Full Conlang (~ $300): 
• minimum 500 lexical items, detailed phonology, romanization, detailed morphosyntax
• anywhere between 2-3 months
• + Orthography (~ $150)
• non-latinate writing system, punctuation, numerals
• anywhere between 2-3 months

These prices are approximate and will fluctuate depending on the work hours required of me. A conlang commission also requires clear communication with the patron... the Language Creation Society job boards said it more elegantly than I could:

" Almost everyone in the market for an invented language will care most about one thing: the timely delivery of translations. There are a few things to consider to make that process flow more easily. Translations happen far more quickly if there is a core grammar and vocabulary (500-750 words) already in place when translation time arrives. For even the most experienced conlanger, having to create and translate on the fly is four to six times slower. Creating that core will take between 60 and 80 work works hours. Your conlanger will have other obligations, so it is best to give them at least three months (two in emergency cases) to do the background work. If you are also hiring for a writing system, take into account the time for that, too.
A good conlang -- even one as simple as a naming language -- will not simply be a code for an already existing language (unless it is explicitly supposed to be one!). It touches on culture deeply. It will help your conlanger considerably to have access to any historical and cultural information about the speakers as soon as possible. Your conlanger may also have cultural suggestions. Make sure they know early who to contact for cultural questions.
For print media, you should get to work to be translated to the conlanger in reasonable time for them to complete the work, along with a clear statement about when the translations are due. "

Additionally, the LCS provides an excellent glossary which details the expected product. The prices listed on the LCS glossary are the LCS's minimum pricing requirements, but I will be charging a bit less depending on the nature of the project. (Also, due to the fact that I am not exactly a professional conlanger, I will not be charging as much, especially for not-for-profit artistic projects).


If you wish to discuss a conlang commission, feel free to shoot me an email at danteh@alumni.cmu.edu . Be sure to include [Commission] in the subject line, or I might gloss over your email! 

Whistled Language and the Legitimacy of Droidspeak

First of all, I'd like to apologize for the lack of posts made within the last two months. I had an absolutely amazing experience playing Hamlet in a local production with Band of Brothers Shakespeare, and it ate up most of my free time. Now that I've finally settled back into Pittsburgh, it's time for me to give my blog a jump-start!


A long time ago... in a galaxy far, far away... there was a little blue astromech droid by the name of R2-D2.  R2's charming beeps and buzzes have made a permanent mark on the film industry, and he has become one of the most beloved sci-fi characters of all time. Growing up with the Star Wars franchise left a huge impression on me. My brain couldn't help but pour over the vast possibilities for a future bedazzled in astounding technology... would humans ever invent the light saber, blaster, protocol droid, or starship? Ironically enough, none of the fantastical things in the Star Wars universe struck me as particularly impossible... save for the fact that every humanoid character could understand R2-D2 or Chewbacca. All I could hear were indistinguishable beeps, buzzes, roars, and gurgles. How could anyone possibly interpret these as language?

It wasn't until learning a thing or two about linguistics that I even considered these "languages" they spoke to be anything but mere fantasy. I never understood how these beeps and buzzes could ever function as language. When I found out that all of the languages in Star Wars were approached not as constructed alien languages with grammar, syntax, and vocabulary, but as exploitative and even racist sound design projects, my hopes were dimming; Bill Hader and Ben Schwartz played the 'voice' of BB-8 in The Force Awakens, which was apparently made by JJ Abrams messing around on an iPad while Bill and Ben spoke into a talkbox. This process was very similar to how Ben Burtt created the original sound for R2-D2. However, there is some legitimacy to the concept of Droidspeak, and that is a real-world parallel: whistled speech.

Whistle languages are exactly that: natural languages consisting of high-amplitude whistles that encode nearly the same amount of information as spoken language does. Whistle languages act almost like auxiliary modes of speaking; they rely on a concept in phonology called functional load. Essentially, functional load refers to how important certain features are in making contrastive distinctions and encoding information. Certain features of speech will have a higher functional load in some languages as opposed to others (and having a high functional load means that if these features are missing or obscured, the message is more difficult to interpret). Let's unpack that a little more:

English relies heavily on its vowel qualities to encode information. There are many sets of words in English that differ only by a vowel. For example: pin, pen, pan, pawn, pine, pwn, and pain all differ by vowel sounds only. Consonants in English carry a lighter functional load; how can speakers of American or British English still understand someone speaking with a French accent? We can still understand exactly what is being said, even if all their "th" sounds turn into "z"s, and even if their "r" sounds are all uvular instead of alveolar. As long as the vowels retain much of their phonemic quality, the same message can be accurately conveyed through a very different encoding. Intonation in English, however, carries very little functional load. Utterances spoken in a monotone voice in English still carry almost the same information (save any emotion or sense of inquiry).

Tonal languages like Mandarin, however, rely heavily on what are called suprasegmental features (phonological features which "attach" to more salient features such as consonants, vowels, syllables, etc.) to encode information. Mandarin, like many tonal languages (essentially, in a tonal language, the same syllable can be interpreted as a completely different word depending on what pitch contour is used on that syllable), carries a very heavy functional load in its tones. Basically, if someone were to speak Mandarin in a monotone voice, it would be almost completely unintelligible because the tones carry most of the information in this language. Other suprasegmental features across languages include vowel length, intonation, stress, or even nasality.

Going back to whistle languages, most whistle languages have come out of languages which have a robust tonal system. It's like stripping down the language to nothing but its tone contours. All you get is the suprasegmental features -- the tones, duration differences, and stress... no vowels, no consonants. However, many whistle languages such as Silbo Gomero (the most commonly whistled language today) do not come from tonal languages. These whistle languages instead mimic the change in frequency of the second vowel formant, the f2. Vowel formants are amplified frequency bands produced when speaking which are amplified by the vocal tract (oral and nasal cavities). These amplified frequencies help our brains to interpret vowel qualities; they help us determine the difference between "ee" and "ah". In Silbo Gomero, for example, there are two proposed vowels: "i" and "a". The difference between these two is marked by a higher or lower pitch, respectively. The reason why is because for the vowel /i/, f2 is much higher in frequency than the vowel /a/. Get it?

So, if humans can whistle a tonal melody and convey to each other the same amount of information as speaking, why can't BB-8 beep and buzz and speak a robust complete language to Rey on Jakku? The legitimacy of such a language existing in this fantasy universe lies in these real-world examples of whistled speech. R2-D2's buzzes and whistles have the possibility to carry an extraordinary amount of information... enough that other organic creatures can understand exactly what the little droid is trying to say. Not to far, far away after all, is it?


May the force be with you all,
Dante <3