User:Bpnjohnson

BenJamin P. Johnson (“Jamin” - /ʤəˈmɪn/) was born in upstate New York some decades ago, and studied many various languages before switching his major to linguistics. He currently resides in Halifax, Nova Scotia with his husband Terrence. He has been a member of the Language Creation Society’s Board of Directors since 2015. He makes a brief appearance in the 2017 film Conlanging: The Art of Crafting Tongues.

Conlangs

Brooding (Baus Broodingee)

Brooding is an a priori language originally created by Veronica Hamilton (formerly Scott) for the Riddlesbrood Touring Theater Company. Brooding is used in the company's theme song and logo, and was used in their 2012 production of The Dark Side Show, the 2015 and 2017 productions of Harken, and 2016 book Riddlesbrood: The Greatest Brochure in the World. Jamin has been curating and expanding the language on behalf of Riddlesbrood since the fall of 2014.

Dlatci

Dlatci is an a priori language that Jamin has been working on since 1994. It has undergone some massive changes over the years, though, and is currently in a state that isn’t entirely “presentable.” He hopes to fix this soon.

Grayis

Grayis is an a priori language commissioned by Infinite Mind Pictures, Inc., to be spoken by a race of aliens called the Grayis Kin.

Maltcégj

Maltcégj is an a priori language created out of boredom and full of vicious puns. Maltcégj started as a sort of blog, before there were blogs, and when he remembers, Jamin still tries to keep things up-to-date: http://maltcegj.everywitchway.net/

Northeadish (Druðþþȳðesc)

Northeadish is an a posteriori Germanic language with some medievalist flair.

Valthungian (Sō Grējuga Tunga)

Valthungian, or the Grey Tongue, another Germanic a posteriori, this time a close relative of Gothic. Not directly descended from Gothic, as such, but maybe a great-great-nephew. Jamin aspired to maintain a blog about it as it developed, but he’s seriously bad at that. http://valthungian.everywitchway.net/. Jamin formally presented Valthungian as a theoretical descendant of Gothic at the 53rd International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo in 2018, which was attended by twos or even threes of people.

In the process of creating Valthungian, it became necessary to create some intermediate steps as well. These aren't fully-fledged conlangs, but more like synchronic snapshots of a two millennia long diachronic process.

Middle Valthungian

Middle Valthungian represents a period in the development of Valthungian lasting from around 1200‒1600 a.d. marked mainly by palatalization of a great many consonants as well as some minor reduction to unstressed vowels. Though this is a range which experienced many changes, the most representative example of “Middle Valthungian” is the language as captured by the suddenly-prolific Valthungian writers at the beginning of the Renaissance, circa 1450‒1500 a.d.

Old Valthungian

Old Valthungian represents a period in the development of Valthungian lasting from around 800‒1200 a.d. marked mainly by changes to geminates and intervocalic consonants, as well as the introduction of Germanic ī/j-umlaut and some small but important changes to all of the vowels. Though this is a range which experienced many changes, the most representative example of “Old Valthungian” is the language as captured in a few surviving texts believed to date to around 950‒975 a.d.

Griutungi

Griutungi is the theoretical ancestor of Valthungian which was likely a dialect of, or at least mutually intelligible with, Gothic.

Adɮāc/Adzaac (a.k.a. Ox-Yew)

This is a language that is very much under construction, with not much to look at yet.

Others

Over the years Jamin has invented dozens of other languages to various states of completion ranging from a few scribbled notes to monstrosities like Latinovesa, his first and only Aux-Rom-Lang, of which we shall never speak again. Most of them didn't have names. Some of them had ridiculous names, like ɮaxu or Baraqesh or Iatu Nukta Amat.