BenJamin P. Johnson (“Jamin” - /ʤəˈmɪn/) was born in upstate New York some decades ago, and studied many various languages before focusing on linguistics more broadly. 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 (with a brief hiatus from 2019-2021), and the LCS’s Minister of Memberships from 2016‒2019. He made a brief appearance in the 2017 film Conlanging: The Art of Crafting Tongues, right around the 44-minute mark.
Conlangs
Adzaay (a.k.a. Ox-Yew)
Adzaay, also know as Ox-Yew, is an a priori language that is still very much under construction, without much to look at yet. It has a fairly limited but unconventional phonology (involving several types of affricates and liquids), and most of its infrastructure can be broken down into groups of three. (E.g. 3 vowels, 3 stops, 3 nasals, 3 liquids, 3 genders, 3 moods, 3 types of cases (9 cases), nonal number system (based on an earlier trinary base), tripartite morphosyntactic alignment… you get the idea.)
Brooding (Baus Broodingee)
Brooding (ISO-639-3:qbd; BRCL:brdg) is an a priori language originally created by Veronica Hamilton 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 barely resembles its former self.
Gothic Romance
Building off of the original idea of what Valthungian was supposed to be, before it became what it is instead, Gothic Romance is actually a collection of three languages in several stages. It starts with the idea that the Goths who sacked Rome in 410ᴀᴅ continued to speak Gothic (or a close relative thereof) in parallel with Latin, rather than just switching to Latin completely as they did. This gave way to Old Valthungian, much as described, but from there, the development changes course from what eventually leads to Middle Valthungian, and by around 1200ᴀᴅ we find ourselves in a remote northern Italian town where the locals all speak both a form of Gothic and a form of Extemplar Latin which come to have a roughly equivalent phonology. From this point, the two languages exist in tandem, borrowing words back and forth between them until eventually we end up with Gothic Romance. Is it a Romance language with a lot of Gothic vocabulary? Maybe. Is it a Germanic language with a lot of Latin vocabulary? Maybe. Is it a creole? Probably not, but also maybe. Is it dark and spooky and probably something that vampires would speak if they were feeling particularly poetic? Definitely.
Gothic Romance is the result of the evolution and gradual merging of two historic languages, Italian Gothic (a 13ᵗʰ-century descendant of Old Valthungian) and Bad Romance (a 13ᵗʰ-century descendant of Extemplar Latin):
Italian Gothic
Italian Gothic is the direct Germanic ancestor of Gothic Romance, descended in turn from Old Valthungian. This isn’t really a conlang so much as a snapshot of various sound changes leading to Gothic Romance.
Bad Romance
Like Italian Gothic above, Bad Romance is the direct Italic ancestor of Gothic Romance, descended from Extemplar Latin. This isn’t really a conlang so much as a snapshot of various sound changes leading to Gothic Romance, though it might actually make for an interesting Romlang one day.
Grayis
Grayis is an a priori language commissioned by Infinite Mind Pictures, Inc., spoken by a race of aliens called the Grayis Kin. It is featured in the board-game Pilots of Gallaxia, released in January of 2020.
Maltcégj
Maltcégj (BRCL:mltj) (that’s [malˈʧɛɡʒ], in case you’re wondering) 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 has been subsequently transferred to https://blog.benjaminpauljohnson.com (keyword Maltcégj).
Northeadish (Druðþþȳðesc)
Northeadish (BRCL:nthd) is an a posteriori Germanic language with some medievalist flair. Work on the language has ceased, and it is gradually being subsumed into Middle Valthungian.
Nymeran
Nymeran is an a priori language originally created by Niamh NíDhúill for Mythopoeia's comic Glow. Jamin has been curating and expanding the language on behalf of Mythopoeia since the spring of 2021.
Valthungian (Sō Grējuga Tunga)
Valthungian, or the Grey Tongue (ISO-639-3:qgt, BRCL:grey), 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 as you know, he’s seriously bad at that: https://blog.benjaminpauljohnson.com (keyword Valthungian). 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.
Middle Valthungian
Like Italian Gothic and Bad Romance, Middle Valthungian isn’t so much a conlang as a snapshot in the development of Valthungian, though it is actually fairly well-developed and could be coerced into a functional conlang in a pinch. Middle Valthungian represents a period in the development of Valthungian lasting from around 1200‒1600ad 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 1450‒1500ad
Old Valthungian
Like Middle Valthungian, Old Valthungian isn’t so much a conlang as a snapshot in the development of Valthungian. To the casual observer it probably looks like a Roman spelling Gothic badly, which would not be entirely inaccurate. Old Valthungian represents a period in the development of Valthungian lasting from around 800‒1200ad 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 950‒975ad
Griutungi
Griutungi is the theoretical ancestor of Valthungian which was likely a dialect of, or at least mutually intelligible with, Gothic. Griutungi isn’t so much a conlang as it is just Gothic, but not so much how Gothic really was as how I wish Gothic had been.
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, de quo nui ne parlaramu ĵamai plui. Most of them didn't have names. Some of them had ridiculous names, like ɮaxu or Baraqesh or Iatu Nukta Amat. Still others have been created for authors and can’t be discussed publicly yet: The latter will appear here at such time as that is feasible; the former will likely not!
Contact
| Twitter: | bpnjohnson | Facebook: | benjamin.paul.johnson | YouTube: | UCLYOPhEY70uRtIQBXKGBd7g |
| Instagram: | bpnjohnson | Discord: | jamin#8101 | LinkedIn: | benjaminpauljohnson |
| Website: | www.benjaminpauljohnson.com | Email: | jamin@benjaminpauljohnson.com | Blog: | blog.benjaminpauljohnson.com |