We puzzle through the very difficult and complex subject of thematic roles and role marking, and then review the awesomely complicated Okuna.

Top of Show Greeting: Standard Telèmor

Links and Resources:

We finish out our Holy Trinity of Verbs with Mood — a slippery, slippery subject if there ever was one.  Of course, after trying to make some sense out of that, we move on to review South Eresian

Top of Show Greeting: tzoi

Rescources:

we wij/ons    widder/us

This just blows my mind. It goes to show that there is more to language evolution than regular sound changes Makes me wonder whether small populations are less conservative and more radical in their language changes than large populations are. I need to do more work on Jameld dialects now…

Keep up the good work on the podcast – always enjoyable.

James

The second in our TAM series, we spend a good deal of time on the basic perfective/imperfective distinction as well as talk a little about how you can go totally crazy with many, many more aspects.  Then we review the incredible Siwa.

Top of show greeting: Salthan

Featured Conlang: Siwa (CBB Thread)

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(First of all, here’s a link to the Inyauk Grammar for you.)

Regards

The first of our episodes of the holy verbal trinity of TAM.  We initially planned to do Tense and Aspect as one episode, but the more we talked about tense the more complicated it became, so the aspect discussion is pushed to next week.  We also have a wonderful time talking about the insanity that is Klingon.

Opening Phrase: Sandic

Featured Conlang: Klingon (KLI, The Klingon Dictionary)

We throw out some tips for how to kick certain creative habits you might have developed as you create languages.  Then we review the Akana language Tmaśareʔ.

Top of Show greeting: Myonian

Links and Resources

Featured Conlang: Tmaśareʔ

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We give you some info on verb framing — that is the typology of how languages describe motion, as well as some discussion of postural verbs, aka positionals, and all the wondrous variety you can create with them.  Also, we review [k]enyani.

Greeting: Gomain by Zach Hart

Links and Resources:

The changing use of “du” and “ni” in 20th century Swedish may be an interesting example of how rules of courtesy and formality may change.

(1) In earlier Swedish, one should use a title when addressing someone of higher social rank than oneself. Intimates could address each other with “du” (the regular 2nd person singular pronoun). A person of higher social rank could address someone of lower rank (for example, an employer talking to an employee) using “ni” (the 2nd person plural pronoun)

(2) In the early 20th century, there was attempts to change the formality system into French/German-style T/V-distinction, using “ni” as an all-purpose formal pronoun, while “du” would continue being the familiar pronoun. The attempts were only partly successful; many people (especially in more conservative small towns or rural areas) still considered “ni” as quite unfriendly, mainly used when addressing someone of a lower rank.

(3) In the latter half of the 20th century, in accordance with general social changes in a more egalitarian and familiar direction, “du” became a generally used pronoun, used on most social context (“du-reformen”, “the du-reform”).

(4) At the dusk of the 20th century, it became increasingly common for young people in various service occupations to address customers with “ni”, probably under influence from the French/German T/V-distinction. While it was done as an act of courtesy, the ironic result could be that old people, who had grown up with the earlier system, perceived it as rude and felt insulted.