Tuesday 21 July 2015

Conlanging and Progressive Rock

Earlier this year, I helped to organise the Sixth Language Creation Conference, which I did so that I could finally get to meet so that I could finally meet some of the friends I've made online over the past few years. Among these were John Quijada (who later wrote some very flattering things about me in the Language Creation Tribune) and David Peterson, of whom some of you may have heard.

Conlanging is not the only thing we have in common. We're all progressive rock fans, too, but while I have never managed to get a band together, John has composed an album's worth of material, and recorded it with David singing. Here's the first track.

The impressive thing here is that David is singing in Ithkuil. Ithkuil is John's conlang, and it's very complex. It has about twice as many sounds as English, and allows more complex combinations. Due to the great precision and concision of Ithkuil, the slightest mispronunciation would change the meaning. It must have taken David ages to learn to sing it.