[APPLAUSE]
DAVID PETERSON: Thank you.
So I've worked on
a bunch of stuff.
I'm just going to do a quick
laundry list here very, very
quickly just so you can see.
So "Game of Thrones"
was my first one.
I did a bunch of stuff for that.
"Defiance" on Syfy, "Star
Crossed" on the CW, "Thor--
The Dark World," the second one,
"Dominion" on Syfy, "The 100"--
airing its last season in May.
We are almost done shooting it.
"Penny Dreadful,"
that was a fun one.
I liked that.
"The Shannara Chronicles,"
the "Warcraft" movie,
"Dr. Strange," "Emerald
City," "Bright" on Netflix,
"Into the Badlands," for the
last season, "The Christmas
Chronicles" on Netflix.
"Arena of Valor" was
a game, a MOBA game.
"Another Life," a
series on Netflix.
Its second season is coming.
"The Witcher" just finished
filming its first season.
"Shadow and Bone,"
it's also on Netflix.
It's coming.
And the "Dune" film that's
going to be coming out
at the end of the year.
So anyway, given that
it is the season for it,
I thought I'd begin with
just a simple reminder
to please remember to wash
your hands with warm water.
And now for the
rest of the time,
we're going to be
translating that phrase
into a brand-new language
that we're going to create
right here on the spot.
And so we're going to use
this here to assist us.
So please, everybody,
get ready to say stuff,
because if you don't, somebody
else is going to dominate it,
and this thing is going to
go off the rails real quick.
Just kidding.
No, it'll be fun.
So when you're creating
a brand-new language,
the first thing-- before you
even start anything else--
is to decide what
type of a language
you're going to create.
And that usually
involves figuring out
who the speakers are,
if the language is going
to be spoken or
signed or written,
or if they're going to have some
other means of communication.
So far the only thing that we
know for certain about language
is that it's some way to encode
meaning in some sort of form.
But that form could
take various routes.
So we're going to skip over that
step and just say let's just
practice with a spoken language,
since most languages that we
know are spoken, and so
most people have familiarity
with them.
So spoken languages have sounds.
And sounds actually
come in groups.
So I'm going to start just by
giving you some of these here.
So these sounds right here,
which are pretty simple--
so we have P, T, K,
S, H, M, N, and L.
And they all have about the
sounds you would expect them
to.
So these are consonants.
And then these are vowels.
And they are ah, ee, oo.
They don't have their
English pronunciations.
These sounds-- the
consonants and vowels here--
most languages have
all of these sounds.
And all languages have
most of these sounds.
So it's a good place to start.
But after this,
you can add stuff.
You can subtract stuff.
For example,
Hawaiian, or at least
many dialects of
Hawaiian, don't have a T.
They also don't have an
S. No dialect of Hawaiian
has an S. Many languages don't
have an L. Many languages don't
have an R.
So, anyway, this is a good
place to start our sound system.
But now we're going to either
add or subtract stuff to it.
So, go.
What do we like?
This is a very, very,
very basic sound system.
Do you want to add anything?
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
DAVID PETERSON: What?
AUDIENCE: Q.
DAVID PETERSON: No, wait.
Hold on.
First of all, Q, we're
going to deal with the IPA.
So what is written as
Q, if you do it in IPA,
this is a sound that's
known as a uvular stop--
koh, koh, koh.
It's like k but further
back in the mouth.
The back of your tongue
touches the uvula
and produces a sound
that's not keh but koh.
It's why we spell the name
of this country with a Q.
It's not Iraq.
It's Iraq, Iraq, with a nice
hollow Q sound in the back.
Anyway, so are you
sure you want Q?
It's a fun one.
I like it.
I like it.
But if you want
it, we'll add it.
Wait, votes for Q?
AUDIENCE: Yeah.
DAVID PETERSON: Oh, my gosh.
We're adding Q. All right.
Let's do it.
Let's do it.
So we're going to have
our basic phonology.
And we are adding
Q, uvular stop.
All right.
Any others?
Any other favorites?
Yeah?
AUDIENCE: Velar nasal.
DAVID PETERSON: Velar
nasal, of course.
This is the sound
at the end of sing
and also at the beginning
of the Vietnamese name
Nguyen, if you
pronounce it right.
But I didn't.
But at least I pronounced
the velar nasal part right.
So this is a good one.
Anything else that
we want to throw in?
AUDIENCE: V.
DAVID PETERSON: What?
Give it a V as in--
AUDIENCE: V as in victor.
DAVID PETERSON:
Oh, V as in victor.
Let's talk about that.
So we have fricatives.
These are sounds that
sound roughly like-- oh, we
don't have a table here.
I don't know if
you're even going
to be able to pick this
up, but they sound roughly
like this [SCRATCHING SOUND].
So sss, fff, sh, vvv,
sss, and so forth.
The difference between,
let's say, these two sounds
is whether the
vocal folds vibrate.
These are the little things
that help prevent food
from getting into your lungs.
So if we leave them silent,
you get a sound like fff, f.
If you vibrate them,
you get this sound, vvv.
They're exactly the same sound.
The only difference is that
your vocal folds are vibrating.
So as we talk about V here, when
you add sounds to a language,
sounds tend to come in groups.
So this guy is a
part of two groups--
the group of voice sounds
and the group of fricatives.
This one, voiceless
sounds and fricatives.
So, so far we have voiceless
stops, and a very good series
of them--
P, T, K, and koh.
We've got a series of nasals.
But we don't have
a uvular nasal.
I'll note that.
And we only have
voiceless fricatives
S and H. If we want to add
V, do we want to also add F?
And do we want to add
this guy's sibling, Z?
S and Z are the same
sound, but one has
a vibration of the vocal folds.
So whoever suggested the
V, what do you think?
AUDIENCE: Sure.
Why not?
DAVID PETERSON: All of them?
AUDIENCE: Add them all.
DAVID PETERSON: Are
we good with this?
AUDIENCE: Can we add V and Z
without the unvoiced pairs?
Or is that weird?
DAVID PETERSON: No,
it's not, actually.
There are plenty of languages
that actually have V
that don't have F. Z without S?
No, you don't find that.
And we already have S. So
we'd have to remove it.
Remember, S is there.
But we could add just Z and V.
AUDIENCE: Yeah.
DAVID PETERSON: There are lots
of languages that will have a V
and not have an F. And this is
because it's a weak fricative.
So something like
these guys right here
are strong fricatives.
These, and that one they're
actually, these are all weak.
And so things will
happen with these
that don't happen with these.
So we got Z and V. Yes?
AUDIENCE: A rolled R?
DAVID PETERSON: A rolled
R. That's a very good one.
I like that sound.
I'm just going to add it
without even consulting anybody.
Everybody can do
that one, right?
Rrr.
And so on.
That's a good one.
Oh, and actually I should have
asked which type of rolled R.
Did you mean that rolled R rrr?
Or did you mean the one uhrrr?
The first one.
Good.
So let's see.
What we got P, T, K, S,
Z, V. We have M and agma.
We have a koh.
We don't have any
fricatives in the back.
We don't have anything like
[INAUDIBLE] or [INAUDIBLE]
or [INAUDIBLE] or [INAUDIBLE]
or [INAUDIBLE] or [INAUDIBLE]..
That's also one.
These are things.
Yeah?
AUDIENCE: How about a yuh?
DAVID PETERSON: A yuh?
Hey, that's a good one.
That's a good one.
Any objections to yuh?
A yuh?
As in yellow?
All right.
The symbol for that
one is a J, a J, a yuh.
We're getting a
pretty good set of--
AUDIENCE: --any clicks?
DAVID PETERSON: Any clicks?
Clicks also will come in
series if you add clicks.
So, for example, you'll
never find a language
that has a whole bunch
of non-click sounds
and then just has this,
which is [INAUDIBLE]..
No language has that.
Every language has--
as far as we know,
I think at least the
minimum is three.
It might be two.
I'm going to have
to look this up.
I'm very interested now.
But usually something like
that, which is a [INAUDIBLE],,
that one, and then what else?
There's also that one, which
is [INAUDIBLE],, dental.
And then so wait--
[INAUDIBLE]
I guess very few languages
have this one, which
looks like the chemical symbol
for gold but is [INAUDIBLE]..
That one.
And then I'm missing
my other click.
So it's [INAUDIBLE].
AUDIENCE: Lateral.
DAVID PETERSON: Lateral?
Well, now, this one
was the lateral.
This one was the
lateral, palatal lateral.
[INAUDIBLE] All right.
Well, anyway,
these are the four.
How do we feel about
adding some clicks?
Because if we're adding one,
we're adding at least two.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
DAVID PETERSON: All right.
Which two?
Which two we want here,
[INAUDIBLE] or a [INAUDIBLE]??
Sorry.
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
the last one.
AUDIENCE: The gold symbol.
DAVID PETERSON: [INAUDIBLE]
And then what is our other one?
The horse one?
[INAUDIBLE] Or the clock one?
[INAUDIBLE]
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
DAVID PETERSON: Or
the [INAUDIBLE]..
That one.
Here we go.
We got it.
We got it.
We got it.
Clock and also-- no, I'm sorry.
[INAUDIBLE] There
was that and clock.
Good.
All right.
Let's give us some space here.
We've got a good
set of consonants.
Why don't we jump to vowels?
Now, vowels are a
little bit easier
because there
aren't as many that
are distinguished in languages.
We've got, so far, ah, ee, oo.
And actually, it's not ah.
It's more of an aah.
Aah, ee, oo.
And these sounds
are very common.
You'll find them
in many languages.
English has a whole
bunch of vowels
that are both at different
levels and at different--
what do you call it?
whether they're tense or lax.
In other words,
keyed versus kid--
keying a car versus
joking with a car.
I kidded a car.
So we have things like that.
European languages will have
the front rounded vowels.
So rather than ee they'll have
[INAUDIBLE] and [INAUDIBLE]..
And rather than just
eh, they'll have
[INAUDIBLE] and [INAUDIBLE].
I don't think anybody has
[INAUDIBLE],, that sound.
AUDIENCE: We should.
DAVID PETERSON: You think so?
Oh, god.
It has the IPA symbol
like this, which
I don't think that they
even list on the IPA
anymore because somebody
finally realized
no language has that sound.
So they just removed
it from the IPA.
But it's there.
[INAUDIBLE] Yeah,
very low and round.
So not [INAUDIBLE],,
but [INAUDIBLE]..
Yeah?
AUDIENCE: Before we go deep
into vowels, quick question
about the consonants.
DAVID PETERSON: You bet.
AUDIENCE: --saying you'll
never find a language that
has one of these sounds
in this class of sounds,
but not some of the other ones.
And I was wondering, you're
designing a language now.
Are these rules that
you really don't
want to break because
it will sound unnatural?
DAVID PETERSON: That's a
good question, actually.
So the question
was, when it comes
to universal tendencies
in languages,
are these things that
you want to break or not?
It depends on the type of
language you're making.
Which is kind of a--
I don't know.
For what we're
doing right now, I
guess it isn't as
super important.
I always try to make it a little
bit, I guess, more natural.
But you don't
necessarily have to.
Plus, these things are
always just jumbling around
in my mind.
So every time one
pops up, I say,
well, you can't do that
because-- but you actually
can do whatever you want.
If you're just designing the
language just on your own,
you can absolutely
do with that whatever
you want as long as
it actually functions
and some other person
understands what you're doing.
And you don't need
to bother a bit
about what other languages do.
Sometimes it can
help inform so you
know when you're breaking
the rules on purpose
and when you're not.
So we need to move.
There's much more in language
than just the sounds.
Vowels?
AUDIENCE: What about long
and short variance on vowels?
DAVID PETERSON: That's good.
All right.
Let's do that.
So rather than
just ah ee oo, it's
ahh eee ooo, versus ah ee oo.
I kind of like that.
So I'm just going to add
this little-- oh, brother.
Of course-- well,
you just trust me.
This means that we're going to
have long and short variance
of all the vowels.
And now we've got six total
vowels, which is good.
The smallest number of vowels
you can have in a language,
as far as we know, is two.
And there are a couple of
languages in the Caucasus
that are argued to have
two distinctive vowels.
Anyway, now we've got six.
So we're fine.
We can add more.
For example, we don't have
any mid vowels, like this one,
eh or oh, or this guy that looks
like an upside down E that's
just an uh.
But we can also be good.
Is there anybody that feels
like we should have more vowels?
I'm actually seeing a
lot of heads shaking.
All right.
I actually want to
put this to a vote.
More vowels-- yay,
raise your hands.
The vast majority
say we're good.
So we're good.
We're done with vowels.
All right.
This is our system
for the time being.
A very nice and stable system
that also has two clicks in it.
All right.
So there's our vowels.
So the next thing, this
is the important part.
When you're choosing whatever
vowels and consonants are
in your system,
you're not actually
defining the sound
of your language.
The real definition of
the sound of your language
comes from the syllables--
that is, what can be at the
beginning of a syllable, what
can be at the end of a syllable,
and how syllables are built.
So here are four
different languages.
The top is Hawaiian, followed by
Japanese, followed by English,
followed by Georgian.
So if you look at
Hawaiian, Hawaiian
is very distinct in that it
allows no consonant clusters
at the beginning of the word.
And it doesn't
allow any consonants
to come at the end of a word
or the end of a syllable.
And so you end up with words
like [HAWAIIAN] which--
oh, what does that mean?
[HAWAIIAN] is, oh,
to make better.
That makes a lot of sense,
of course, because it's a--
Oh, wait, actually,
since I'm over there,
I forget what the
Japanese means, too.
Oh, studied, [JAPANESE].
So Japanese, you
have only one sound
that can come at the
end of a syllable.
However, you have
certain circumstances
where vowels can disappear,
making it sound more or less
like you can have more than just
an n at the end of a syllable.
So here, there is an invisible
I vowel that drops out.
English is just, I
mean, terrible here.
Look at this-- strengths?
That's just awful.
There's even like
a hidden K in there
when you pronounce
it we don't write.
Strengths.
The truth is most of us just
don't pronounce all this stuff
all the time.
Have you ever thought about
the worst word in English?
Crafts?
There's nothing worse
than that word, crafts.
Mhm.
I hate thinking about it.
And then the bottom
one, this is Georgian.
And the word, as far as I know,
it's pronounced [GEORGIAN]..
It was definitely a concocted
word for this example.
It means, you peel us,
like in the present tense.
So if somebody were
asking a bunch of bananas,
like, what do I do with you?
The bananas would
say, you peel us.
See?
I made a context.
But, yeah, you can
get tons of consonants
all in a row in
Georgian just like this.
So the question is,
for our language,
what do we want to do?
And we're going to
break it down this way.
Let's start at the
beginning of the syllable.
Do we want to allow
more than one consonant
to begin a syllable?
I'm seeing several yeses.
And if so, which ones?
Which ones?
And this is where
it's going to help
to break things into classes.
You have stops.
And these are our P, T,
K, Q. And I'm going to--
these clicks are
going to be tough.
So just remember that
they're not going
to play nice with other things.
Then you have nasals.
And that's our M, N, agma.
And fricatives-- we
don't have F. We do
have V, S, Z, and H. And
then our liquids, L and rrr.
And we have one
glide, which is yuh.
So often when you're
defining syllables,
it's usually with respect
to these categories.
So in other words, sometimes
if you look at English,
we allow liquids to
come after stops.
But we don't allow L to
come after coronals, T's.
So in other words, we have
play, and we have clay,
but we don't have tlay.
There's no reason we couldn't.
We just don't in English.
It does go the
other way, though.
So we have pray
and cray and tray.
That's fine.
But for whatever reason,
l coming after T and D
is just out.
Yeah?
AUDIENCE: What
about like kettle?
DAVID PETERSON: Oh, kettle,
there, basically, it's
a different type of L. The L
has essentially become a vowel.
Realistically, there's a
little bitty vowel before it.
But it's kettle.
It's not [INAUDIBLE].
But you actually do get
that in plenty of languages.
And you do get that with the R
in French, which is why-- oh,
my goodness--
is this-- yeah?
Wait.
Is that how you spell that?
AUDIENCE: Yes.
DAVID PETERSON: [FRENCH] And
you just kind of do the TR
at the end of it.
You don't actually
say this little vowel
unless you're an
American learning.
Then you do it all
the time, "katra."
So, anyway, thoughts
on consonant clusters?
You can do lots of wild things.
Like, you can have an N
come after a T, [INAUDIBLE]..
You could do that if you
wanted, but you don't have to.
AUDIENCE: Prenasalized clicks.
DAVID PETERSON: Prenasalized
clicks, you could do that.
They're actually just
called nasal clicks.
So that would be a distinction
between instead of, when
you have a clock sound, instead
of [INAUDIBLE],, it would be
[INAUDIBLE].
Did you did you hear?
[INAUDIBLE] Instead of a
knock, it feels like a niche.
[INAUDIBLE] But that was
too far forward-- sorry.
[INAUDIBLE]
Basically, what
you have to feel is
air passing through your
lungs out your nose when
you're doing the click.
Anyway, so we can
have that distinction.
Let's just throw that in.
So yeah, nasal versus
non-nasal clicks.
Good luck.
So we've got our
nasalized clicks.
Anything else?
Do we want PL?
Do we want TL?
Do we want things like that?
Let's just say we can get
liquids coming after stops.
So that's great.
AUDIENCE: Can we get
glides after stops?
DAVID PETERSON: Yes, we
can get glides after stops.
All right.
Cool.
AUDIENCE: How about
fricatives after stops?
DAVID PETERSON:
Absolutely, we can.
I mean, look, what
we have is "kwuh."
When that gets borrowed into a
lot of languages like German,
it's "kvuh," which
is just, what?
It's just this kkk.
"Kvah."
So, yeah, that's fine.
All right.
Anything coming
after nasals or no?
AUDIENCE: Is there any
combination of [INAUDIBLE]
that's universally not allowed?
DAVID PETERSON: Maybe a
stop coming after a stop.
You can have a word that begins
like Swahili does this a lot.
[SWAHILI] is a word for child.
So it's an m followed by a t.
Now the only difference
is that in something
like [SWAHILI],, that little
mark means it's syllabic.
So it's actually like
this is three syllables.
It's not two.
But yeah, you can do that.
You also have this thing
called prenasalized stops where
it actually isn't a syllable.
It's like [INAUDIBLE].
You can even have
the opposite, which
is really frustrating
to me, like [INAUDIBLE]..
I don't even know how to do it.
I've never been able to
successfully pronounce this.
But you actually
have nasal exits
for stops, which doesn't
make any sense to me,
but it's possible.
All right.
Let's call that a day for
the beginning of the word.
How about the end of a word?
Are words going to be able
to end with a consonant?
I actually heard a lot of no's.
We don't want words
ending with consonants?
AUDIENCE: No.
AUDIENCE: That's nonsense.
DAVID PETERSON: That's amazing.
I love it.
Actually, you want to know
one of the weirdest universals
when it comes to clicks?
Apparently, clicks
can't end a syllable.
I don't know why.
Seems fine to me.
So like [INAUDIBLE],,
it seems fine.
I don't see why that would
be anything bad about that.
But, yeah, it doesn't
happen at all.
So no codas.
So we're done with sounds.
So let's-- oh wait, I'm sorry.
You were asking can
you associate sounds
with particular parts of speech.
Oh, look at that.
That would've been helpful.
Anyway, I mean, yeah, you could.
Languages generally do not.
Natural languages
generally do not.
But you absolutely could.
Yeah?
AUDIENCE: If we have
phonemic distinctions
between long and
short vowels, does
that necessarily mean it
can't be a stressed language?
DAVID PETERSON:
No, absolutely not.
Hawaiian has long and short
vowels and has stress.
Arabic has long and short
vowels and has stress.
Yeah, no problem there.
We didn't talk about
stress, but we actually
could talk about
stress versus tone.
But we can't because
we're running out of time.
So let's move on.
It's just going to be
a stressed language.
All right?
When we talk about
nouns, nouns can do
a couple of different things.
They can have number.
So in English, we have
ship versus ships.
The second one is Arabic.
So you have [ARABIC],, [ARABIC]
and [ARABIC],, which is a cat,
two cats, and then
three or more cats.
So you have a special
form in Arabic
that means exactly
two of something.
And it still enjoys
a lot of use.
Then you also have something
like Pokemon, where
it is singular and plural.
Basically there's no
distinction in number at all.
And did you know this goes
for the names of the Pokemon?
So it's like, it's two pikachus.
It's two pikachu.
I mean, I find that easier
with some than others,
especially geodude.
There are three
geodude over there.
What a terrible name.
Anyway, so we can do
any of those things--
so just have a simple
singular versus plural.
Or we can have a singular,
dual, plural, or nothing.
Gender.
I know that when you hear
gender in a language,
you immediately jump to this.
But it doesn't actually
need to have anything
to do with biological sex or
gender representation at all--
I'm sorry, gender expression.
It could be other things.
So this could be the gender
system of a language.
Could also have this.
And then again, this means
that every single noun
in the entire
language will belong
to one category or the other.
So chair is obviously tent,
but podium is probably hotel.
So anyway, this is
a favorite of mine,
I mean, just
because that they're
three things I really like.
You could have rectangles,
squares, and other shapes.
Natural, artificial,
supernatural--
this is actually one
that's instantiated
in one of the languages of
the world, or a few of them.
You could divide them into
this, or this is a good one.
Because most of the
languages that we're
familiar with in
the west, which is
all of the Indo-European
languages and also
the Semitic languages,
have nominal gender that
is based on masculine
or feminine,
we tend to think that the
two must be conflated,
but they don't need to be.
Swahili has a--
I'm sorry, all the
Bantu languages
have a ton of genders, none of
them are masculine or feminine.
They all have to do
with other things.
Lots of times it's humans versus
big things versus small things
versus implements and so on.
Anyway, so that was that.
And then what comes after that?
Oh, verbs.
We're not ready for that.
So let's talk about nouns.
Number, yea or nay?
And if so, what?
I'm seeing nay for number.
Anybody want to
jump up and say yea?
Wow.
AUDIENCE: Yea!
DAVID PETERSON: All right.
Whoa.
Hold on.
I've got one yea.
Any other yeas for number?
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
DAVID PETERSON: Oh, my goodness.
This is actually--
raise your hands
if you want a number distinction
of some kind in this language.
Oh, my goodness.
Raise your hand for
no number distinction.
I don't think we have time
for a serpentine, but I mean--
is there anybody here that
can count sheep by their feet
and divide by four?
My goodness.
I don't know how to solve this.
So I think we have to go
with, in the interest of time,
no number.
All right, no number.
How about gender?
Are we doing gender?
First of all, yea for gender.
Oh, nay for gender.
Oddly, I think the yeas have it.
There were many people
who didn't vote.
AUDIENCE: I have a
question about gender.
What are some of the
interesting genders
you've added to your languages?
DAVID PETERSON: Some of
the interesting genders
I've added to my languages?
Probably my favorite
gender system
was one I did for
an alien language
that I created on
"Defiance" called Iratheint.
It had 18 genders.
And the genders, the top portion
of them-- the bottom portion
were things like
diminutive, argumentative,
which are very common, abstract,
and so more like, I guess,
category-type things.
The ones on top, it was plant,
animal, person, and object.
And each of those was
divided into dangerous
or threatening
versus non-dangerous
and non-threatening.
And so there was a
distinction, for example,
between water, which was in
the non-threatening substance
class, and hot water, which
was in the dangerous substance
class.
So that one was
kind of a fun one.
I really liked that.
AUDIENCE: Neutral [INAUDIBLE].
DAVID PETERSON: What?
AUDIENCE: Neutral.
[INAUDIBLE] for the neutral.
DAVID PETERSON: Oh, neutral.
For neuter, neuter is something
that really only makes sense,
or we only see it,
in systems that also
have masculine and feminine.
You don't tend to
see it elsewhere.
Or if you do, it's
basically a category
called other rather than
neuter because, of course,
neuter is [INAUDIBLE].
It means neither one.
So it implies two others.
So other is usually a
better name for that.
And, honestly, there
usually is a dumping ground
in gender systems
where it's like, if you
don't know what it
is, it goes here
unless it's a binary system.
And usually it's
one of the ones that
has to do with if
it's not specifically
this or that thing, or this
thing, then it goes here.
So, anyway, does anybody want
to jump out and suggest a gender
system for this?
AUDIENCE: Physical
and non-physical.
DAVID PETERSON: Oh, that's nice,
physical versus non-physical.
It's pretty good.
Anybody want to add something?
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
DAVID PETERSON: Oh, my god.
You're jumping all
the way to alienable
versus inalienable possession.
Maybe that's something
that we should talk about.
Alienable possession
is something like this.
Right now this is my--
I don't even know what
you call this-- my thing.
But this arm of mine is
probably not something
that I'm going to
part with very soon.
So calling this my thing
versus calling this my arm
is something that languages
will treat differently.
Do we want to make
that distinction?
AUDIENCE: Yeah.
DAVID PETERSON: All right.
So we have alienable
versus inalienable.
This doesn't necessarily need to
be a part of the gender system,
but it can be just
something that happens.
And it can show up elsewhere.
Let's just throw it up.
Physical versus non-physical.
Who is in favor of this?
All right.
We got it.
And then, we're just going
to look at verbs really
quickly, because
both of the verb
forms that we have
are a little strange.
But verbs will sometimes
change their form
depending on how they're
used in the sentence.
So for tense, for example, one
way that your verbs can change
is not at all.
It just doesn't change
no matter how it's used.
It could also have a past
versus non-past distinction.
This is what English has.
You could also have past,
present, and future.
This is what Latin had.
Past, non-past,
ancient past-- that's
actually a thing that happens.
Gnomic means timeless.
So in other words, past.
So it's like the dogs
barked versus the dogs
are barking versus
dogs bark in general.
It's a true fact
about the world.
You can also totally ditch
tense or combine it with aspect.
And so complete just means
that the action has finished,
and incomplete means the
action is not finished.
And it doesn't say
anything with respect
to tense, in other
words, when it happened.
There's was also about
to happen, happening,
just happened.
And now this is where it's
going to be relevant for us.
Commands can come in
several varieties.
It could just be a basic
command like an English.
Do this.
Do that.
And that's it.
But you can also
have a different form
of the verb depending on polite
versus impolite, singular
versus plural-- that
is if you're talking
to one or more people,
and then, of course, you
could probably also do dual.
I don't think I've ever
seen one, but you could.
Positive versus
negative-- in other words,
do this or don't do this.
Sometimes you'll have
different forms for that.
And then for
non-finite forms, these
are things like if you're going
to have a separate infinitive
or if you're going
to have a participle
or something like that.
Now the reason I'm giving
this the short shrift,
even though this is the
most complicated aspect
of languages, remember
that what we're translating
is "please remember to wash
your hands with warm water."
And so there's only
two verbs there.
There's "remember"--
I mean, depending
on what we do with "please,"
but there's "remember"
and then there's "wash."
"Remember" is a command.
And the "wash" part,
or the "to wash" part
is basically an
infinitival construction,
meaning that there's no tense.
There's no aspect.
It's just the bare
form of the verb.
So the only question that I
think I want to put forth to us
is--
these are nouns.
Let's talk about verbs.
Command forms.
Do we want to make any
distinctions between polite,
impolite, how many
people we're talking
to, or positive or negative?
AUDIENCE: Polite.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
DAVID PETERSON: All right.
So you want to make
it-- basically,
if you have a polite
distinction in your--
what you're talking about--
in your command forms,
all you're doing is
making it extra clear when
you want to insult somebody.
So all right, here
polite versus impolite.
We're going to have to
eventually do these things,
right?
So polite versus impolite.
Multiple, talking to
one person or more?
AUDIENCE: No.
DAVID PETERSON: No.
That's very good.
You know why it's good?
Exactly.
These things tend to agree.
Very good.
And then positive
versus negative?
It's not really going
to come into play for us
because usually if one
is going to be default,
it's going to be positive.
In other words, if there's
going to be like a little affix
on something that indicates
a difference in category,
usually the one without it
is going to be the positive.
It would be pretty
cool if there was
a language where the default
form was negative command
forms.
If you're just saying the
word, it means "don't do it."
That's pretty cool.
And then for
infinitives, do we want
something that's
going to indicate
the infinitive in English?
We have this little "to"
that we throw in there.
Other languages like
Spanish will actually
add a little ending like
[SPANISH] versus [SPANISH]..
What do we think,
something or nothing?
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
DAVID PETERSON: Oh,
boy, we haven't even
gotten to the fixes yet.
Those are coming later.
AUDIENCE: Make the infinitive
the root, the simplest form.
DAVID PETERSON: Oh, I'm
hearing infinitive the root.
Does anybody agree or disagree?
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
DAVID PETERSON: OK, OK, OK.
Basic form, good.
All right.
But this could
still be different.
All right.
Next, modifiers.
So when you look at
these, reading from left
to right, which one of these is
the cat box versus the box cat?
All right.
We say that because in English,
our modifiers come first.
So even though these
are both nouns,
if you put one in
front of the other,
we assume that we're talking
about a this kind of thing,
not a this kind of thing.
Obviously, a language can be
totally neutral with respect
to this fact.
And you could have this
be the natural order.
Which one do we want, like
English or like Spanish?
AUDIENCE: Like Spanish.
DAVID PETERSON: Spanish, it is.
All right.
So we're going to just make
a quick little note here.
Nouns are followed by modifiers.
Good.
Are we going to have adjectives?
Or are the adjectives
going to be verbs?
In other words, do you want
to just have an adjective
that means warm and we'll deal
with how it means warm later?
Or should it be
something like there's
a verb that means to be warm
and we need a participle?
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
DAVID PETERSON: Oh, boy.
We need to revisit verbs then.
We're going to
have to-- so let's
just-- we're going to
say adjectives to verb,
and we'll come back to that.
Adverbs, do we need adverbs?
Let's see.
"Please remember to wash
your hands with warm water."
I don't think we need adverbs,
but just know that they exist.
Anyway, so now we're
jumping to pronouns.
Pronouns can have a bunch
of different things.
This is something that every
single language on the planet
has, as far as we know.
Every single language
of the planet
has a first and
second person pronoun.
It makes it least
that distinction.
Many also have a
third person pronoun.
Most will not have
gender associated
with that third person pronoun.
By the way, as something
I also throw in there,
many also distinguish
singular versus plural.
Some don't.
Some don't.
Then there's also a system where
there's gender on the pronouns.
And then the question is, is
it on just the third person?
Is it also on the second person?
Is it also on the first person?
And it gets less and less common
as you go from third to second
to first.
So, for example, Arabic has a
gendered second person pronouns
but not first person pronouns.
Russian distinguishes gender
on the verb in the first person
in the past tense only.
It's kind of wild.
Anyway, so I don't think I've
got anything else for pronouns.
Oh, yeah, there's
also politeness
that you could throw
onto these things.
So, what do we think for--
and then agreement,
in other words,
when is the verb going
to agree with something?
So, first, are we going to have
first, second, and third person
pronouns?
Or just first and second?
AUDIENCE: First and third.
AUDIENCE: First and second.
AUDIENCE: First,
second, and third.
AUDIENCE: Only third.
DAVID PETERSON: Oh, my goodness.
Let's go first, second, third.
And then the question
when it comes to gender,
gender in pronouns always comes
from the gender from the nouns.
So we have physical
versus non-physical.
Is this going to show up in
our pronoun system or not?
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
DAVID PETERSON: Third
person, second person,
and first person?
Just third person?
What do we think?
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
AUDIENCE: What's a non-physical
first person exactly?
DAVID PETERSON: A toaster,
a talking toaster.
AUDIENCE: A talking toaster?
DAVID PETERSON: Wait,
oh, non-physical?
Non-physical, no, it's
an entity, isn't it?
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
AUDIENCE: A talking ghost.
DAVID PETERSON: It's an idea.
Well, ideas speak.
When freedom speaks-- no.
It's all right.
So here we go--
phys versus non-phys.
Good.
And then I guess we're not
going to have number, huh?
AUDIENCE: No.
DAVID PETERSON: Yeah.
All right.
So we're just going to
have those three pronouns
and be done with it.
That's good.
So next-- syntax.
So in English, this
is our word order.
Eye means I. The
heart means love.
And the cat means cats.
So "I love cats" is the
basic way to say that,
with the verb coming
in the middle.
You can also have, as in
Japanese, you basically
say, "I cats love" if you
throw the eye in there.
[JAPANESE]
Hawaiian, you have
"love I cats."
Malagasy, spoken in
Madagascar, "love cats I."
American Sign Language,
depending on how you sign it,
but I was thinking of
like "cats love I."
That's kind of a common
way that it happens.
Now there is some
extra stuff going on.
Obviously, the cats is getting
case marking, but anyway.
And then there's
this language I did
find that has "cats I love."
This is the percentages
worldwide of how common
these word orders are.
Japanese word order
is the most common.
Ours is the second most common.
Hawaiian is the next.
But you can see there's
a huge drop-off there.
And then basically this
one, "cats I love," I mean,
it's 0% because that's
what it rounds to.
They argue that there's like
two languages that do it.
But that's about it.
This one is also extremely
uncommon, but somehow better
than that one.
It's kind of interesting.
The truth is you
can probably find
every single one of
these word orders
in every single language,
depending on the construction
and how they're saying it.
But this is the basic
default word order
that you're going to
hear 90% of the time.
What do we want to
go with for ours?
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
DAVID PETERSON: I heard a
bunch of different things.
So there's one for Malagasy,
which is "love cats I."
That was actually
what you said, too.
So two for Malagasy.
AUDIENCE: VSO.
DAVID PETERSON: VSO?
That's Hawaiian, "love I cats."
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
DAVID PETERSON: Oh, boy.
AUDIENCE: I could compromise.
[INAUDIBLE]
DAVID PETERSON: OK, here we go.
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
DAVID PETERSON: Here we go.
It's Madagascar versus Hawaii.
Which one's the best island?
So first, VSO, like
Hawaiian, "love I cats."
And now, VOS, Madagascar,
"love cats I."
I'm sorry.
Hawaii has it.
Hawaii has it.
So we're going to
write our word order.
I'm just going to
write it right here--
VSO-- so we remember.
All right.
Let's move on to the next thing,
which is one of the reasons
that we have varying word
order or varying strategies
is everybody always needs to be
able to know how do you figure
out who does what to whom.
So if you're
hugging the cat, how
do you figure out if it's you
hugging the cat or the cat
is hugging you.
Because it's a cat,
you know it's not going
to be the cat hugging you.
So, for example, if you make
this distinction with word
order, it would
mean for English,
"I love cats" is correct
for the order of the person
hugging the cat.
The other order, "cats
love I" is wrong.
So that's when you use word
order to make this distinction.
You could also use case.
This is the eye shadow
I gave these things.
So you can see the
orders are different,
but the meaning of "I love
cats" comes through for both
because the eye always
has the blue eye shadow
and the cat always has
the pink eye shadow.
So it doesn't matter what
order you put the words
in because the case is there.
On the other hand, and
this would be fine, too.
But this would be wrong
because the eyeshadows changed.
The case is changed, meaning
that the meaning is now
opposite.
So that's another way to
tell who does what to whom.
There's also head marking, which
is the verb itself changes form
based on some salient form
of the noun in question.
It doesn't matter
what order you put
everything in because
the verb will tell you
who does what to whom.
That is head marking.
And so that would work,
and this would not.
AUDIENCE: Head marking is
correlated to the object?
DAVID PETERSON: No.
It could be object--
well, actually,
most commonly it is the object.
But it's often both.
It could be the object.
It could be the
subject and object.
It could be the subject,
object, and indirect object.
That's what actually
we saw with Georgian.
It does that.
And then you could also mark
it with adpositions-- so,
in other words, just a
little word like "to"
or "at" which tells you
who does what to whom.
And adpositions can come
in two different orders.
This is English--
"the cat in the box."
This is Japanese--
"the in the box cat."
This one's called a
preposition because the thing
that it's being inside of
or whatever comes first.
And this one's called
the postposition
because it comes after.
In other words, this
thing governs this.
And you call it a preposition
if it comes before
and a postposition
if it comes after.
And then you can also
do it with affixes.
And affixes, by the way,
they tend to line up.
So if the verb comes at
the end of the sentence
or after the object, you
tend to have suffixes more.
If the verb comes at the
beginning of the sentence,
you tend to have prefixes more.
I will note that our
verb comes first.
So how do we want to say
who does what to whom?
Strict word order?
Case marking?
Using an adposition,
probably a preposition?
Or head marking?
AUDIENCE: Head marking.
AUDIENCE: Preposition.
AUDIENCE: Word order.
AUDIENCE: Word order.
DAVID PETERSON: Whoa.
How many for word order?
How many for head marking?
And how many for prepositions?
I'm sorry, how many for cases?
All right.
Well, let's say cases or
prepositions because--
and then you can decide if we
want to mark it with an affix
or with a preposition.
So cases, strict case marking?
This is dependent marking.
That one definitely lost.
So your candidate is out.
So we're going to go back to
word order versus head marking.
Word order?
Head marking?
Holy smoke.
Here we go.
Head marking.
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
DAVID PETERSON: Yeah, all right.
So I'm just going to
pop a quick H in there.
All right.
Head marking, I'll remember.
And then this
coordination, I'm just
going to throw up this note.
We don't have to worry about it.
But you can say X and Y.
But you can also say X Y
and, or and X and Y. There
are many different ways to do
coordination, just so you know.
Now for the words.
So what world are we describing?
So this is where it gets busy.
So we have-- ignore the
"please" for right now.
So "remember to wash your
hands with warm water."
So let's start with one of
the simple ones, "hand."
As a reminder, we
do have alienable
versus inalienable possession.
So unless this is
a pair of hands
you chopped off somebody
else and brought to work,
this is going to be
inalienably possessed
when you're talking
about washing your hands.
So one of the ways that
inalienable possession
works is that you don't use
a word like your with it.
That could be one way to do it.
So in other words,
instead of saying
"remember to wash your
hands," we would just say
"remember to wash hands."
And because it wasn't
used, we would know.
Otherwise, we can have a
little marker on there.
What are we feeling like?
AUDIENCE: Marker.
AUDIENCE: Marker.
AUDIENCE: Marker.
AUDIENCE: Marker.
So like I said, these tend to be
either prepositions or prefixes
for the type of word
order that we have.
Do we want
preposition or prefix?
AUDIENCE: Prefix.
DAVID PETERSON: Now let's
talk about the word itself.
The word for hand is
probably very basic
if we're talking
about human beings.
There are many
languages that don't
distinguish between a
word for hand and arm.
Russian is one of them.
And then there are some
like English that do.
So, in other words, the word for
this in Russian, which-- is it
[RUSSIAN]?
Anybody?
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
DAVID PETERSON: [RUSSIAN].
So it could be talking
about the hand by itself
or it could be be talking
about the whole arm.
It just depends on context.
And it usually doesn't
make a big difference
which one you're talking
about because you'd know.
Anyway, we don't also
have arm in this,
so we don't have
to worry about it.
But it is a basic word.
So bearing in mind
our consonants,
does anybody want to
take stab at creating
our very first word, hand?
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
DAVID PETERSON: What?
Hold on.
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
DAVID PETERSON: Actually,
they were very similar.
Wait.
And say it again.
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
DAVID PETERSON: [INAUDIBLE] And
that was with the nasal one,
right?
AUDIENCE: Yeah.
DAVID PETERSON: Yeah.
[INAUDIBLE] All right.
So let's put our
words right here.
And this is how we indicate
nasalization usually.
But, I mean, you do it
differently for clicks.
Don't you usually just put the
N right there-- or an agma--
but I'm going to
leave it like that.
Also, was that a
long [INAUDIBLE]??
AUDIENCE: Yeah.
DAVID PETERSON: Oh, yeah.
All right.
There we go, long.
All right.
So we've got that.
[INAUDIBLE], hand.
And so now we need to say
that this hand is inalienably
possessed.
How do we want to do that?
Do we want to do it
with just a prefix that
just says, this thing is
inalienably possessed?
Or do we want to do it with
a special pronominal marker?
So, in other words, you have
different pronominal markers
that means this
thing is alienably
versus inalienably possessed.
AUDIENCE: Prefix.
DAVID PETERSON: Right.
So, yeah-- oh, I see
what you're saying.
So one that's related to
pronouns, or one that's not.
So related to pronouns,
raise your hand.
Not related to pronouns.
Wow.
You really are programmers.
Separate all the meanings out.
Make sure they each have
their own little bit.
So what should this prefix be?
What should the
form of this prefix
be that says this thing
is inalienably possessed?
AUDIENCE: Zzz.
DAVID PETERSON: Mm.
Just by itself?
We never said that
we couldn't, did we?
You happy with [INAUDIBLE]
Sorry, [INAUDIBLE]..
AUDIENCE: I'd go
with [INAUDIBLE]..
DAVID PETERSON: [INAUDIBLE]
versus [INAUDIBLE]??
Hold on.
Hold on.
How many for [INAUDIBLE]?
How many for [INAUDIBLE]?
All right.
Fair compromise, it is.
[INAUDIBLE] is going
to be inalienable.
We'll just write it like that.
Now we're probably going need
the "your" part somewhere.
And remember that
modifiers come second.
So the modifier is going
to come after this.
So we're going to need a
second person pronoun for--
I don't know.
Well, actually, since we have
this gender system, physical
versus non-physical
entities, that
means that you have
to make a choice.
Are you talking to physical
or non-physical entities?
AUDIENCE: Yes.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
DAVID PETERSON: I suppose,
well, the question
is, would non-physical
entities have hands?
Or, if they did,
would they even need
to be washed because
they're not physical?
AUDIENCE: They don't want
to get a computer virus.
DAVID PETERSON: All right.
Well, let's start with this.
What is our physical
second person pronoun?
AUDIENCE: Something with R.
DAVID PETERSON:
Something with R. Rrr.
Anybody want to add to rrr?
AUDIENCE: Rrree.
DAVID PETERSON: Rrree?
Rrree it is.
So then we can do one
of two things here.
So we have-- sorry,
[INAUDIBLE] and then rrree.
Now we can just
leave it like that.
In other words, the pronoun
itself can serve as a modifier
as well.
Or we can change it in some
way so that this pronoun
is marked as a modifier.
So leave it alone or mark it?
AUDIENCE: Leave it alone.
AUDIENCE: Leave it alone.
DAVID PETERSON: Good.
All right.
So now we have the
"your hands" part.
All right.
Yeah?
AUDIENCE: How do you tell
that the person is physical
versus non-physical?
It seems ambiguous here.
DAVID PETERSON:
That's because we only
created the physical one.
You want to create the
non-physical one just
for the heck of it?
Yee?
All right.
There we go.
Rrree is a physical "you."
Yee is non-physical "you."
All right.
So we have the
"your hands" part.
"Always remember to wash."
So remember, we're doing
just the basic form
of the verb for an infinitive.
What do we think about "wash?"
Is that something that is going
to be a basic notion that goes
back to time
immemorial? or is it
going to be something that's
derived from something else?
AUDIENCE: Basic.
AUDIENCE: Basic.
AUDIENCE: Basic.
DAVID PETERSON: I
disagree, but let's do it.
Somebody give us
a form for wash.
AUDIENCE: Shhh.
DAVID PETERSON: The
language doesn't have a sh.
Remember that.
We had the option.
We didn't go with it.
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
DAVID PETERSON:
[INAUDIBLE] anybody?
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
DAVID PETERSON:
[INAUDIBLE] All right.
Here we go.
So yes, and we need
the infinitive.
Remember it's "to
wash your hands."
So right now we have
"to wash your hands."
[INAUDIBLE] I'm sorry.
[INAUDIBLE] No, I'm sorry.
[INAUDIBLE] Gosh, this is a
really tough one [INAUDIBLE]..
This will take me a bit.
Anyway, OK.
What do we want to do next?
"Remember" or "with warm water?"
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
DAVID PETERSON:
"Remember"-- now that's
certainly something that's
probably not going to be basic.
How do we want to do that?
How do we build a
word for remember?
AUDIENCE: Remind yourself?
AUDIENCE: Start from know.
DAVID PETERSON: Start from?
Oh, K-N-O-W. Got you.
We can start from know.
Give us something for know.
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
with a long [INAUDIBLE]??
AUDIENCE: Yep.
DAVID PETERSON: All right.
[INAUDIBLE] All right.
Know.
Now how do we get from
know to "remember?"
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
DAVID PETERSON: You want
to do full reduplication
or have it shorten
up a little bit?
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
DAVID PETERSON: Oh, I kind
of like this, actually.
All right.
So with reduplication, we
get [INAUDIBLE],, "remember."
AUDIENCE: I like that.
DAVID PETERSON:
I like that, too.
So [INAUDIBLE].
So now the question
is, how are we
going to indicate this
command because it's
a command to remember.
AUDIENCE: Ya as a suffix.
DAVID PETERSON: Ya as a suffix.
Oh, ooh, [INAUDIBLE].
I kind of like that, actually.
I'm just going to go with that.
[INAUDIBLE] All right.
Was this polite or impolite?
AUDIENCE: Polite.
It's polite.
DAVID PETERSON: Polite.
Now you're right.
[INAUDIBLE] "Remember
to wash your hands."
And then the last
thing we'll do--
forget "please."
We'll just say it
was built into this.
"With warm water"-- all right.
Since we didn't do
case, it's probably
going to require a preposition.
Anybody want to
throw something out
for a preposition for "with"?
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
DAVID PETERSON: We can't end
anything with a consonant.
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE].
DAVID PETERSON: All right.
And now, water--
probably super basic.
Anybody want to throw
out something for water?
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
with a long?
AUDIENCE: Short.
DAVID PETERSON: Short.
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
DAVID PETERSON: [INAUDIBLE].
And then, now we got to
this whole deal with--
so if we don't have adjectives,
it's water that is warm.
You did that.
You all did that.
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
DAVID PETERSON: So it's a verb.
It's going to be in
some sort of a form,
probably present
tense or gnomic tense.
And it might agree
with something.
So let's start with "warm."
Is it going to start as warm?
Or is it going to
be built off of hot?
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
DAVID PETERSON: What?
Hot.
Give me something.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
DAVID PETERSON: Wait.
I heard [INAUDIBLE] first.
How are we going to
take [INAUDIBLE]----
wait, we don't have that vowel.
Let's call it [INAUDIBLE].
How are we going
to take [INAUDIBLE]
and turn it from hot to warm?
Yeah, how are we
going to do that?
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
AUDIENCE: Change the starting
vowel to [INAUDIBLE]..
DAVID PETERSON: To what?
AUDIENCE: To the low round one.
DAVID PETERSON: Oh, my god.
I'm going to accept
that even though--
[INAUDIBLE]
All right.
So this is how it will work.
We probably put
[INAUDIBLE] here.
And then it would probably
have something on it
to indicate that it was
agreeing with something.
Since the pronouns
are coming afterwards,
it's probably built
off the pronouns.
And it's probably going to
be built off of this pronoun.
Somebody just give a
shout for a third person
pronoun, a really simple one.
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
DAVID PETERSON:
[INAUDIBLE] All right.
So I'm going to say [INAUDIBLE].
And so we have "please
remember to wash
your hands with warm water."
[INAUDIBLE] There you go.
[APPLAUSE]
