I Want You To Remember:

dick makes people mentally ill. dick havers, dick wannabes and dick lovers are all insane. it's like toxoplasmosis, you have compulsive need to defend and push and worship dicks all the time and spead your dick mania to everywhere you go.

this seems rational and grounded in empirical evidence

petting her while we watch videos on my laptop🥺

BREAKING NEWS

[Picture of Geminitay in a "Women want me Fish fear me hat]

She said she's trying to convince Grian to buy a matching one!!!

Just Like the First Time.

I love accidentally starving myself. :). Life is so easy now that i am recovering from accidentally starving myself. :).

Little old Italian lady: Do you have zucchini?

Me: Yes, right here.

Lady: Is how much?

Me: $2.99 a pound.

Lady: It's usually $1.49.

Me: Yes, in the summer.

Lady, pauses, then grabs two: I put it in a soup.

Me: Oh nice, what kind are you making?

Lady: You will not fantasize about my soup.

And then she walked away. "You will not fantasize about my soup" will be in my head forever. I love you, little old Italian lady.

Fiat Lingua Top 10 for 2023

It's time for the annual Fiat Lingua rewind!

Background: I created Fiat Lingua over ten years ago with the idea that it could be something like the Rutgers Optimality Archive: A place where conlangers could post work that they wanted to showcase, or work that was in progress. We've had tons of contributions over the years, and some standout work I'm really proud of.

Using our fancy statistics program (you know, the free version) we're able to determine the top 10 visited posts for this year (though, note, the numbers for the current year's December post will always be down a little bit, since it didn't have a full month. If you'd like to take a look at it, Carsten Becker did a version of "Silent Night" in his conlang Ayeri!). Here they are!

NUMBER 10

"Road Trip Conlanging with Kids" (August, 2023) by Mia DeSanzo: Fiat Lingua is supposed to be an archive of long, detailed conlang articles, and also short, breezy conlang ideas, and this is one of the latter! It's less than a page long, but a fun idea, and it was quite well-received!

NUMBER 9

"Art & Anxiety: Conlanging through impostor syndrome" (February, 2023) by Jessie Sams (now Jessie Peterson): This is a personal reflection by @quothalinguist on how she has dealt with impostor syndrome, and how it's impacted her conlanging.

NUMBER 8

"Taadži Linguistics" (March, 2023) by Lauren Kuffler: This is a wonderful introduction to the Taadži language, which features a writing system reminiscent of Mayan epigraphs.

NUMBER 7

"Tone for Conlangers: A Basic Introduction" (April, 2018) by Aidan Aannestad: Making a second consecutive appearance in the top ten, Aidan Aannestad's introduction to tone has been an invaluable resource for conlangers producing tonal conlangs for just over five years now!

NUMBER 6

"Afrihili: An African Interlanguage" (April, 2014) by William S. Annis: Afrihili is an a posteriori auxlang from the late 60s that uses Bantu languages as its source, and it is fascinating! One of my all-time favorite auxlangs, and William provides a wonderful introduction. Of interest, this article was number 6 in the top ten last year, as well!

NUMBER 5

"Names Aren’t Neutral: David J. Peterson on Creating a Fantasy Language" (March, 2019) by David J. Peterson: Up four spots from last year, this is my article on best practices when coming up with names in a fantasy setting—even when no conlang is present.

NUMBER 4

"Grambank & Language Documentation: Zhwadi and Its Features" (June, 2023) by Jessie Sams (now Jessie Peterson): The first of the game-changing mega-resources for conlanging Jessie created in 2023, this is a short description of how to use Grambank in conlanging with a link to a fillable Google spreadsheet any conlanger can copy and use to introduce their conlang to others.

NUMBER 3

"Patterns of Allophony" (April, 2015) by William S. Annis: Definitely one of the most popular papers on Fiat Lingua, William illustrates graphically a number of very common sound changes. This article once again occupies the third spot of our top ten!

NUMBER 2

"A Conlanger's Thesaurus" (September, 2014) by William S. Annis: We have a new number 1 for this year! This has, historically, been the most accessed article on Fiat Lingua, and it's obvious to see why. The article is relatively short, compared to the information and use you can get out of it. William Annis details ways in which languages relate words to other similar words. For conlangers who struggle either with coming up with words that are different from English in meaning, or who struggle with coming up with words at all, this reference article should prove very useful. Using the word maps in this article, you might be able to come up with words you never dreamt of before, but words which could exist in some language. A great resource for conlangers who are desperately trying to break out of the influence of their L1 or L2!

And now for the top viewed article for 2023 on Fiat Lingua...

NUMBER 1

"A Surreal Conlang" (January, 2023) by David J. Peterson: Quite the surprise! Late 2022 I wrote an article about how one might go about creating a surreal conlang—neither naturalistic nor regular and artificial like an auxlang or engelang—and it went up on Fiat Lingua on January 1st. I think (or hope) it served as a useful jumping off point for conlangers who are looking to try something really different from what they've seen done elsewhere.

* * * * *

And that's it for 2023! I'm looking forward to posting more conlang articles next year. If you are a conlanger, a conlang-researcher, or conlang fan who has something to say in .pdf format about a specific conlang or conlanging in general, please consider submitting something to Fiat Lingua! We take any and all articles related to conlanging in whatever form you have them. I'm also happy to help you think up ideas, or refine those ideas you have. There is no strong review like in a fancy journal: I just want to get what you have up. I'm especially in interested in hosting personal conlang stories—stories about how or why you started to create a language, or your experience creating your own language—personal stories that are often lost, but are so vital, as there is an absolute dearth of literature about conlangers! If you think you have even the seed of an idea, please get a hold of me! I want to share as many stories and ideas as I can.

they should invent a hobby that doesn't require potentially destroying your wrists

“kill them with kindness” WRONG. GET RECLAIMED BY THE EARTH🌱🌺🌷🌹🌲☘️🍃🌼🌳🌱🍀🌿🌷🌹🌳🌲🌿🍀🌿🌲🌿☘️🌱🌸🌼🌲☘️🌻🍄🌿🌳🍀🍀🌱🌺🌷🌹🍄🌲☘️🍃🌼🌳🌱🍀🌿🌷🌹🌳🌲🌿🍀🌿🪻🌲🌿☘️🌱🌸🌼🌲☘️🌻🌿🌳🍀🌱🌺🌷🌹🌲☘️🍃🌼🌳🌱🍀🌿🌷🌹🌳🌲🌿🍀🎍🌿🌲🌿☘️🌱🌸🍀🪻🌾🌿🌸🌼🌲☘️🌻🌿🌳🍀🍄🌱🌺🌷🌹🌲☘️🍃🌼🌳🌱🍀🌿🌷🌹🌳🌲🌿🍀🌿🌲🌿☘️🌱🌸🌼🌲☘️🌻🌿🌳🍀🪻🍀🌱🌺🌷🌹🌲☘️🍃🌼🌳🌱🍀🌿🌷🌹🌳🌲🌿🍀🌿🌲🌿☘️🌱🌸🪻🌼🌲☘️🌻🌿🌳🍀🌱🌺🌿🍀🍄🍀🍂🍃🌷🌹🌲☘️🍃🌼🍄🌳🌱🍀🌿🌷🌹🌳🌲🌿🍀🍃🌿🌲🌿☘️🌱🌸🪻🌼🌲☘️🌻🌿🌳🍀🌱🍄🌺🌷🌹🌲☘️🍄🍃🌼🌳🌱🍀🌿🌷🌹🌳🌲🌿🍀🌲🌿🌲🌿☘️🌱🌸🌼🌲☘️🌻🌿🌳🍀🍀🌱🌺🌷🌹🌲☘️🍃🌼🌳🌱🍀🌿🌷🌹🌳🌲🌿🍀🎍🌿🌲🌿☘️🌱🌸🪻🌼🌲☘️🌻🌿🍄🌳🍀🌱🌺🌷🌹🌲☘️🍃🌼🌳🌱🍀🌿🌷🌹🌳🌲🌿🍀🌺🌿🌲🌿☘️🌱🌸🌼🌲☘️🌻🌿🌳🍀🌱🌻🌳🍄🌳🌿🌱🍄🌺🌸🌹🌳🌻🌲🌿🪻

poems I loved in december

Paruyr Sevak, "To Go Mad"

Anne Sexton, "December 18th"

Ted Hughes, "Lovesong"

Chris Abani, "Ritual is Journey"

Franz Wright, "Untitled"

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, "A Prayer"

Willie Perdomo, "Maybe Under Some Other Sky"

Osip Mandelstam,'You took away all the oceans and all the room', (translated by Clarence Brown and W. S. Merwin)

Osip Mandelstam, "Tenderer than tender" transl. D. Smirnov-Sadovsky

Richard Siken, "Litany in Which Certain Things Are Crossed Out"

Michael Miller, "December"

Vladimir Mayakovsky, "A Cloud in Trousers"

Mohja Kahf, “Most Wanted”

Louise Glück, "Winter Recipes from the Collective"

Vladimir Mayakovsky, "Listen"

Fear, Czesław Miłosz, Robert Hass (translator)

Hope, Czesław Miłosz, Robert Hass (translator)

Charles Bukowski, "a vote for the gentle light"

Marina Tsvetaeva, "I Opened My Veins" (translated by Elaine Feinstein)