With Grant Goodall (Professor and Language Program Director, UC San Diego Linguistics), David J. Peterson (Creator of Dothraki, Game of Thrones), and Paul Frommer (Creator of Na’vi, Avatar). Moderated by Tamara Rhodes (Linguistics Subject Librarian, UC San Diego Library).
Constructed languages are well-known in science fiction and fantasy literature as a way to create an immersive world-building experience. The inventors of these languages often give us insight into the ethnography of the imagined groups that speak them.
David J. Peterson, a UC San Diego alumn has gone on to create languages for television and films. Including HBO’s Game of Thrones, Syfy’s Defiance, Netflix’s Bright, the CW’s Star-Crossed, the CW’s The 100, Showtime’s Penny Dreadful, Spike’s The Shannara Chronicles, NBC’s Emerald City, Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World, and others. He is also the author of Living Language Dothraki and The Art of Language Invention.
Grant Goodall is Professor of Linguistics at the University of California, San Diego, where he directs the Linguistics Language Program and the Experimental Syntax Lab. His primary research area is natural language syntax, with a special interest in using experimental techniques to explore this area. He also has a longstanding interest in how linguistic research is applied in the public realm, particularly with regard to issues of language teaching policy and practice
Paul Frommer taught English and math in Malaysia in the Malay language with the Peace Corps, and later on English in Iran for a year in the mid-1970s. He received a doctorate in linguistics at the University of Southern California, on aspects of Persian syntax, in 1981. In 1996, he became professor of clinical management communication at the Marshall School of Business of the USC, then director of the Center for Management Communication at Marshall School of Business from 2005 to 2008. He has created two constructed languages for the movie industry: Na’vi for the movie Avatar, and Barsoomian for John Carter.
If you were not able to attend the event, the talk is now available on UCTV’s Library Channel.
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