Background: Writer of many ‘conlangs’ (artificial languages) such as Dothraki from Game of Thrones
Why: 30+ part video-series about conlangs. In theory, it’s meant as a resource to guide your own creation of a language. But it’s also just a really good resource for absorbing how a linguist thinks about language. He talks about sounds/words/grammar, how they change over time, and what mechanisms are involved in that. IIRC he doesn’t use very many technical terms but his depth of knowledge is very obviously deep. In my own case, this video series, and the accompanying book of the same name were instrumental in my linguistics journey.
Domain: Linguistics
Link: [The Art of Language Invention, Episode 25: Ghost Segments]
Person: David J. Peterson
Background: Writer of many ‘conlangs’ (artificial languages) such as Dothraki from Game of Thrones
Why: 30+ part video-series about conlangs. In theory, it’s meant as a resource to guide your own creation of a language. But it’s also just a really good resource for absorbing how a linguist thinks about language. He talks about sounds/words/grammar, how they change over time, and what mechanisms are involved in that. IIRC he doesn’t use very many technical terms but his depth of knowledge is very obviously deep. In my own case, this video series, and the accompanying book of the same name were instrumental in my linguistics journey.