Linguistics undergraduates Francesca Cappetta, Carlye Stevens and Joshua Kitsos brought home a blue ribbon from the 2019 Student Research and Creative Activity Expo.
Linguistics was well represented at this year’s Ohio University 2019 Student Expo.
Dr. Michelle O’Malley’s Language Construction class came out in force. Every student enrolled in the course presented a project, and one of the teams brought home a first place ribbon.
The coursework focused on the art of language construction, or creation of a “Conlang.” For the uninitiated, a conlang is a consciously constructed, rather than a naturally-developed language. Elvish, Dothraki, and Esperanto are all examples of constructed languages where linguists apply their knowledge of how natural languages emerge, develop and change over time. These ‘conlangs’ are often constructed for movies and TV shows to lend authenticity to their fictional universes. For the Language Construction course, students were required to take on the additional task of dialect coach when they composed a theatrical scene using their newly constructed sociocultural environments and languages. They set the scene, coached their actors, and filmed the piece for the show at the expo.
Senior undergraduates Carlye Stevens, Francesca Cappetta, and Joshua Kitsos presented their Conlang project, titled Suʒ.niŋ.u.ʃə: Putting Sounds into Words into Languages: Constructing a Language for a Fictional World.
Second-year graduate student, Zoe Zawadski, presented an independent production at the expo. “It was a really rewarding experience getting to show off all my hard work this semester,” says Zawadski about presenting her language, Yenvperdu, or Language of the Lost, at the Expo, “I loved getting to talk to people who were interested in a language that I got to create.” She added “I really enjoyed taking this class [Conlang] because it allowed me to use all the knowledge I have gained throughout my linguistics classes to create my own language. Creating a language is a lot of work, so I’m really proud of my new language.” Zawadski has degrees in both French and Linguistics as well as a working knowledge of Polish. Each of these content areas informed the phonology, the syntax and the overall feel of her constructed language.
Other language contributions to the expo included: Nakulus which was created by Zach Delin, Poŋpoŋosh which was created by Kaya Chanthavong, Melody Diaz and Anya Ferguson, and Sagatha, created by Tim Stevens.
Also present at the Expo was a representative of Dr. Soomin Jwa’s Second Language Acquisition course. First year Linguistics M.A. student MC Augstkalns presented her study on cross-linguistic influence, Break a Leg, An Investigation of L2 Idiom Comprehension of L1 Arabic Speakers. This study examined the comprehension of English idioms by ten native speakers of Arabic. “I loved Soomin’s class! It was really helpful to learn how to write a research paper from the ground up in my first semester of grad school. I feel like I gained a lot of skills that have already proven to be useful going forward. Presenting at the Expo wasn’t as intimidating as I feared it would be because I knew my study inside and out. I was proud of how I did at my first exhibition and I can’t wait to do more!” Augstkalns said.
MC Augstkalns and Dr. Soomin Jwa pose for a photo in front of MC’s poster
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