Now We're Talking: Constructing Your Own Language!

What do J.R.R Tolkien (Tengwar, The Cirth), Marc Okrand (Klingon), and L.L. Zamenhoff (Esperanto) have in common? They all constructed languages that are used in literature, pop culture, and/or global communities. Constructed language is the art of developing a language, complete with it's own set of phonemes, morphemes, lexemes, syntax, and context! In this class, learners will get the chance to develop their own languages and - while we're at it - learn about linguistics  and real-world language families! 

During the first three weeks, we'll talk about some popular conlangs, discuss the purpose of creating a conlang, and we will discuss a bit about phonology - the sounds of language. 
During the fourth through sixth weeks, we'll be looking at the language families of world languages and drawing inspiration for how we'd like our phonemes to interact with each other. 
During the seventh through ninth weeks, we'll be building our own grammar rules. How would you like to conjugate your verbs? Will you be using grammatical gender in your language? Tonality? 

During the tenth through twelfth weeks, we will begin translating chosen texts into our language as we continue to develop our conlang's vocabulary. 
During the thirteenth through fifteenth weeks, we will work on creating a script in which our languages can be written.  

We will learn first hand about how language evolves and learners will be able to make beginning connections between languages they already speak and languages they may want to to learn in the future!