There is often a secret ingredient that draws us into powerful performances on our television, captivates us with storytelling in our favorite books and has us hooked on to the latest video game. That secret ingredient is a constructed language and there is a Denver startup focused on creating a platform for language creators around the world and promoting the art, science, and craft of inventing languages.
That company is Conlangio, an innovative language-construction software company with a free web-based constructed language application. This startup – not even a year old and still in its early phases – already has over 400 language creators and over 400 languages created using their software. It has created quite a buzz in this niche community and is planning to expand to content-creation and educational material in the near future.
The founder of Conlangio, Patrick Gaston, is a classically trained linguist, U.S. Army veteran, and software engineer living in Denver, CO.
“Language is my absolute passion. After getting my degree in Linguistics and becoming a software engineer, I really made it a mission to use this unique skill set to create language applications for underrepresented language communities. I started creating my own language in 2016 as a way to deal with some issues transitioning from military to university so this is where I wanted to start my journey,” says Patrick Gaston
One of the most amazing things about this startup is that it was created on nights and weekends as a side project – and still is!
“I’m kind of just riding this wave right now. Conlangio has definitely grown to a point that makes it hard to do part-time but I am loving every minute of it. This whole journey has already been so surreal and if I get to work on Conlangio full-time, it will be amazing,” says Gaston.
In the past year, Conlangio has grown to a diverse team of 4, including 2 military veterans.
Want to know more? So do we!
What is a constructed language?
Constructed languages, or conlangs for short, are languages that have been created artificially, by an individual or a group, with the intent of being used for communication by a group of speakers, to enhance art, entertainment and more.
You may be more familiar than you think! If you’re one of the millions that tuned into HBO’s hit series Game of Thrones, you’ve heard of Dothraki, which is a fictional language constructed by David J. Peterson – an American language creator. That’s not all. Some other places you can find constructed languages are James Cameron’s Avatar, The 100, and the Lord of the Rings to name a few. That list is only getting bigger.
Why create a language?
People create languages for all kinds of reasons, some of these might include own personal use, video games, films or TV shows.
Stay tuned…
Be sure to keep an eye on this startup, as they may be responsible for your next favorite hit series.
To contact Conlangio or find out more, check out http://conlang.io/
