Creative Language Development

At about the age of 11, in secondary school, I began studying Humanities in the form of French, Spanish and Latin (and just one year of Welsh), English Lang and Lit, and Religious Studies, alongside Science in the form of Chemistry, Physics and Biology, and Maths. Around this time I was captivated by “The Lord of the Rings,” and especially by Tolkien's “invented” languages and began making my own. A little later on, I corresponded briefly with Richard Adams regarding the “Lapine” language, fragments of which were presented in his novel “Watership Down.”

Torn between "the two cultures," I ended up studying Natural Sciences at Cambridge University. Despite that, I carried on playing seriously with language, maintaining and developing my interests, thanks to the flexibility of the "Tripos" system. I read and learned a great deal,  won a couple of scholarships, and devoted much of my spare to time to indulging in this "secret vice" (a phrase from Tolkien). Since that time, I have developed all of this work into a creative study of "language (sub-)creation" called "aleolinguistics" (see below).

Between 1999 and 2011 I spent 12 stimulating years lecturing in applied maths at Northumbria University (the languages were used in parts of my teaching). Since returning to Swansea in 2012 due to redundancy, I have become fluent in Welsh. I gained a Distinction in A-level for second-language speakers, and have won the Learners' Prose Medal in the National Eisteddfod, and the Bard's Chair in the local Swansea Bay Learners' Eisteddfod. I have also attended several seminar courses in Advanced Latin at Swansea University, and in Summer 2014 gained a Distinction in the exam for an intensive course in Introductory Ancient Greek, as well as in the Higher Education Certificate in Egyptology.

I have been a Tutor in Welsh for Adults with Swansea University's Academi Hywel Teifi since 2019, and I enjoying this role immensely. I absolutely love the Welsh language, which I find beautiful, magical, and modern, all at the same time. I was nominated for an "Inspire! Tutor Award" in 2021 and again in 2022 when I was one of the finalists in the competition. I was also nominated (in 2023) for a Senedd Cymru "St David Award," and for the "Tutor's Prize" in the National Eisteddfod.

You can read all about this in English and Welsh below.

Since my first attempts at creating a language (a process Tolkien called “subcreation”), I have woven the basic fabric of Lapine into my own experiments, although this forms only one part of a much larger sequence of languages.

My aim was to give free reign to my creativity, to enjoy the playfulness, and to investigate and demonstrate in as much detail as possible how a family of complex, interrelated, invented tongues develops, giving rise to syntax, a lexicon, scripts, and so on. My creative language play (a process I call “aleolinguistics”) is still going on. See here.

The prefix “aleo–” is derived from a combination of the Latin verb, “alō, alere, aluī, altum” (“foster, nourish, feed, maintain, develop”), and the Latin noun, “ālea, āleæ” (“die, dice game, game of chance”). It is meant to signify the continuous interactive growth, coupled with mutation, within the system of languages. Various stages of the language (or, indeed, the separate languages), have names such as “Sivrolutínu Dalathanír” (proto-Language); “U Taalthil ‘Shiilvahweeth” (neo-orimo-Language: “Lapine Proper”), and “Ai Houn ifa ai Thari ina pe i ai Silifuithe” (neo-telo-Language). These all mean “The Language of the Burrowers.”

I am very keen to hear from anyone with an interest in this work, particularly if you wish to commission some language-development, or to collaborate. Linguists, composers, artists, poets, tattooists, and musicians are especially welcome. If you have any requests or queries, you can get in touch here, or by using the link to the contact-form provided at the top of this page.

This work has resulted in the mapping out of numerous historical stages of my language, each involving approximately 2000 items of vocabulary. There are also scripts, and comparative sample texts in various of the languages. Some examples are given below. All of the examples mean:

"This is the tale, much abridged in form,

Of deeds long-past"

or, in Welsh:

"Dyma’r chwedl, y talfyrrir ei ffurf yn llawer,

Sy’n traethu gweithredoedd a fu ers talm."

One of the earliest stages (based on a Latin model) looks like:

Antel-u ah-es, suler-í tantis-ohé hisut-uhí,

Enter-ién orí lanest-asaví ros-ié lam-oké erelt-ulé tela

This then became "Lapine":

U hoylps ás, u thapsna arté’s wiloom-afoo a hýl,

Af-tan sy m’nuhloil lamné u ilps’s hlammé rons risthi fu hýl

Which developed into a language which I wanted to be similar to Samoan:

Ai holupa as, a thaperina are u ulou thi ule his,

A holusu u ape ule ithes sethenath athe lane lana fie ere setha

A document containing a comparative survey of all of the stages of the language is available below. This document is intended to present a bare-bones overview of the outcomes of an “aleoliguistic” process.

It does this by giving translations of the “Introduction to the Cycle of Elder Days” into various “aleostates” of the language, designated: archo-Languages (“Dead Languages”): proto-archo, meso-archo, muto-archo, neo-archo; thallo-Languages (“Thriving Languages”): proto; ortho-meso, meta-meso; ortho-muto, meta-muto; orimo, neo-orimo (“Lapine Proper”); proto-telo, and neo-telo.

I have made art involving translations of phrases and longer texts. For example, I have created a vocal text for “Tango alemán” (1978) by Mauricio Kagel, performed by Dr Paul Attinello at Newcastle University King's Hall in 2008; and made a text for the Croxhapox Art Collective, Gent, Belgium (2011). If you are interested in working with me, please send me a message.

Some people have even asked me to design tattoos for them, involving texts such as: “She is a phantom of delight,” “In my God I trust my life, my love, my destiny,” “Language: Fire of Truth,” “A Shaman of Becoming I'll Be,” “I am a Lingwiz'd of Is,” and “Believe in nothing.” These requests have come as a great honour, and I have gained immense pleasure from fulfilling them! Some examples are given below. Please get in contact if you would like to discuss the development of designs.

A document illustrating the utilization of these languages for creative purposes is given below.

I have used various of my own “aleolinguistic” languages and scripts very successfully in teaching a final-year BSc (Hons) Mathematics Degree module in “Advanced Mathematical Modelling.” The specifications are given in the document below.

On the basis of these experiences, I presented a poster entitled “Do All Mathematicians Speak the Same Language? No, at Northumbria Some of Us Speak U Siilvahwyth” at the Northumbria Conference on Assessment for Learners (2010). This is reproduced below.

The first article was

Jemmer, P (1986) Secert Vices: Lapine. Quettar 25: 3 – 4.

The second article was:

Jemmer, P (1987) "U Sthinga-i-Kelaabr" (Tolkien's "Ring Poem" in Lapine).

Aglared (English Edition). 10.

The third article was

Jemmer, P (1988) Subcreation: A Linguistic Faculty of Greatest Excellence. Quettar 31: 8 – 10.

The fourth article (developing from "Lapine" to "Gallifreyan") was:

Jemmer, P (1998) "Galifresa He Luse" ("Old High Gallifreyan"). Aglared (English Edition), 16.

The entire study was published in 2014 by NewPhilSoc (Swansea, UK) as:

Studia Aleolinguistica: An in-depth study of linguistic 'subrcreation'

Enflame Newcastle Number 4

(ISSN 2047-0444; ISBN 978-1-907926-16-7)

The full work is presented below; a summary of the contents is:

Chapter 1. ALEOLINGUISTICS: The Language Creators; The Inception of Lapine; Lapine Develops; The Philosophy of Subcreation; “Chaotorganic” Growth; The “Secret Vice”; Observing Creativity; Aleolinguistics; (Re)(de)(con)struction; A Living Language Evolves; Archo-Language Development; Initial Conception of aleostates; Refined Conception of aleostates; A “Map” of Linguistic Features; References.

Chapter 2. THE LANGUAGE(S): Proto-Language; Meso-Language; Muto-Language; Orimo-Language (“Lapine” Proper); Phonemics and Orthography; The Nature of the Language; Lapine Syntax; “Mutations” in Lapine; Counting in Lapine; Reverential Titles in Lapine; Names in Lapine; Lapine Calendar; Lapine Language Development and Examples; Neo-Orimo-Language; Proto-Telo-Language; Language Structure; Language Examples; Neo-Telo-Language; Language Structure; Language Examples; “Root Words” in the Proto-Language; “Roots” in the Telo-Language; “Determinatives” in the Telo-Language; References.

Chapter 3. THE LEXICA: Clan Address; Personal Names; A - Z Vocabularies. 

Chapter 4. THE JOURNEY CONTINUES: Sharing; Learning through Lapine; Onwards And...?; References.

To add to the philological debate regarding Klaatu's command to Gort, namely "Klaatu barada nikto" -- why not do a very magical operation, and invert the written form of the original? This gives: "Otkin adarab utaalk." A load of old gobbledygook, you say. And so it appears when written this way. However, if you "re-segment" the phrase -- how this might sound, I do not know -- then you get -- "Ot kinad a rab u taalk" -- surely, to the eye, at least, suggestive of "What kind of (c)rap you talk? A joke, maybe, on the part of Edmund H. North, who wrote the film and invented the language?

I apologise in advance if some or all of the PDF documents on this website are not displaying correctly (or at all). There seem to be ONGOING PROBLEMS involving (a) JIMDO the hosting provider and (b) POWR.IO, the company I have to use to get the "widgets" which are supposed to display the PDF content. POWR.IO has also blamed (c) GoogleDrive for changing the size-limits on files that can bee displayed (I do not understand this AT ALL).

So, YET AGAIN, I have changed the filenames (no "special characters" such as spaces, or whatever, not that there were any in the first place); I have ensured all the files are below 5MB in size (the largest was in any case about 2.5MB and the rest are tiny in comparison); and I have re-uploaded all the PDF files (AGAIN!).

If you STILL find that content is available, please contact me and let me know, and I shall try yet again to rectify this with the service-providers. I leave you to make your own judgement about JIMDO, POWR.IO, and GoogleDrive. I could not possibly comment.