Linguistics club is one of the most unique clubs at Concord Academy. Unlike most clubs that focus on a topic with wider appeal like science or engineering, linguistics comes across as a very niche academic subject that is difficult to approach.
The biggest project that the Linguistics Club is tackling right now is the constructed language (conlang) project. The main aim of the project is to make a new language from scratch. Club members who are participating in this endeavor need to engage with every aspect of a language. Some features of the language that they need to create include constructing the basic pronunciations, grammatical rules, and a writing system.
However, building up a conlang might not be as difficult as it sounds. According to Jenny O’Malley ’24, one of the club’s Co-Heads, “We have to build that from the ground up, and that takes some time. But surprisingly, it’s not terribly difficult if you have some sense [of how it works] or a guide.” Even though the project might seem daunting to a beginner, club members are supported by the group’s Co-Heads, who cooperate with everyone to complete this semester-long project. In fact, in a meeting just before winter break, Linguistics Club had already finished constructing the phenology of the conlang, which is the catalog of sounds used when speaking the language.
Ultimately, there could be many different purposes to the end product of the club’s work. Jenny wants the language to find use in many different ways: “We can go in all sorts of different directions with this. What we want to do is to build a language that can be spoken to with club members. It could be used with promotional stuff, like a poster or an email.” Some other ideas include using the conlang to create new slang, creating messages that only club members could understand, or even writing an article for the Centipede.
Additionally, Jenny hopes that the process of building up this language can be based on the ideas and feedback of club members involved in the project: “There’s a lot of different ways that we can structure it. What we are doing is to leave it up to the members. Like okay, how do you want this to sound, or function? […] Everyone should be able to show up and they can have some input.” Thus, even someone without much background in linguistics could still find many opportunities for active participation in this exciting project.
Linguistics club is a space for people who are genuinely interested in the field of language, and also hope to have some fun with the things they are creating. The best way to get involved in the projects at the club is to attend one of their meetings. You will surely not be disappointed!