2016 and 2017 have been draining years. The social media cycles of alarm help us build coalitions, beg for basic rights, and describe injustices carried out by people in power. At the same time, they are designed to sap our energy and create fatigue so we don’t have the energy to build good things up. If we open our Twitter accounts, we all have maelstroms of things in our feeds that will keep us anxious and prevent us from connecting with one another.<\/p>\n
I fell in love with grammar \u2014 quite literally \u2014 as a small child. Making constructed languages has always felt soothing. I’m the kind of language-learner who loves conjugating because it relaxes me. Sometimes, when people speak, I start to focus on the sounds that they don’t realize they’re making \u2014 the way that the\u00a0j<\/em> sound in English becomes a\u00a0ch<\/em> in some places, like a delicate chocolate bonbon \u2014 and on the sensation of sound in the mouth, as when the tongue clips forward from\u00a0y<\/em> to\u00a0l<\/em> in the second person innovation\u00a0y’all<\/em>. Language is a beautiful thing. Languages do beautiful things.<\/p>\n One of the most beautiful things about languages is how they change and become new things. They are like rivers, meandering in their valleys. Languages are galaxies, dialects rotating around a common center of gravity where the unseen things before the protolanguages lurk. They merge like galaxies, too \u2014 in conquest contacts and in trade partnerships spitting out their words and grammatical pieces like stars in a collision trail.<\/p>\n The concept for\u00a0Pangrammatike<\/strong>\u00a0started when I decided that grammar needed its Devil’s Battalion \u2014 named for the World War II battalion that tried innovative methods during the war \u2014 #grammardevils who care about Future English and ensuring that it is inclusive, that progressive grammar nuts like myself have a voice that is loud enough to matter. It takes a Greek prefix that means all-<\/em> and the word\u00a0grammatik\u00ea<\/em>, for grammar<\/em>, and gloms them together. I worship Hermes, who rules over liminality and things like language and prose, so it’s also a really convenient nod at him.<\/p>\n I want a place where I can talk about conlangs, worldbuilding, and the intersection between them in ways that are not relevant to my podcast\u00a0Epiphany<\/em> or the 100 million other stories I write set in the Seven Gardens. (I’ve had a Tumblr for a while, but as I start to figure out what’s important to me, I’m moving more towards using a desktop-based feed reader.) As a #grammardevil, some of this will be sociolinguistics \u2014 the Seven Gardens have a somewhat realistic set of conquest contact countries where languages and dialects compete and are under\/over-resourced. The science fiction I write is deeply rooted in linguistics and library\/information science, and there’s a lot of interplay between the two.<\/p>\n In addition, it’d be cool to actually review recently-published short stories and novellas that actively use conlangs. Because I use my own conlangs in my work, it’s good homework for me; but also, as a fellow conlanger, I think my perspective is relevant.<\/p>\n As an example of why we need #grammardevils, the gender inflection in English’s third person singular pronouns is not working for everyone, and this is a problem. Pronouns exist to refer to an antecedent in an easy, grandparent’s-kitchen-secrets-for-the-best-gluten-free-cinnamon-buns sort of way. The fact that a piece of grammar designed to make life easier for speakers of a language is instead a stressor for a large group of English-speaking human beings is absurd and troubling. The fact that we haven’t standardized a neopronoun makes my ENTJ head spin. It is nearly 2018.<\/p>\n A well-known science fiction reviewer decided to include intolerant comments in ler reviews, and as a cis person who is pro-neopronoun, that bothers me because it (a)<\/strong> reinforces the stigma that grammatical innovation is bad and (b)<\/strong>\u00a0tells large groups of people that they don’t matter and are not seen<\/em>.<\/p>\n It’s also annoying because analyzing how people use neopronouns and singular they<\/em> to see how they are navigating antecedents and innovating in style is profoundly more interesting, positive, and forward-thinking. Stylistic conventions are still evolving because language evolves, and any reviewer is living at a unique moment. Grammar eventually standardizes. We can watch major changes in queer linguistics and queer usage in real time. If I ever do a second master’s degree, unlikely in this political climate and with the 1.3-million word story I’m writing, it’ll probably be in sociolinguistics so I can study pronouns and queer linguistics professionally.<\/p>\n So. When I see things online that are grammatically awesome, I’m going to talk about them like the #grammardevil destroying English from the inside I am. When I do cool usage things, I’m going to share them because positivity pays forward. Beyond gender-neutral pronouns, I’ll also link to other cool things I love about grammar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 2016 and 2017 have been draining years. The social media cycles of alarm help us build coalitions, beg for basic rights, and describe injustices carried out by people in power. At the same time, they are designed to sap our energy and create fatigue so we don’t have the energy to build good things up….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[5,4,3],"class_list":["post-1","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-conlangs","tag-grammardevils","tag-neopronouns"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9qEhO-1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":423,"url":"https:\/\/www.kayeboesme.com\/pangrammatike\/2019\/12\/18\/the-waterfall-commune\/","url_meta":{"origin":1,"position":0},"title":"The Waterfall Commune","author":"kaye","date":"18 December 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a short story \u2014 6,200 words \u2014 about a group of young adults in their 20s who decide to go against tradition and get a house together. It is set in Tvesh\u0117, the place where Tveshi is the national language \u2014 the story takes place in West Shija,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"portfolio\"","block_context":{"text":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/www.kayeboesme.com\/pangrammatike\/tag\/portfolio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":597,"url":"https:\/\/www.kayeboesme.com\/pangrammatike\/2021\/04\/28\/longing-for-water\/","url_meta":{"origin":1,"position":1},"title":"“Longing for Water”","author":"kaye","date":"28 April 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"I wrote this short piece back in 2017 when I was working through worldbuilding for the main universe I write in. Most of the stories I write are related to a specific set of story arcs. \"The Waterfall Commune\" and this piece, \"Longing for Water,\" however, are one-shot pieces that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"lase\u00e5hi\"","block_context":{"text":"lase\u00e5hi","link":"https:\/\/www.kayeboesme.com\/pangrammatike\/tag\/laseahi\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":112,"url":"https:\/\/www.kayeboesme.com\/pangrammatike\/2018\/02\/03\/reflections-on-writing-in-2017\/","url_meta":{"origin":1,"position":2},"title":"Reflections on Writing in 2017","author":"kaye","date":"3 February 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Writing-wise, 2017 was an interesting year. This is the part where I talk about a variety of projects related to writing and constructed languages and what happened over last calendar year (and into January 2018). In 2017 (and January 2018 \u2014 I didn't finish editing a novella until midway through\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"writing\"","block_context":{"text":"writing","link":"https:\/\/www.kayeboesme.com\/pangrammatike\/tag\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":447,"url":"https:\/\/www.kayeboesme.com\/pangrammatike\/2019\/12\/30\/ending-2019\/","url_meta":{"origin":1,"position":3},"title":"Ending 2019","author":"kaye","date":"30 December 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"My annual year in review post, with a focus on writing: Some stats, some project updates, reflections on how much time social media sucked away before my hiatus, and goals for 2020.","rel":"","context":"In \"writing\"","block_context":{"text":"writing","link":"https:\/\/www.kayeboesme.com\/pangrammatike\/tag\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":477,"url":"https:\/\/www.kayeboesme.com\/pangrammatike\/2020\/08\/27\/skillbuilding-in-verse-2-second-hour-of-waking\/","url_meta":{"origin":1,"position":4},"title":"Skillbuilding in Verse #2: Second Hour of Waking","author":"kaye","date":"27 August 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"8 AM \u2014 a dullsky oozing through glass,storms forecast \u2014 a lullof stillness must pass, one more hollow hourbefore work should start \u2014rushing to shower,to speak prayers (by heart memorized, rootedand constitutedof tisane and sounds) \u2014while incense surroundsand each moment moveson a clock's fine grooves. This morning, I decided to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"exercises\"","block_context":{"text":"exercises","link":"https:\/\/www.kayeboesme.com\/pangrammatike\/tag\/exercises\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":599,"url":"https:\/\/www.kayeboesme.com\/pangrammatike\/2021\/04\/29\/twenty-poems-intersections-of-life-polytheism-and-platonizing-sensemaking\/","url_meta":{"origin":1,"position":5},"title":"Twenty Poems: Intersections of Life, Polytheism, and (Platonizing) Sensemaking","author":"kaye","date":"29 April 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the puzzles with having a somewhat lively religious blog is that there is more incentive for me to post poems there than there is here, where my reach is smaller. However, in the interest of not having them buried beneath prose blog posts in which I dissect passages\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"poetry\"","block_context":{"text":"poetry","link":"https:\/\/www.kayeboesme.com\/pangrammatike\/tag\/poetry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kayeboesme.com\/pangrammatike\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kayeboesme.com\/pangrammatike\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kayeboesme.com\/pangrammatike\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kayeboesme.com\/pangrammatike\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kayeboesme.com\/pangrammatike\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.kayeboesme.com\/pangrammatike\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.kayeboesme.com\/pangrammatike\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions\/21"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kayeboesme.com\/pangrammatike\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kayeboesme.com\/pangrammatike\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kayeboesme.com\/pangrammatike\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Conlangs<\/h3>\n
#grammardevils<\/h3>\n