On April 19, the Linguistics Department at UC San Diego (aka the Extreme Southwest Wing of Language Log Plaza) hosted a special event as part of our celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the Department.
The event was entitled Linguistics Goes to Hollywood: Creators of the Klingon, Na'vi and Dothraki Languages, a panel discussion featuring Marc Okrand (creator of Klingon, Star Trek), Paul Frommer (creator of Na'vi, Avatar), and David J. Peterson (creator of Dothraki, Game of Thrones).
The panel moderator was Grant Goodall, Professor of Linguistics and Director of the Linguistics Language Program at UC San Diego — as well as a speaker of Esperanto and Vice-President of the board of directors of the Esperantic Studies Foundation. I was the emcee of the event as well as one of the organizers, together with Professor Robert Kluender, Mike Brooks (president of the Linguistics Undergraduate Association, LingUA), and our indefatigable Management Services Officer, Gris Arellano.
There were approximately 700 people at the event, and there was some local media coverage both before and after. Here are some links for those who may be interested.
Our poster advertising the event.
A San Diego Union-Tribune article about the event.
A piece in The Guardian (the UC San Diego newspaper) about the event.
An older piece in The Guardian about David J. Peterson (who happens to have a Master's degree in Linguistics from UC San Diego) and Dothraki.
A UC San Diego News piece about the event, including a video of interviews with the panelists and moderator. (The video is also on UCSD.tv.)
A piece on KPBS (the San Diego public radio station) about David J. Peterson and Dothraki.
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