----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Henry" <jimhenry1973@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Saturday, January 19, 2008 6:39 PM
Subject: Conlang fluency survey
> == Part A: Personal and demographic data. ==
>
> 01. a. What is your name (or online handle)?
See email header
> b. May I quote you by name or handle in an article or talk about
> conlang fluency?
No
> c. If not, may I quote you anonymously?
Yes
> 02. a. What is your preferred email address (if not the address you
> are sending the survey response from)?
This one
> b. May I contact you with follow-up questions?
Yes
> 03. Do you have a website relating to your constructed language(s)?
> If so, what is its URL?
No
> 04. a. How old are you?
33
> b. How old were you when you first started creating languages?
Don't recall. Twenty something.
> c. How old were you when you first attained significant fluency
> in (one of) your constructed language(s)?
N/A
>
> 05. Are you male or female?
Yes
> 06. a. What is your nationality?
UK
> b. Where do you live now?
UK
> c. Where were your ancestors from?
UK/Ireland
>
> 07. What is/are your native language(s)?
English
> 08. What natural languages other than your native one(s) have you
> studied? What degree of fluency have you attained in them?
German (fluent) French, Spanish (both VERY rusty)
>
> 09. What constructed languages created by other people have you
> studied? What degree of fluency have you attained in them?
THrjotrunn, Wenedyk, Brythennic (sp?). No fluency
> 10. What is your level of education? What is/was/will be your major
> or specialization?
BA (Hons) Modern Languages
> 11. What is (was/probably will be) your trade or profession?
Completely unrelated
> 12. Do you work part time? full time? Are you a student or retired?
FT
> 13. a. What is your (approximate) income?
> b. What was your family's approximate income when you were a
> child?
No response
> 14. Are you single, married, divorced, widowed, remarried...?
Married
> 15. a. What is your religion, if any?
None (atheist)
> b. What was your religious upbringing, if any?
Christian-ish (non-practising)
> 16. Are there other facts about yourself that you think might be
> relevant?
No
> == Part B: The nature of your conlang. ==
>
> If you have devised more than one conlang, please focus in these
> questions on those you are most (nearly) fluent in.
>
> 17. What is the name of your primary conlang (the one you have
> invested the most effort in or are most fluent in)?
Rienench (possible change pending - I'm in the middle of reviewing the
historical phonology)
>
> 18. What are the basic purpose(s) and design goals of your conlang? Is
> it associated with an imagined world or culture? If so, are the
> speakers human?
A Germano-Romance hybrid, out of curiosity as to what such a thing might
look like.
Culture/ history is no different to ours, except where necessary to explain
presence of language
> 19. Is your conlang a priori (devised from scratch) or a posteriori
> (based on a specific natural language or language family), or a mix
> of a priori and a posteriori elements?
a posteriori
> 20. Describe the typology of your conlang - what is its primary word
> order (SVO, SOV, VSO...; pre- or postpositional; etc.)? Is it
> isolating, agglutinating, fusional, polysynthetic? Is its case or
> word order system primarily accusative, ergative, active,
> other...?
SOV / V2. Basically as per German but with a Romanic twist
> 21. a. How extensive or complete do you consider your conlang to be (in
> grammar and vocabulary)?
Very limited.
> b. If you are not yet fluent in it, do you consider the language
> complete enough for fluency to be attainable, or would it need
> considerably more development for that to be possible?
Much more development required.
> 22. Does your conlang have features that might be expected to make it
> especially difficult for speakers of your native language?
No more so than any other European language. If all else fails, shout louder
in English.
> 23. Does your conlang have possibly unnatural features that might be
> expected to make fluency difficult or impossible for humans?
No.
> == Part C: Fluency in your conlang. ==
>
> 24. a. Do you intend to become fluent in your conlang, or did you when
> you started creating it?
No.
> b. If not, did you find yourself becoming fluent as an unexpected
> result of developing and using it?
No.
> 25. If you intend to become fluent in your conlang, what are your
> goals or purposes for learning it?
N/A
> 26. What do you use (or intend to use) your conlang for?
> a. Prayer?
> b. Meditation?
> c. Thinking?
> d. Taking notes in the course of study?
> e. Writing notes to yourself (grocery lists, etc.)?
> f. Writing a diary?
> g. Writing poetry or other literature?
> h. Singing?
> i. Writing the grammar or lexicon of the conlang itself?
> j. Pretending in public that you are a native speaker
> of your conlang?
> k. Anything else?
k. Pure nerdy interest
> 27. Can you write original text in your conlang, at least on some
> subjects, without looking up words or grammatical structures?
No
> 28. Can you compose well-formed sentences in your conlang about as
> fast as you can handwrite or type?
No.
> 29. Can you read text you wrote some time ago in your conlang without
> looking up words in the lexicon or pausing to consciously parse or
> translate it?
Yes.
> 30. a. Do you find yourself thinking spontaneously in your conlang?
No.
> b. Are such thoughts often full sentences rather than single
> words or short phrases?
N/A
> c. Are they usually grammatical (as you intend your conlang to
> work)?
N/A
> 31. a. Can you think in your conlang, without deliberately constructing
> sentences word by word?
No.
> b. Are such thoughts usually grammatical (as you intend your
> conlang to work)?
N/A
> 32. a. Have you ever dreamed in your conlang?
No (but often gone to bed thinking through some obscure
grammatical/phonological point!)
> b. Did the speech or writing in your conlang from the dream turn out,
> when remembered on waking, to be grammatical and/or meaningful?
N/A
> 33. Can you read aloud at conversational speed from text written in
> your conlang?
Yes.
> 34. Can you speak spontaneously in your conlang at conversational
> speed? If native speakers of your conlang existed, could they
> understand your pronunciation?
Spontaneous speech - No.
Native speaker comprehension - ask them!
> 35. If you have recorded speech in your conlang, have you been able to
> understand it in real time when played back a considerable time
> after you spoke and recorded it?
N/A
> 36. If you are fluent in your conlang only when speaking or writing
> about certain subjects, what are those subjects?
N/A/
> 37. Have you found anyone willing to learn your conlang and speak it
> with you, or correspond with you in it? If so, please describe
> the experience.
No.
> 38. a. What methods have you used to study your conlang and improve your
> fluency in it?
> b. Which have you found most effective?
Books.
> 39. How do you do most of the primary work on your conlang? In your
> head, writing stuff down later if at all, or on paper with
> pencil/pen, or with a voice recording/playback system, or at a
> computer, or...?
Computer, pen & paper.
> 40. Have you made significant changes in your conlang due to your
> experience using it? In what way?
No.
> 41. Has your more or less fluent use of the language changed its
> phonology, grammar or semantics in ways you did not consciously
> intend? Have you, for instance, changed the description of the
> language's grammar based on the way you've noticed that you
> actually use it, or changed a word's lexicon entry when you
> realized you were using it in a different sense than the way you
> originally defined it?
No.
> 42. Has your developing fluency in your conlang slowed down its rate
> of change? Have you refrained from making changes in the language
> that you would otherwise make because they would require
> re-learning words or structures you already use fluently?
No.
Consveratism is tempting, but I prefer 'accuracy' (in terms of the design
parameters). I'm actually starting over agian almost from scratch for that
very reason!
> 43. Has your handwriting in your conlang changed as you became more
> fluent in it? In what way?
No.
> 44. Has your fluency in your conlang influenced the way you speak your
> native language, or other languages you are fluent in?
No.
> 45. Is there anything else you would like to add?
No.