On Sun, 20 Jan 2008, Jim Henry wrote:
> == Part A: Personal and demographic data. ==
>
> 01. a. What is your name (or online handle)?
Andrew Smith
> b. May I quote you by name or handle in an article or talk about
> conlang fluency?
Yes
> c. If not, may I quote you anonymously?
>
> 02. a. What is your preferred email address (if not the address you
> are sending the survey response from)?
As above in From: box
> 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?
>
http://hobbit.griffler.co.nz/introduction.html
http://wiki.frath.net/Zelandish
> 04. a. How old are you?
42
> b. How old were you when you first started creating languages?
14
> c. How old were you when you first attained significant fluency
> in (one of) your constructed language(s)?
>
Within the last ten years.
> 05. Are you male or female?
>
Male
> 06. a. What is your nationality?
New Zealander
> b. Where do you live now?
Dunedin, New Zealand
> c. Where were your ancestors from?
>
England/Scotland
> 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?
>
French -- High School level; Maori -- Polytechnic night classes;
Biblical Hebrew -- University level; Old English -- University level,
including reading Beowulf from the original language. Nothing to the
level of conversational fluency
> 09. What constructed languages created by other people have you
> studied? What degree of fluency have you attained in them?
>
None seriously
> 10. What is your level of education? What is/was/will be your major
> or specialization?
>
Bachalor of Art majoring in English
> 11. What is (was/probably will be) your trade or profession?
>
Archivist
> 12. Do you work part time? full time? Are you a student or retired?
>
30hrs/wk
> 13. a. What is your (approximate) income?
NZ$20K
> b. What was your family's approximate income when you were a
> child?
>
unknown
> 14. Are you single, married, divorced, widowed, remarried...?
>
Single
> 15. a. What is your religion, if any?
Christian -- Presbyterian
> b. What was your religious upbringing, if any?
>
same as 15.a.
> 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)?
>
Brithenig
> 18. What are the basic purpose(s) and design goals of your conlang?
To create a language that could have existed, a romance language
influenced by Welsh soundchanges.
> Is it associated with an imagined world or culture?
Yes, Ill Bethisad, which has become a shared world project.
> If so, are the
> speakers human?
Yes
>
> 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...?
>
hmmm, SVO prepositional, accusative: Synthetically romance
> 21. a. How extensive or complete do you consider your conlang to be
> (in grammar and vocabulary)?
Several thousand words, without systematic lexicon creation; the grammar
will probably not be amended to a major degree
> 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?
>
Fluency is attainable, although still patchy
> 22. Does your conlang have features that might be expected to make it
> especially difficult for speakers of your native language?
>
Initial mutations, vague number marking
> 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?
Yes
> b. If not, did you find yourself becoming fluent as an unexpected
> result of developing and using it?
>
> 25. If you intend to become fluent in your conlang, what are your
> goals or purposes for learning it?
>
To create and describe it as a living language
> 26. What do you use (or intend to use) your conlang for?
> a. Prayer?
Not primarily, although I have formulated petitions in Brithenig
> b. Meditation?
As I consider meditation to be non-verbal I regard that there is a
degree of contradiction here, unless you include chanted tools for
meditation -- in which case, no.
> c. Thinking?
Similar to 26.a.
> d. Taking notes in the course of study?
No.
> e. Writing notes to yourself (grocery lists, etc.)?
No.
> f. Writing a diary?
Brithenig, no; Zelandish, yes, which is another story.
> g. Writing poetry or other literature?
I have not attempted original writings.
> h. Singing?
Beyond my abilities I'm afraid.
> i. Writing the grammar or lexicon of the conlang itself?
No.
> j. Pretending in public that you are a native speaker
> of your conlang?
I'm tempted to try that on a telemarketer, but I haven't yet.
> k. Anything else?
>
No.
> 27. Can you write original text in your conlang, at least on some
> subjects, without looking up words or grammatical structures?
>
Yes, within limitations
> 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?
>
No. I discovered this when a text was cited on the Omniglot blog.
> 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?
short phrases
> c. Are they usually grammatical (as you intend your conlang to
> work)?
No, I usually think of the word and then apply the initial mutation if
necessary
>
> 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)?
As above in 30.
>
> 32. a. Have you ever dreamed in your conlang?
No.
> b. Did the speech or writing in your conlang from the dream turn
> out, when remembered on waking, to be grammatical and/or meaningful?
>
> 33. Can you read aloud at conversational speed from text written in
> your conlang?
>
unknown
> 34. Can you speak spontaneously in your conlang at conversational
> speed?
No
> If native speakers of your conlang existed, could they
> understand your pronunciation?
>
I would have an accent.
> 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?
>
Not attempted
> 36. If you are fluent in your conlang only when speaking or writing
> about certain subjects, what are those subjects?
>
General these subjects are texts that I'm working on for translation and
the subject matter can be varied.
> 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.
>
There have been a couple of enquiries to learn Brithenig although I have
not followed up on it. One or two members of the Society of Ill
Bethisad can read texts or suggest neologisms.
> 38. a. What methods have you used to study your conlang and improve
> your fluency in it?
Practice at translation.
> b. Which have you found most effective?
>
> 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...?
>
Writing stuff down generally on computer.
> 40. Have you made significant changes in your conlang due to your
> experience using it? In what way?
>
I don't think I have made significant changes to it.
> 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.
> 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?
Good luck!