>Peter Collier <petecollier@...> wrote:
>Subject: Conlang fluency survey
>01a. What is your name (or online handle)?
Charlie Brickner
> 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?
N/A
>02a. 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?
Only on Frathwiki: wiki.frath.net/senjecas
>04. a. How old are you?
67
> b. How old were you when you first started creating languages?
About 40.
> 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?
Male
>06. a. What is your nationality?
USA
> b. Where do you live now?
Commonwealth of Virginia
> c. Where were your ancestors from?
Paternal: Scotland & Cornwall; maternal: Sicily & Baden
>
>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?
College credit: 15 hours in Spanish; 6 in French; 6 in Italian; 6 in
German; 6 in Latin; 3 in Attic Greek; 6 in Biblical Greek; 6 in
Biblical Hebrew.
Speak Spanish relatively fluently. Can read French, Italian,
Portuguese, some Latin, Greek, Hebrew, & German.
>09. What constructed languages created by other people have you
> studied? What degree of fluency have you attained in them?
None.
> 10. What is your level of education? What is/was/will be your major
> or specialization?
Diploma in nursing; B.A. in biology (minor in Spanish); B.A. in
English (minor in philosophy); M.A. in theology; M.A. in comparative
religions.
>11. What is (was/probably will be) your trade or profession?
Catholic priest
>12. Do you work part time? full time? Are you a student or retired?
Full time
>13. a. What is your (approximate) income?
In 2007 $21,350.
> b. What was your family's approximate income when you were a
> child?
I do not know.
>14. Are you single, married, divorced, widowed, remarried...?
Single
>15. a. What is your religion, if any?
Catholic
> b. What was your religious upbringing, if any?
Catholic
>16. Are there other facts about yourself that you think might be
> relevant?
No
> == Part B: The nature of your conlang. ==
>
>17. What is the name of your primary conlang (the one you have
> invested the most effort in or are most fluent in)?
Senjecas
>
>18. What are the basic purpose(s) and design goals of your
conlang?
My entertainment
>Is it associated with an imagined world or culture? Yes.
>If so, are the speakers human? Yes (plus dwarves, elves, etc.)
>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.)?
SOV
>Is it isolating, agglutinating, fusional, polysynthetic?
Isolating, but nouns are declined.
>Is its case or word order system primarily accusative, ergative,
active, other...?
Accusative.
>21. a. How extensive or complete do you consider your conlang to be
>(in grammar and vocabulary)?
Grammar is complete, which does not preclude further developments.
Vocabulary contains 2000+ words. With their derivations, the
vocabulary is about 5000+.
>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?
Complete enough for fluency.
>22. Does your conlang have features that might be expected to make
>it especially difficult for speakers of your native language?
Not grammatically, perhaps phonetically. A few phonemes not found in
English: /m_0/ /l_d_0)/ /r_0/ /j_0/. Tones are phonemic.
> 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 & 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?
> i. Writing the grammar or lexicon of the conlang itself?
> k. Anything else?
Entertainment in developing the language; part of setting for
conculture.
>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
> 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: I'd like to think so.
>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?
sites on line.
>39. How do you do most of the primary work on your conlang?
Computer, pencil & 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.
>43. Has your handwriting in your conlang changed as you became more
> fluent in it? In what way?
N/A
> 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.
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