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Re: Conlang fluency survey

From:Michael Poxon <mike@...>
Date:Sunday, January 20, 2008, 0:49
> 01. a. What is your name (or online handle)?
Michael Poxon
> b. May I quote you by name or handle in an article or talk about > conlang fluency?
Yes, Name
> 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)? > 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?
www.starman.co.uk/lingo/omina.html
> > 04. a. How old are you?
55
> b. How old were you when you first started creating languages?
12
> c. How old were you when you first attained significant fluency > in (one of) your constructed language(s)?
55!
> > 05. Are you male or female?
Male
> > 06. a. What is your nationality?
English
> b. Where do you live now?
Great Plumstead, Norfolk, UK
> c. Where were your ancestors from?
Various!
> > 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, German, Dutch, Welsh, Hungarian, Romany
> > 09. What constructed languages created by other people have you > studied? What degree of fluency have you attained in them?
Quenya (as advanced as possible, I should think). Former editor of "Quettar"
> > 10. What is your level of education? What is/was/will be your major > or specialization?
BA(Hons) English/Linguistics
> > 11. What is (was/probably will be) your trade or profession?
Astronomer/Web designer
> > 12. Do you work part time? full time? Are you a student or retired?
Currently unemployed, normally full-time employment
> > 13. a. What is your (approximate) income?
too little
> b. What was your family's approximate income when you were a > child?
Meaningless - not much by modern standards, but average to low at the time they were working
> > 14. Are you single, married, divorced, widowed, remarried...?
Separated
> > 15. a. What is your religion, if any?
Pagan
> b. What was your religious upbringing, if any?
Church of England
> > 16. Are there other facts about yourself that you think might be > relevant?
yes, but not sure exactly what you're after here.
> > == 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)?
Omina
> > 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?
"Artlang". Essentially aesthetic, but the world in which it is spoken is related directly to real-world folklore.
> > 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 priori, but with influences (chiefly Basque)
> > 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...?
Ergative, incorporating
> > 21. a. How extensive or complete do you consider your conlang to be (in > grammar and vocabulary)?
Grammar fairly complete, vocab growing.
> 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?
Not yet, and yes (largely because of idioms/vocab)
> > 22. Does your conlang have features that might be expected to make it > especially difficult for speakers of your native language?
Grammatically, Yes; see 20. But phonologically speaking, no.
> > 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?
Don't intend to, but conceivably could.
> b. If not, did you find yourself becoming fluent as an unexpected > result of developing and using it?
Trends to yes.
> > 25. If you intend to become fluent in your conlang, what are your > goals or purposes for learning it?
Pure snobbery
> > 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?
in order; h,g,i (I like singing!)
> > 27. Can you write original text in your conlang, at least on some > subjects, without looking up words or grammatical structures?
Yes
> > 28. Can you compose well-formed sentences in your conlang about as > fast as you can handwrite or type?
Not quite
> > 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, but could some day
> b. Are such thoughts often full sentences rather than single > words or short phrases? > c. Are they usually grammatical (as you intend your conlang to > work)?
Yes
> > 31. a. Can you think in your conlang, without deliberately constructing > sentences word by word?
Mmmm... sometimes, sort of.
> b. Are such thoughts usually grammatical (as you intend your > conlang to work)?
Should be
> > 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?
Yes
> > 34. Can you speak spontaneously in your conlang at conversational > speed? If native speakers of your conlang existed, could they > understand your pronunciation?
No and yes
> > 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? > > 36. If you are fluent in your conlang only when speaking or writing > about certain subjects, what are those subjects? > > 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. > > 38. a. What methods have you used to study your conlang and improve your > fluency in it?
Used to try and do the conlang exercises, before they became too culture-specific
> 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...?
In order; in head/heart, writing, then DB
> > 40. Have you made significant changes in your conlang due to your > experience using it? In what way?
Yes. Mainly grammatical changes
> > 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 - but I no longer find it strange to see verbs at the end of phrases (Omina puts the incorporated verb phrase-final)
> > 45. Is there anything else you would like to add? > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.19.7/1232 - Release Date: > 18/01/2008 19:32 > >