J Y S Czhang <czhang23@...> wrote:
>"At some point in the next century the number of invented languages will
>probably overtake the number of surviving natural languages." - Cullen
Murphy
>in _Atlantic Monthly_ (October, 1995)
Does anyone have figures on this one? I'd like to see estimates for
natlangs v conlangs. How close is the gap?
>>Conlanging: It's not a hobby, it's a mental illness.
>
> ROTFLMAO... no friggin' joke. OCLD = Obsessive ConLanging Disorder.
>
>Ya know ya have OCLD if ya:
> - haunt many bookstores hunting for linguistics books and foreign
>language dictionaries
Check.
> - willing to pay exorbitant prices for said books
Hmm... never buy new what you can buy used.
> - scribble notes on languages - natlang and conlang - at strange
>times of the day and night and even while in the bathtub or sitting on the
>toilet
Hah HAH! Not just while sitting on the "think tank" though: I've even woken
up in the middle of the night and started scribbling down weird words I'd
heard in dreams! I've gotten a few Ishtol glyphs from dreams as well.
> - have memorized the _entire_ IPA and at least one ASCII
>representation thereof
Well, a good two-thirds of it...
> - talk in your own conlang(s) as well as try to read aloud other's
>conlangs
Check. Once when I bashed my kneecap I shouted LAAAklibza DAK! I excused it
as gibberish that I had blurted out in mindless pain. Phew.
And I do read up on a good many of the languages I see mentioned here, and
yes I try and pronounce them.
> - find yourself automatically attempting to translate advertisement
>slogans and magazine headlines into conlangs while waiting in doctors'
>offices or waiting for a bus, etc.
One of the oldest elements of the Rhean corpus is a Molson's beer ad.
Lud ki pranimi, storoka storok Kanadava, storoka storok Molsona.
> - constantly/consistently websurfing for linguistic and
conlinguistic
>materials
Consistently, not constantly.
> - don't at all mind the high volume of email postings on the
ConLang
>(and related email lists), in fact, LOVE it and can't imagine life without
it
I'm on this, plus a couple of lower-volume lists. So I get a good mix.
> And, in my case, conlanging is one major factor in my sobriety -
>nowadays, I rather be conlanging than be drunk, high and/or loaded.
Who says they're mutually exclusive?
M