Re: Tell your conlang story!
| From: | Jim Henry <jimhenry1973@...> |
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| Date: | Tuesday, February 28, 2006, 0:45 |
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On 2/27/06, Monica Byrne <monica.resources@...> wrote:
> love to do a piece on conlanging, but our show is about storytelling instead
> of analysis or exposition, so we're looking for a few good stories about
> your experiences with conlanging.
I have a not-quite finished draft of an essay on the history
of my main conlang, gzb, on my website:
http://www.pobox.com/~jimhenry/gzb/history.htm
> 1) How did you get in to conlanging? What was your inspiration?
Tolkien -- specifically the Book of Lost Tales; and Jeffrey Henning's
"Model Languages" website, the precursor to Langmaker.com.
> 2) What is your purpose in creating languages? Is it a personal art, an
> anthropological experiment, a pasttime...?
My main conlang project is a personal language in which I write
my journal rather more than half of the time.
> 3) How have people reacted when you tell them about it?
Some with interest, some with more or less disguised boredom;
none with hostility.
> 4) Did conlanging lead you places you never expected it to take you?
When I first started developing a lexicon-only language for a
(not very good) fantasy novella I was writing, I didn't expect that
fifteen years later I would be routinely thinking, praying and writing
in another, much more complex conlang. I've also become fluent in
Esperanto and have gained some facility with some other conlangs,
including Toki Pona.
--
Jim Henry
http://www.pobox.com/~jimhenry/gzb/gzb.htm
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