Re: Tell your conlang story!

Carsten: All American stations have a 3 or 4 letter station ID with
the FCC (the guys that run our networks and censor our stuff.  I have
a certain name for them, but I'm not sure if cursing is allowed on the
list.).  If it's east of the Mississipi River, the first letter is a
W, if it's west it's a K.  It's in the FCC requirements to announce
this like every ten minutes, so most stations do.

On 2/28/06, Carsten Becker <carbeck@...> wrote:
> From: Monica Byrne
> Sent: Monday, February 27, 2006 10:53 PM
>
> > 1) How did you=get in to conlanging? What was your
> > inspiration?
>
> First of all, I think the reason language has some meaning
> to me is that my mother studied English and French and my
> dad also was good at English in school. OK, that was way
> *before* I was born, but when I was an infant, my parents
> sometimes talked in English or French instead of German when I
> shouldn't hear things. I may well say this annoyed me
> quite a bit. However, I remember myself asking what
> this-and-that word meant and so I learnt to read before
> school. Still nothing special. What I do consider a little
> bit special, though, is that when I was only six years old
> or so, I often asked just for fun where some word comes
> from. My dad said "get yourself a dictionary" then. Very
> informative. In primary school it was not the case that I
> was better in German than in Maths or so, frankly, I didn't
> like learning grammar. *Properly* learning to read and write
> in first grade wasn't a very big problem for me. But I
> absolutely did not understand why the heck to learn about
> grammar when you can already speak your native language. My
> not-understanding went on until the 8th grade or so, after
> that, I simply learnt the stuff and didn't mutter anymore
> although I didn't like it. You know, my teacher in 5th and
> 6th grade dealt *extensively* with German and English
> grammar, more than with creative tasks or other more fun
> stuff than learning about grammar ... So, although I have
> never liked to *learn* grammar, I eventually understood and
> kept what I've learnt in mind.
>
> So far for my first experiences with language learning.
>
> As many have already said, I as well have been fascinated by
> Tolkien's work and the detail that he laid into his
> languages. So while browsing the web and searching for
> information on Quenya, I found Helge Fauskanger's
> "Ardalambion" and got from there somehow to Zompist's. I
> gave the LCK a try and made my first conlang when I was 16.
> I don't like this lang anymore today because it's too much
> like German, but since that flee bit me, I never got rid of
> it and thus I'm working at my third project now for over two
> years. Having been reading this list (it'll be already 3
> years in summer!!) has helped me a lot regarding learning
> bits about Linguistics every now and then -- and it was also
> good for my English ;-)
>
> > 2) What is your pu=pose in creating languages? Is it a
> > personal art, an anthropological exper=ment, a pasttime
> > ...?
>
> It is all of that. I have worked on conlangs (in bits of my
> passtime, every now and then) in order to find out how stuff
> works. I'm not so much interested in conworlding and
> conculturing, so the anthropological aspect plays a less
> important role for me. But it is not unimportant. I would
> consider the process of language construction as some kind
> of art because you basically do the same things as an artist
> does -- that is, deciding on what to do and how to realize
> it, you only use sounds and research in grammar instead of a
> canvas, brushes and colours or a musical instrument, paper
> and harmony theory.
>
> > 3) How have people reacted when you tell them about it?
>
> As the others already have said, some said I were nuts and a
> geek, some said it's cool and others were indifferent. In my
> opinion, everyone has some kind of weird obsession. In my
> case, it's conlanging. The fact that conlanging is thought
> to be geeky is maybe just because it's rare and -- excuse my
> self-praise -- mostly it's people having an intellectual
> background doing it (remember that both my parents have studied
> at university) ... it's the whole academic, boring, socially
> unable book-worm guy cliché that makes our kind of art geeky
> I guess although what is connected with this cliché isn't
> *necessarily* true.
>
> > 4) D=d conlanging lead you places you never expected it
> > to take you?
>
> Not yet. Visiting Cologne to meet some guys from the ZBB
> (another language-related forum) does fit to that question
> in a way. I've visited Cologne several times before, though.
> Other than that, well, I'm looking forward to start an
> apprenticeship in the publishing house business in August,
> when I'm finished with school. So it's something at least
> remotely language-related -- I'll be in the book-selling
> business, and it was partly an interest in language and
> books that got me there I guess.
>
> > If you have any stories for me in these veins, please let
> > me k=ow! You can contact me at mbyrne@wunc.o=g, or (919)
> > 445-9245. I'm really looking forward to hearing from you!
>
> I can't get your station into my radio because I'm about
> 3,000 miles away from the US. So if the show on conlangs
> is broadcasted, could you please tell when (in terms of
> GMT-X)? There's still streaming after all :-)
>
> Happy broadcasting,
> Carsten Becker (Germany)
>
> ObOT: Why is it that seemingly all American stations have
> names like _ABCD_?
>

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