Re: favorite aspects of conlanging

In a message dated 6/26/01 9:24:16 PM, tom@TELP.COM writes:

<< But this got me to wondering--do the rest of you have "favorite" aspects of

language design, areas where you seem to get all sorts of ideas without

even trying, and "drudgery" aspects--things that you do to make the

language presentable, but that you don't actually derive much pleasure

from? And for those of you who've been at this for years--do those category

boundaries shift with time? >>

    Let's see...
    Orthography I love.  I've designed writing systems and fonts for
languages I haven't even created yet.  I don't like the beginning part,
though.  I don't like actually having to write down all the grammar I've
thought up and all that, and it's usually all malarranged and jumbled.  I
remember the first thing I ever wrote for my very first language was how to
make adverbs.  Of all things!  However, after I get to that, I get to my
favorite part.  I usually either write up a short story or just get one from
somewhere and translate it, and through that, work on whatever needs fixing,
adding words, etc.  And then, when I'm finally done with that, I love just
creating words.  It's soothing to me.  If I've had a tough day, I come home,
put on my Bob Marley or Def Leppard or Sammy Hagar and just sit and come up
with words.  Especially color words.  I could sit there for hours making up
different words for teal, blue, Prussian blue, aquamarine, blue-green,
green-blue, light blue, sky blue, cyan, navy blue, steel blue...  But yeah,
those are my two favorite things: translating and vocab creating.  An odd
pair of birds.

-David