Re: Megdevi Book (was Re: What is it we are saying in our languages?)

Jim wrote:
<<
I've been
working on gzb for eight years and haven't written anything that
long in it
 >>

...and Henrik:
<<
I must repeat what Jim Henry said: I have never managed to write such
a long piece of work in any of my conlangs.
 >>

I've been working on Kamakawi for almost six years, and haven't
written anything as long as even one page of The Golden Knight in it.
It's about as easy for me to write in Megdevi as it is for me to write
in English.  The only thing that takes time is looking up and/or
coining words.  This is because for the finer points of grammar
(relative clauses, subordinate clauses, conjunctions--you know,
the difficult parts), the system kind of defaults to English, because
I didn't know any better at the time.  If I were to try to write
something this long and complex in, for example, Kamakawi, I'd
actually have to stop and think about how things are done, and
might even come to parts where I had to sit down and really think
through how it should work for Kamakawi.  So, in a way, not
being able to dash off twenty-odd pages in a conlang is a good thing,
in that it probably isn't just a relex of one's native language.  And,
of course, it makes it all the more impressive when one is able to
do so later on, after years of work (like how Sally can just kind
of write stuff in Teonaht whenever she feels like it.  That always
amazes me...).

-David
*******************************************************************
"A male love inevivi i'ala'i oku i ue pokulu'ume o heki a."
"No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn."

-Jim Morrison

http://dedalvs.free.fr/

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