Re: Conlangs as secret communication styles

I actually created my conlang about 10 years ago as a way to encode my
thoughts and write notes to myself in plain sight.  I actually developed
most of the vocabulary and grammar on the margins of my high school
notebooks, and a lot of words in the language refer back to the specific
circumstances when I created them.  In essence, I created a very personal
language and I was (and still am) leery about sharing it for that reason.

I've spent the last few months reading posts on this mailing list, and I've
noticed that many other people are interested in creating "alternative
history" languages or conworlds populated by various families of languages.
It got me to thinking about how my language, Angosey, is  different.  I seem
to have created it without much thought to who would actually speak it, or
how it would evolve once spoken, or whether it resembles a naturalistic
language.  It's my own idiosyncratic communication system, and I'm its sole
audience.

There are few practical purposes to having an absolutely secret language at
this point, except for example writing down my PIN number in Angosey and
putting it in my wallet.  However, I do hope to develop Angosey to the point
where I can use it as a sort of diary language.

I have never had much urge to create a second language, because Angosey
fulfills all of my creative needs and I seldom tire of tweaking its grammar,
to the point that early Angosey is somewhat hard to read for me now.

So, Chris, I think Angosey qualifies as a "diary language" although maybe
not for much longer if I keep talking about it!

On Tue, Dec 23, 2008 at 3:34 AM, Chris Peters <beta_leonis@...>wrote:

> > From: scott.hlad@TELUS.NET> > Though not a conlang, I have used the old
> Deutsche Schrift as a way to> encrypt my personal thoughts. I have also
> written English in Cyrillic> alphabet as well as Hebrew. I keep a
> stenographer's pad on my desk to write> in. I can vent in good way and no
> one would ever know what I have said.>
>
> I've used Japanese Katakana for the same purpose, now that you mention it.
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> It's the same Hotmail(R). If by "same" you mean up to 70% faster.
>
> http://windowslive.com/online/hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_hotmail_acq_broad1_122008
>

Replies