Re: history of conlanging (aka Conlang influences, aka Lest darkness fall)

Am 11/21 14:23  Doug Ball yscrifef:
> I'm also part of the not-influenced-by-Tolkien Club.  Although, I read parts
> of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings prior to the invention of my conlang, it
> was some time before I was told that Tolkien had invented languages, and
> really only within the last 24 hours that I realized what a thorough job he
> did (by visiting the Languages of Arda website).
Add my membership to this group.  I read Tolkien when I was about 12 and
started on my first language when I was about 14, now extinct.  I think
it was more influenced by the fact that I was studying French at high
school.  The only phrase I can now remember is 'lect stnia', the house.
The definite article is French _le_ made longer.

This can be contrasted with the fantasy worlds I was mapping at the same
time, decidedly under the influence of Tolkien, separate from my
language.  I remember my brother and I were collecting the Star Wars
dolls at the same time and we used them as fantasy characters of our own
in adventures of our own making.  I started keeping a notebook of a game
of my own detailing characters, items and places in a high fantasy
kingdom.  That was influenced from reading _The Chronicles of Thomas
Covenant_, especially the lists at the end of the books.

- andrew.
--
Andrew Smith, Intheologus                       hobbit@earthlight.co.nz

            "Death is an evil; the gods have so judged it;
                  had it been good, they would die."
                                        - Sappho of Lesbos.