Re: Conlanging as a personal thing

 --- Mike Ellis skrzypszy:

> I would put it up at 10 000 or even higher. Rhean has over 2000 words but I
> still don't think there's been a translation I've done for which I didn't
> have to make up a few more.
Ten thousand is a bit high, I think. AFAIK, the only conlang (non-IAL) that
surpasses that number is Talossan. My guess would be somewhere between 3 000
and 4 000; that should be enough for a longer conversation about more or less
common topics.

> Or to go even beyond that: that both writers may create new words, BUT that
> any person who does so must also make three cognate or related words (i.e.
> from the same root) or other words with concepts complementary / related /
> opposite to the new word. That way, every new word would seem to have
> related words or concepts in the language PLUS the lexicon would grow that
> much faster.
Not a bad idea. It would definitely enhance the language's growth.

> P.S. Are collaborative conlangs prone to failure as a rule? I've been
> involved with two that both stalled after a short time.
No idea. Never been involved into such a project.
Perhaps it has something to do with the fact, that conlanging - like most other
forms of art - is basically a personal thing that people will most likely
perform alone, in complete isolation? In the history of music, collective
compositions have incidentally been written, but they rarely become a success.

The thing is, like most people I prefer to work on my own language instead of
working on somebody else's. I would definitely try to cooperate on a conlang,
but only with a person who has the same ideas about what it should look like,
and the same amount of motivation to work on it. Now, I don't think it would be
easy to find such person. Especially because I am simultaneously quite
undisciplined and quite autoritarian myself.

Jan

=====
"Originality is the art of concealing your source." - Franklin P. Jones

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