I woudl love to help out, but I am rather new and not educated formally in
linguistics. I was thinking about compiling links and books for reference
for continued research and information. Is this something you are handling?
Or would you like me to contribute?
Patrick
"Destiny is the brightest star in the night sky, and it will the most
faithul guide in life" - Zalara, Philosopher and Essayist
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Peterson" <DigitalScream@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Sunday, November 11, 2001 11:35 PM
Subject: CALLING ALL CONLANGERS!!!
> Hi all!
>
> Some time last spring, I mentioned that I was going to be teaching a
> class in language creation here at Berkeley Spring 2002. Well, that's
next
> semester, and so I'm going to start gearing up for it. What does this
mean
> for you? You see, I'm going to have a reader for this class, and I would
> love to see everyone contribute to it! ~:D In my reader I'm planning on
> having the following:
>
> Reader:
> Part I: Introductions
> 1.) IPA Chart (This I've got)
> 2.) Introduction (This will be written by me)
> 3.) Introduction 2 (A different type of introduction written by Rick
Harrison
> that I was pointed to)
> 4.) Intro to Phonology (Phonetics won't be as important for beginners)
> 5.) Intro to Morphology
> 6.) Intro to Syntax
> 7.) Intro to Semantics
> 8.) Intro to Pragmatics
>
> Part II: Special Topics
> 9.) Verbal Aspect (Sally Caves wrote a nice summary of this which I have)
> 10.) Noun Cases
> 11.) Metaphor (I'm going to write this)
> 12.) Orthography (This one, too, though I'd love samples!)
> 13.) Historical Linguistics (this should include proto-languages, language
> change, etc.)
> 14.) Pidgins and Creoles
> 15.) Conculture
>
> Part III: Samples
> 16.) Miscellaneous articles
> 17.) Language Samples
>
> [Note: If anyone can think of ANYTHING that should be on here and is
not,
> please let me know!]
>
> Okay. What I would LOVE people to do (if you have the time and if you
> want to) would be to fill in the missing holes. ~:D Ideally, articles
won't
> be that long (no more than ten computer pages, I'd imagine), and deal with
> just the basics. Also, if you know of a website somewhere that has good
> articles on any or all of these, I'd love it if you could send me a link.
If
> I don't get anything from anyone and don't find anything on websites, I'll
> end up writing all the articles myself, which is fine. However, one thing
I
> know absolutely nothing about since I've had no experience with and little
> interest in it is Conculture. I would gladly exchange having all the
other
> articles written for me in exchange for this one, since I recognize that
> Concultures are an important aspect of Conlanging.
> As I said above, I will be doing the article on orthography, but I'd
love
> it if people could send me examples of their own orthographies, whether it
be
> with a font, a sample on a webpage or even through the mail. I plan on
> writing a page or two about it and then just having five or six pages of
> orthographies both natural and created. A sample could be just an
alphabet
> with corresponding sounds, or just a sentence written out in orthography
with
> no interlinear whatsoever. Just so that people looking on it can get a
sense
> for what it looks and feels like.
> Lastly, language samples. This is the one thing I would love everyone
to
> do. What I want for these languages samples will be slightly different
from
> what we've done before for Conlang books, and such (what happened to that,
> anyway?). Here's what I'm looking for:
>
> 1.) Language name
> 2.) Creator's name (pen and real, if applicable--I'll need the latter for
> copyrighting)
> 3.) Related links
> 4.) Conculture information
> 5.) *Interesting/unique features*
>
> Number five is the important part. Rather than translating a phrase
and
> giving an interlinear (though you can do this), what I'm looking for is
> something that your language has that no other does, or, possibly, what it
> lacks (for instance, if your language lacks nouns, that's very
> interesting--you might want to demonstrate how it does that). Noun cases,
> for example, aren't interesting enough; ten or more noun cases, however,
do
> classify as interesting. Also, base systems other than 10; inordinately
> large phonemic inventories; Irish-level mutation; non-gender noun classes,
> etc. The idea is not to see what each individual language is like, but to
> give these new conlangers an idea of just how multifarious language can
be.
> Also, most importantly: These should be no longer than one page--I'll have
to
> fiddle with the format if it goes over. Also, if you have a language with
a
> romanization system, please don't use it; just use X-SAMPA, or whatever's
> convient--I'll be converting it into IPA on my end. If you'd like to
> showcase your orthography, I'd suggest putting a sample in the orthography
> section, since it would probably lengthen the sample. I'll be sending an
> example to the list after this e-mail so you can see exactly what I'm
looking
> for.
> As a final note, let me stress that it's crucial that everyone who
gives
> me something give me their name and the month and year in which they wrote
> the article or sample (if it's as of the time you're sending it to me, you
> can say so and I'll just note the month and year I received it). This is
> very important, seeing as I can't include anything without this
information.
> To all those who send anything, I am eternally in your debt, and shall
> remember you forever afterwards! Also, if anybody wants a copy of the
reader
> when it eventually comes out, I'm sure that can be arranged. So as not to
> gum up the list, all replies should be off-list. Thanks!
>
> -David
>
> "Zi hiwejnat zodZaraDatsi pat Zi mirejsat dZaCajani sUlo."
> "The future's uncertain and the end is always near."
> --Jim Morrison
>