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

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