Re: Lunatic Survey
| From: | Josh Roth <fuscian@...> |
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| Date: | Wednesday, September 30, 1998, 3:27 |
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In a message dated 9/25/98 12:10:09 AM, you wrote:
>THE SURVEY:
>
> 1) To what extent is your conlang an "intensely peersonal"
>pursuit--one that you don't often reveal to people other than conlangers?
It's mostly personal. Some of my friends know, and I know I've told my mom,
but she was so apathetic she may not even remember it now :-). I don't really
consciously keep it a secret, it's just not a subject that comes up a lot with
most people.
> 2) If so, to what extent do you feel that the listserv "Conlang"
>has given you a _raison d'etre_ for
>
> a) pursuing your invented language
> b) making it public?
Not quite a raison d'etre, but more of an inspiration. I love seeing other
people's languages, and the more I like them, the more I want to work on my
own. It's also a great place to pick up interesting linguistic lessons for
those of us who don't get any in school.
> 3) How many of you, in mentioning your conlang to an
>acquaintance, received a belittling reply? Condescension? Disapproval?
I never got anything really nasty. The worst responses have just been the
"why do you bother, no one else will understand it" types.
> 4) How many of you are:
>
> a) high school students or younger?
That's me, I'm a junior.
> b) undergraduates?
> c) graduates?
> c) out of school altogether and supporting yourselves?
> d) Not in school, never went?
>
>
> 4a) What is your profession, or your desired profession?
Some language thing...... my dream job would be to create a language for some
tv series or movie or something (like Klingon for Star Trek), but I don't know
how I would go about getting that job. So, I'm not really sure.
> 5) How many of you have invented a language because
>
> a) you are solely interested in language experiments
> and linguistics?
>
> i) for personal experiments...
Like some other people on this list, I sometimes make a new language that
experiments with mixing various features I find in natlangs, such as Beatx,
tho I can't remember too much about it right now (i know i have it written
down somewhere tho).
> ii) because you like participating in the
> development of an auxiliary language and its
> socio-political effects?
>
> b) you are interested in world-building
>
> i) for fiction
> ii) for role-playing and other social activities
> iii) just for your own amusement?
Mostly for iii, but I would love to use it in fictoin as well. Unfortunately,
I'm not that good at writing fiction (at least in my opinion), and I have
trouble getting into a lot of detail with the cultures that grow out my
languages. I can get great, huge ideas in my head, I can see the layout of an
entire city, the culture of a planet, but when it comes down to getting exact
and putting it down on paper, I go blank.
> 5) How many of you take the time to learn another's conlang?
Someday maybe. I'm not very good at learning languages, really, unless I take
a class in it. I'm pretty good at Spanish and French because I take them in
school, but the natlangs I have tried to learn on my own I don't get very far
with. So, I would like to learn some conlangs, but it would be hard. Also,
thinking about it now, it would feel kind of weird using *someone else's*
language, you know what I mean? It's a private, meaningful thing that they
created for themself, and I wouldn't feel quite right taking it and using it
myself. Well, that half makes sense and half not--there's of course nothing
morally wrong with it, it's just I am anticipating not feeling good about it.
And of course there's the issue of constant change in many conlangs, and they
are rarely developed enough so that one could use someone else's conlang
without constantly asking the author for help or more words.
> 6) How many of you are women?
Pas moi!
> 7) Who is lurking period? [these questions I don't expect
> public answers to--if any answers--but I ask it anyway
> to see what happens]
I am not officially lurking, tho often I am too lazy to post for a while.
> 7a) If you are women and you are lurking, why are you not
>contributing? This is a shamefully gendered question, but gender and
>participation has been raised, and I'm curious.
>
> 8) Which of you would give me permission to (or object to) my
>mentioning your conlang and webpage (if any) at a convention, in an
>academic article? I'll protect names if so desired [as though this is
>writing pornography!-- now there's something]
You have my permission for both mentioning me and my languages.
> 9) For how many of you is "exoticness" in your invented language
>and absolute must? How many of you pursue more familiar models... and
>why to both?
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Some of my languages are basically mixes of
Romance languages, and they're not very exotic at all, but I like them. And
others are completely unrelated to anything else, and I try to fill them with
unusual features.
> 9) FINALLY: what is the appeal of an invented language for you?
>Wherein is its "sexiness"? Its spirituality? its sensuality? What keeps
>you at it? How does it benefit you? Does it harm you? heal you?
Primarily it's fun. It's also something to feel good about, like I have a
little secret that no one else undertands. I used to want to write a journal
completely in one of my languages so no one else could read it, but I'm not
that good at my own languages and I didn't do too well. But there still is
that possibility. I feel proud that I have my own languages, that I can shape
and sculpt in whatever way I want. It's my creation to toy with, and I am
always trying to make it better, to make it something that I'll like more.
And about my particular languages: at last count there were 37, so I'll just
mention a few.
Eloshtan--the most developed one--features vowel harmony, verb and noun
tenses, SOV word order, with postpostitions, any noun can have a personal
ending added to it and mean "to be ___", there are no articles, there are
particles, such as one after nominative nouns, one that comes before two verb
in a row, there are about 900 words in the dictionary right now
Hoxan--every sound in this is ingressive including the vowels, there are 13
lengths and 13 tones (some contour), obviously its not meant for humans to
pronounce
Kar Marinam--average sounds, tones, active system, adjective put around noun
(e.g. gelnas=tall, hul=building, gel hulnas=tall building), there are no verb
tenses but lots of moods
Gumxvadu--a descendant of Eloshtan with all voiced phonemes, polysynthetic
Yaffi--related to Eloshtan, has a root system (3 consonants)
that's enough for now i think
>Many thanks.
You're welcome!
JTR