Re: Lunatic Survey

[Sally Caves]
> 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?
I share it with my friends, but not with my co-workers (usually) and
not with acquaintances or parents-of-friends.
>
>         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?
To a large extent.  I was poking at the language before subscribing,
and the list gave me the impetus to bring it into enough shape to
release it.
>
>         3)  How many of you, in mentioning your conlang to an
> acquaintance, received a belittling reply?  Condescension?  Disapproval?
Mostly just bemusement.
>
>         4)  How many of you are:
>                 c) out of school altogether and supporting yourselves?
>
>         4a) What is your profession, or your desired profession?
Consultant (read: Computer Programmer).
>
>         5)  How many of you have invented a language because
>                 a) you are solely interested in language experiments
>                    and linguistics?
>                         i) for personal experiments...
slightly this...
>                 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 iii, though I wouldn't mind generating i or ii someday.
>
>         5) How many of you take the time to learn another's conlang?
No, though I browse them.
>
>         6) How many of you are women?
No.
>
>         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]
Please go ahead.
>
>         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?
I pursue exoticness, and am often disappointed by how normal my language
is, though most people I've shared it with find it extremely exotic.
I'm interested in the likely extreme differences between us and aliens,
and wanted to generate something genuinely alien (an impossible task, I know).
I'm not as excited by the idea of nondescript languages, though I might
do one someday anyway.
>
>         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?
Um, it's interesting, it's something large I've created, some
people are occasionally interested in it, I like the way it looks.
It's very different.  It's generally incomprehensible.  These are my
reasons, such as they are.

My language is Rikchik, its features are that it's logographic, non-spoken,
un-sign-able by humans, with a japanese/rpn based grammar.  Also connected
to a fictional alien species.
--
Denis M Moskowitz            Happy-Result-N-0 God-Quality-N-1 Human-End-R-1
dmm@cs.hmc.edu               Human-Source-R-0P Rikchik-Agent-N-0 Talk-End-I-2
<a href="http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~dmm/dmm.html">My WWW page</a>
<a href="http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~dmm/rikchik/intro.html">Rikchik Language</a>