Re: Lunatic Survey
| From: | Peter Clark <pc451@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Saturday, September 26, 1998, 13:55 |
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> THE SURVEY:
>
> 1) To what extent is your conlang an "intensely personal"
> pursuit--one that you don't often reveal to people other than
conlangers?
Enamyn is so intensely personal that I don't even talk about it
much to my fellow conlangers. (Ok, sure, I wax eloquently on the noun
tense system, but besides that, when was the last time I posted an
example of Enamyn?) A large part of my reserve stems from the fact
that Enamyn is continually under revision. I don't answer translation
exercises (even though every time one comes along, I die inside with a
desire to post) because I know that by next week, parts, either large
or small, will be out of date. I'm always impressed that some of you
can create a conlang in a day. I suppose if I didn't get so enraptured
with perfection, I could do the same, but to me, this is art, and must
not be rushed. Two years ago, had I stuck with the general form of
Enamyn (back when it was called Nonami, for those of you who remember)
that I imagined it to be, I know I would have been incredibly
disappointed today. Someday, I hope to reach the point where I can
say, "It is good," but until then, I will continue to tinker with it.
To answer the actual question, however, a few of my friends know,
as does my family, but they just attribute it to my strange
personality. My roommates this summer were taken aback by the large
numbers of language and linguistic books I left scattered around the
apartment, but they acknowledged that in terms of possible interests
that I _could_ have, conlanging was one of the more benign.
> 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
CONLANG has acted more as an encouragement and a source of
knowledge and good ideas than actually providing a reason to construct
languages. I provided my own reason, although interestingly enough,
CONLANG provided the words to my reason. I had always viewed
conlanging as creation, but the quote "In some ways, constructing
languages is the most primal form of poetry, for in it we create new
voices for ourselves" summed it perfectly for me.
> b) making it public?
Enamyn's public?!? See my answer to #1. If/when it's finished, or
at least stable, then I will put it on the Web, but not till then.
> 3) How many of you, in mentioning your conlang to an
> acquaintance, received a belittling reply? Condescension?
Disapproval?
A raised eyebrow is the most common response, although I have told
a few teenage acquaintances of mine who thought "that's really cool!"
I think the younger the person, the more willing they are to accept
conlanging as a legitimate pasttime.
> 4) How many of you are:
> c) out of school altogether and supporting yourselves?
That's me.
> 4a) What is your profession, or your desired profession?
I will be going to St. Petersburg, Russia, to work with the street
children there for at least two years. Past that, I don't know.
> 5) How many of you have invented a language because
>
> a) you are solely interested in language experiments
> and linguistics?
I've been having a conversation with Thomas Payne (the linguist who
wrote "Describing Morphosyntax") over email, and it's rather
interesting, because he tends to see conalanging (once I explained it
to him) from this view point. But I'm more in for the artistic side of
it, rather than the more analytical side. (Sapir/Whorf, etc.)
> i) for personal experiments...
Experimentation is always an integral part of conlanging for me,
and another reason why I'm so slow at this business. Right now, I'm
trying to incorporate an extraordinarily complex mutation system into
an easy-to-use and remember paradigm for case morphology. I've spent
two months on this, experimenting with just how unique I can make the
language without sacrificing learnability. (After all, I want to speak
this language!)
> ii) because you like participating in the
> development of an auxiliary language and its
> socio-political effects?
I don't believe that an IAL will ever become international. The
lingue franca, for better or for worse, will probably always be the
language of dominance and power. (Latin, French, English, whatever
comes next...) So to that end, I don't see much of a point in trying
to develop an auxlang. Strange words from someone who's hobby is
considered by most people to be a waste of time, but that's my
opinion. If others want an IAL, I'm certainly not going to stand in
their way. I wish them the best of luck; they're going to need it.
> b) you are interested in world-building
>
> i) for fiction
> ii) for role-playing and other social
activities
> iii) just for your own amusement?
World-building has been a struggle with me for almost the entire
time that I've been developing Enamyn. On one hand, langauge is
intrinsically tied to culture, so it follows that I should try to
develop a culture behind Enamyn. In fact, I've even gone so far as to
place its speakers in the Crimea, prior to and during the Horde
occupation. On the other hand, something deep down inside me rebels at
the idea of tying Enamyn to a culture when it's mine, mine, MINE! (As
such, you will never find a native speaker of Enamyn. The last were
either killed off or absorbed by the larger Mongol culture. The
ultimate act of vindictiveness on the part of a jealous creator who
could not even accept the fact that _imaginary_ people might have at
one time spoken his language. I'm crazy, I know.)
In all likelihood, I'll probably abandon any attempts to create a
culture for Enamyn and just let it stand on its own.
> 5) How many of you take the time to learn another's conlang?
I might be tempted to, if one were written in lovingly explicit
detail. I'm terrible at learning any language, nat or con, so there's
a certain amount of resistance to spending time struggling with any
language.
I do, however, look at other conlangs to stea^H^H^H^Hbe inspired
with good ideas. :)
> 6) How many of you are women?
I don't need to check to say that I am not.
> 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]
Obviously not I.
> 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]
Feel free to use my name in vain. I really doubt that anybody will
know me, or even care. As for my web page--well, you can mention that
too, but there's really not anything on it yet. (So many good ideas
and no time to put them on the Web!)
> 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?
The number one design goal in Enamyn is to be as unique as
possible. It's a creation, and I don't want it to resemble anything.
Not to say that I don't take appealing features from other languages,
but I always make sure that whatever I take is so hideously twisted
and bent out of shape that it does not resemble its original form.
Other features, especially the phonology, make look ordinary, but
that's because I expressly chose their forms, after reviewing all the
possibilities. (The phonology is small and simple because I'm just not
very good at distinguishing between a lot of sounds and because a lot
of sounds are very unattractive to me. /w/ and /@/ still send chills
of revulsion down my spine if I think about them too long.)
> 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?
My Myers-Briggs personality type is a very strong and consistent
INFP. If that means anything to you, you'll realize that I'm a part of
the 1% of the population that spends most of the day in another world.
Yet whenever I try to describe the world as I experience it, I always
fail to find the words. So in one sense, Enamyn is a unshackling of
language for me. It's an exercise in stretching original thought,
expressing trivial concepts in a significant way.
I don't see it as harming or healing, just giving me vast amounts
of pleasure. I have the suspicion that Enamyn is lurking in my head,
already present and formed, and that if I spend enough time with it,
it will percolate from the depths of my subconscious and into the
light of day. "Discovering" new features of the language that I had
never considered before provides the sensuality, the thrill of
creation. The spirituality? Well, that's just a little too personal
for little ol' introverted me, but yes, there is a great deal of
spirituality in creating a new voice for myself.
> Added question: what is the name of your conlang and in a nutshell,
> what are its most important features?
The language is Enamyn, as you have no doubt already surmised.
Features that I'm proud of: a remarkably large noun tense system that
is still easy to use and understand (at least to my mind), a
mutable/immutable gender system, an active case system that allows for
fairly free word order (the norm, btw, is SOV), word formation from
monosyllable roots that undergo mutations and ablaut, some resemblance
to a diliteral form (think of Arabic's triliteral roots, subtract one
consonant, and then include clusters as part of the consonant
pattern), and terseness--few words over two or three syllables long
(considering that Enamyn is a fusional/inflectional language, a very
difficult goal to reach).
Well, I've wasted enough electrons with my babblings. Pardon me if
I sounded too gushy.
:Peter
==
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/ |eter | To the Father through the features of men's faces. |
| | | -Gerard Manley Hopkins, "As Kingfishers Catch Fire" |
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