Reply to Sally (jara: Introduction)

 --- Sally Caves skrzypszy:

> Ha vyko, Hvenmanrivar!  (Hi there! Welcome, visitor!)   I can't compete with
> the Christophe's and the Jan's of the list who are the first to greet a
> newcomer!
<blushing> Oh well, it's just the kind of work that I'm doing (sitting behind a
computer the whole day). Same with Christophe, I think.
Anyway, you made up with a reply longer than us two's replies together. :)

> Ah, so you are at UCLA!  The graduate school for the famous Matt Pearson,
> inventor of the famous and excellent Tokana!  Also the home of several
> colleagues of mine.  You are unusual, as a conlanger, in being a political
> science and history major.  Many of us are linguistics and computer science
> majors.
Not me! I did my first year in history, but then I switched to Sovietology (I
don't really know how I should call it. In 1992, when it finally became
possible to specialise in another East European country than Russia, I
immediately switched to Poland. So I am not a historian, but at least something
close to it.
As for politics, I used to be extremely politically active during seven or so
years, but in 1992 I quit entirely, disillusioned and disappointed. Politics
still interest me, though.

I was an English major way back in the early seventies, and I got
> my Ph.D. in Berkeley in medieval literature (did my diss on Old English and
> Middle Welsh poetry).
I still believe that medieval literature is among the most beautiful literature
ever written. Same goes with medieval music, by the way.
For my vocal compositions, I prefer to use either medieval or classic texts.

> I know that the novel has some linguistic notes at the end of it, but I'm
> still not convinced that she is as compulsively dedicated as some of the
> rest of us are to the nitty gritty details of our inventions.
Perhaps. But does that disqualify Ms. LeGuin as a conlanger? I can't say I am
compulsive as a conlanger either, although currently it takes most of my free
time. I'm sure there are more like that on this list.

A propos female conlangers: earlier, I wrote that I found it odd that there are
so little women involved in a posteriori conlanging. Perhaps you remember. But
I have news for you: Eamon's fiancée Sabrina has entered Romanceconlang today,
and announced a Romance conlang! She is the first romlanger I've ever heard of!
You are probably right, and women are leaving the closet a bit later than the
men. I'll be the first to welcome them.

On a sidenote: Christophe and me sent our welcome messages in the very same
minute. A draw this time! :))

> Meanwhile, who was it gave me the link to the Celtic Conlang list?  Would it
> be too much trouble to get that again?
I was not me, but this time it will be me:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/celticonlang

Jan

=====
"Originality is the art of concealing your source." - Franklin P. Jones

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