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Re: Is conlang a generator of conlangers? or a sustainer? (was: Oops!)

From:Adam Parrish <myth@...>
Date:Friday, October 9, 1998, 0:34
On Thu, 8 Oct 1998, Sally Caves wrote:

> So, Christophe, it was studying a foreign language (and a dead one at that > with a complicated grammar) that gave you the idea to create your own? > This brings up another very rich question (I said this would be my last, > but oops I lied)... and that is: are almost all of us conlangers because > we caught the virus independently, or are there a growing number of > conlangers who have been inspired to create because they joined the list? > Now this would add fuel to my idea that an electronic network has not only > made an excellent forum for us, but is actually generating a new hobby. >
I could answer yes to both those questions, I think. I started Doraya long before I joined CONLANG. In that sense, I 'caught the virus' on my own. However, if I hadn't joined CONLANG, my interest in the hobby might have dwindled. I certainly wouldn't have developed Doraya to the state it's in currently and I probably wouldn't have started too many other projects either.
> My other question: how much was Tolkien an influence on your decision to > invent a language? >
For me, he was the primary influence. I read the Hobbit in fourth grade and LotR shortly after; it was only after I read those books that I started to develop a taste for languages and world-building. As far as I can remember, learning about actual languages (mostly French, during my first conlanging excursions) didn't affect my interest in inventing languages at all -- it was almost the other way around. I wanted to learn new languages so I could invent more realistic ones. In fact, I might be tempted to attribute my entire interest in languages to Tolkien. :) It's also interesting that I actually found out about the conlang list through the tolklang list, one of the first lists that I subscribed to when I first got on the Internet. Joining the conlang list was a major maturing factor for me, especially as I got to know the languages of the other people on the list (particularly Greg Higley's language Inda -- anyone know what happened to him or Inda?). So, in sum, Tolkien gave me the virus, and conlang prevented me from finding a cure. I've never had a better disease in my life. :) -- Adam Parrish "A friend of mine once told me that the myth@inquo.net best way to understand teenagers was to http://www.inquo.net/~myth/ think of them as constantly on LSD. It was good advice." -- Mary Pipher