Re: where to begin

Marty Rosenberg panrindat:
[snip]
> First of all - and I don't remember who this was too,
> as I don't have the old digests anymore -, when I said
> an interesting orthography doesn't make for an
> interesting language, I didn't mean that orthography
> was useless or boring in any way. In fact, I create an
> a sound set first, immediately followed by the
> orthography. If I can't create an interesting
> orthography for something, I start over.
I too create the sound system first, and then an orthography. My
orthographies have been limited to Latin/Old English letters (available
on [Macintosh] computer systems since I can't do unicode in my word
processor). I have experimented with original orthographies for another
of my projects, Mindakh, but that project has not seen activity for
quite a while.

> Second, I don't know where to place the language in
> it's surroundings. At what point in time do I place
> it? (McWhorter: Latin didn't just become French. It
> had to go through "Fratin".) What place, or dialect?
> What point on a potential dialect continuum? Should I
> decide this before or after I create the language?
I don't have anything to offer here, since my current project is not
part of a conworld or anything. It's a personalang. My other project,
Mindakh, is part of a conworld, but as I said above, it's currently
dormant. I had thought at one point of making it a proto-lang, and
descending a few languages from it. May still do that...

> And fourth (yes, fourth :-D), where should I start?
> Creating roots? Words? Sound set? Orthography?
> Grammar? Which part of the grammar? I'M SO CONFUSED!!!
> :-s *Breathes deeply*
Start wherever you want! With Orēlynna I started with the
phonology/orthography and went straight to grammar. There are still some
grammatical problems and holes in the language, but I'll iron them out
sometime. After a basic grammar, I came up with many of the closed-class
words (pronouns, conjunctions, etc.). Then to roots and a derivational
system to turn them into functioning words. The language is still in its
infancy (or toddlerhood), but can actually say simple things now. One of
the grammatical problems is how to deal with subordinate clauses and
other complex constructions. That is all part of the fun.

> Sorry to be such a burden... Thanks in advance for all
> the help! ;-)
Burden? I think not. This is one of :) the purposes of the list.

> Marty Rosenberg
> Ah, the power of the word cheese.
--
=============
James Worlton
          "We know by means of our intelligence
          that what the intelligence does not
          comprehend is more real than what it
          does comprehend."
                          --Simone Weil