Re: LUNATIC SURVEY: 2005

A. PROFESSION, DEMOGRAPHICS, INCLINATION:





1. Who are you, and what is the name of your invented language or languages?



Ivan Baines.  "Kontaxta".





2. Are you new to the Lunatic Survey or have you filled out a version of
this survey before?



New.





3. Do you have a website for you language/world(s)? If so, please list the
URL address.



Not yet, sorry.





4. What is your email address? name at hostsite dot whatever.



facebar at gmail dot com



(I use a different address for this list to avoid cluttering my inbox!)





5. What is your age? (vague answers allowed, but it is an important
demographic)



Only 21.





6. What is your gender?



Male.





7. What is your nationality?  Where do you live now?



British.  I live in Kendal, in the NW of England.





8. What is your native language?



English.





9. What natural languages foreign to you have you studied or do you speak?



Learned German at school; forgotten most of it, and now I can only read the
most basic German.  Since taught myself French, in which I can happily read
pretty much anything, though my speaking is comparatively poor due to lack
of practice.  I've also studied numerous other languages to a small degree -
in particular Japanese, Finnish and Turkish.

(Note: my interest in Finnish arose before I even discovered Tolkein's
languages)





10. What is your level of education? i.e., your highest degree achieved or
sought?



BSc Computer Science.





11. What is your profession? Are you a professional linguist? If so, what
also makes you a conlanger?



I wouldn't consider myself a professional.  I work as a computer technician
in the workshop at a local computer store.





13. If you are a student, what is your major or your area of study?



I was a student; see above.





14. How long have you been developing your invented language(s)?



Only been doing Kontaxta for about 6 months, on and off.  It's the only one
that's got anywhere.  I've had quite a few attempts in the past but nothing
came of them.  I need more tenacity! :-)





15. At what age did you first start inventing a language? Can you briefly
describe your early efforts?



At age 11.  It was called Vyrratrixian.  It was basically English sounds
with fundamentally-English-yet-vaguely-German-inspired grammar and
English/slightly-Welsh orthography.





16. What drew you to start inventing a language and/or constructed world?
What was the inspiration?



At first: I started German lessons at school and suddenly discovered a
passion for languages that I didn't know I had!





17. Did you start inventing before you had heard of the list or after?
Before you had heard of Esperanto or Tolkien? (I name the two most common
inspirations)



Before.  As for Esperanto and Tolkien, well... I'd heard of Esperanto on the
comedy series _Red Dwarf_ but I didn't realise it wasn't a natlang.  And of
course I'd heard of Tolkien, but I hadn't read any of his stuff at the time,
and I had no idea he was a conlanger.  So basically, as far as I was aware,
I was the only person to ever bother doing such a crazy thing!





18. Tolkien calls it a "shy art" and a "secret vice"; but that was before
the Internet. How secret do you keep it from others outside this list for
much the same reasons?



Well I don't advertise it, but I don't consider it a closely guarded secret
either.  If I was embarrassed by it I wouldn't post like this on a
publicly-readable list!  I have friends who know I'm into it, even though
(much to my disappointment) they don't share my interest in the slightest.





19. Yaguello has called it "pathological," influenced, unfortunately, by a
lot of psychiatric writings such as _Le Schizo et la langue_. To what extent
have you encountered such reactions by outsiders you had taken into your
confidence?



Not much really.





20. Do you consider it nerdy to be doing this? This is a term that gets
tossed around a lot. Or actually sophisticated? Do you need to get a life,
or is this your life? What is a life?



Sure, it's nerdy.  But nerdy isn't a bad thing.  I like being nerdy, it's
part of who I am. :-)

And yes, I do have a life in that I have friends and socialise etc.
Conlanging is just one of many hobby-type things that I like to spend my
spare brain-time on when I'm not otherwise engaged.





21. There has been a connection noted between linguistic and musical
ability. Are you musically inclined? Do you sing and/or play a musical
instrument? Do you compose music?



Well I've been playing piano almost all my life, and I studied at a music
school for 8 years.  So, er, yeah.  And I do enjoy composing in an idle sort

of way.  I'm hopeless at singing though!





22. There has been a connection noted between linguistic and mathematical
ability. Are you mathematically inclined or inclined towards computing in
any way?



I've been into computers ever since I was 9 - so even longer than
conlanging!  It's the technical/programming side that interested me, I've
never been into video games.  As for math(s), I don't really find it
interesting at all, but I did study it at A-level.





23. What other passions do you pursue that give you creative pleasure?
(painting, drawing, sculpting, calligraphy, model-building, novel or
story-writing, role-playing games, map-making, book-making, poetry,
web-designing, star-gazing or other?)



Music of course!  I've been a bit into creative writing lately but it's been
mostly plans, I've produced little actual creative output yet.







B. FEATURES OF YOUR INVENTION





1. Pick the best term for the invented language you are currently invested
in: auxlang, artlang, engelang, loglang, lostlang, philosophical language,
or "other." etc.



Artlang.





2. Is your conlang a priori (devised from scratch) or a posteriori (based on
an existing natural language or drawing from a language class such as
Semitic)?



A priori, but terms for things considered "non-native" are generally
loanwords from some-natlang-or-other.





4. Do you have a script for your conlang? What is it called? Could you
provide me at a later date with a sample of it?  Is it on Langmaker's
"neography" site?



Yep; "Konsakala"; sure; no.





5. Briefly describe the outlines of your invented language (syntactical
structure--VO, OV, etc.; class or type--analytic, synthetic, agglutinating,
incorporative, accusative, ergative, active, trigger, other, combinations,
etc.), noting what you have done with it that is innovative in your opinion.



I'm not entirely confident of my terminology here

but anyway...

OV.  Left-branching. (Poly-?)Synthetic, though it's shifted this way from
having been more analytic earlier on.  Agglutinative.  Accusative.

I don't know enough of what people have done before to comment on whether
anything is innovative - I made quite a lot of stuff up, but I've since
found a fair bit of it to exist already!





7. How extensive would you say your invented language is, now? How big the
vocabulary? Do you provide a vocabulary list or taxonomy on your website if
you have one?



Only about 300 words actually in my dictionary so far, though I have quite a
good system for deriving words from others which I often find useful during
translations.  Almost all grammatical concepts defined, but many of them may
change due to an ongoing iterative refinement process...





8. How do you build vocabulary? Some people pull words out of the air;
others build up a base of root words and affixes. Many do both.



I've developed a "feel" for the sort of words that fit the language's
pattern.  It's only been in the last couple of weeks that I've actually
begun to analyse this; previously I've just gone on instinct.  Basically I
decide on the vague pattern the word will follow, depending on what class of
word it is and whether or not it's "core" vocabulary; then I just kind of
search around in the available sound-space until I find something which
sounds appealing.  Also, for a lot of words, I just find that something
about their sound seems to "fit" with their meaning...

Sometimes, I look around me for random words I may see written here and
there, and take sounds (mostly consonants) from them, then I try and arrange
them into words...





3. Does a constructed world accompany your invention(s)? What is it called?



Not really.  I've been working on it simply because I enjoy doing it; I've
never really been into the conculturing side of things.

There is actually a connection with an idea for a work of fiction, as
described in a post I made a few days ago, but the two are independent
really.





9. Has your language and conworld ever served in a role-playing game or a
world shared by other conlangers?



No.





10. Briefly describe your conculture (is it within the bounds of this world?
on another world, etc.?)



Already described in a separate post.  Basically, it's not the language of a
conculture in the traditional sense, but a "fictional conlang".





*11. Are the beings who speak your invented language human or alien? If
alien, what features have you given the language to make it alien or how
have you restricted or expanded its phonology? vocabulary?



Human.





12. What do you write in it? Poems? chants? lullabyes? prayers? history?
stories? recipes? Are any of these exhibited on your website?



So far I've only translated stuff.  I'm a poor lyricist in my native
English, let alone in my conlang!  As for the stuff I've translated, they
include song lyrics, quotes from TV shows, random thoughts I've had, as well
as extracts from instruction manuals translated during dull moments at work!

Unfortunately, due to the iterative refinement process I use, most of these
are now sadly outdated. :-(





13. Can you speak your conlang? Are you fluent in it? Is this a goal for
you? Have you tried to teach it to an intimate? a companion animal? :)



I can read and pronounce it quite happily, and I regularly practice doing
so.  I'm not fluent (fluency probably isn't possible with such a small
vocabulary).  It'd be awesome to be fluent but I consider it highly unlikely
(not least because if I was going to spend time learning a language, I'd
prefer it to be a natlang!)  I've taught the very basics to a couple of
friends who showed a vague interest.

As for my script, I can write it at high speed but I'm very slow at reading
it.





14. Have you made any soundbytes of your language? Could you provide me at a
later date with a sample of them?



Yes I have, though most are now outdated.  See the babel sample in my other
post.  You're welcome to any more sound samples when I make them.





15. If you use Roman script, how recognizably "phonetic" is your writing
system?



I have a native script, but I also have a romanisation system which I use
most of the time.  It's completely phonetic (though the pronunciation of
some of the characters needs explanation).





16. How many of you sing in your language and have invented songs for that
purpose?



As already mentioned, I can't sing!





17. How many of you, for entertainment or any other reason, resort to
gibberish? (This is in response to Adrian Morgan's question in December).
Does it give you ideas for conlanging? (Have you ever fooled anyone?) How
many of you have sung gibberish?



Never done this.  However, my uncle has.  He's not a conlanger, but he's
been into conculturing (of sorts) for decades.  He invents cultures etc. and
writes stories based on them - and he has an interesting method for coming
up with names for things.  He apparently just listens to people talking in
the distance, and "de-focuses" on the sounds so that he doesn't interpret
them as language, but merely as phoneme-sequences, from which he chooses
sounds he likes.





18. What on-line games do you play? (or devise?) Translations, Babel-text,
Relays, etc.



I don't understand.  I don't play online games, but I've done translations,
one of which was of the babel text.





19. Which do you prefer doing: devising phonology? script? structure?
building vocabulary?



I prefer to let my feel for a language's phonology evolve over time.
Creating scripts can be frustrating, but when it works it's /really/
rewawrding.  I suppose that from the options above, I enjoy devising
structure most.





20. Do you start and stop several different conlangs, or do you tend to
stick with one and develop it over years?



I've done nothing but start and stop.  To such an extent that I have little
memory of the various ideas I've had over the years.





21. What do you think makes a "complete" conlang, if a conlang can attain
completion? What are your goals for completion? When do you grow "tired" of
your conlang, or don't you?



It depends how you define "complete".  You could define it as "having a
vocabulary and grammar comparable in extent to a major natlang".  However I
think that's an unrealistic goal for a conlanger.  I think I'd prefer to
call my conlang "complete" when I can translate most normal, non-specialist
texts without resorting to the creation of new vocabulary.







C. PHILOSOPHY AND AESTHETIC:





3. Is difficulty or obscurity a goal in inventing a language?



This depends entirely on the language project.  I've had ideas before where
complexity was the goal itself.  My current language is comparatively
simple, because I figured that would give it a greater chance of getting
somewhere.





5. How natural do you wish to make it, or is that a concern? Or rather, how
unnatural do you wish to make it?



Again it's project-dependent.  I'm not really concerned whether my current
project looks natural or not.  I've mostly been prioritising regularity over
realism.





6. Can conlanging be sexy? sensual? obsessing? how does it heal or harm you?



Not in the slightest.  But I'm rather intrigued by this question: I'd be
interested to hear the experiences of someone who /does/ see it that way.





12. How do you sense that a word is "right" for its meaning? How much do you
labor at fitting a sound to its sense? Or don't you care?



I wish I knew.  Some words just fit their meanings.  The mild synaesthesia I
(apparently) have helps with certain words, especially colours of course.  I
tend to try pretty hard to find a good sound for common words, but much less
so for uncommon ones.  However the former type tend to stick, whereas the
latter often tend to get changed later!

(That said, maybe common ones stick simply because they're used a lot more.)





*13. Do you ever rely on a software program to build vocabulary? Do those
who don't think that's cheating? :)



I have done before, but generally found it not to be worth it.  I do
currently employ a script I've written to show me the frequency with which
certain sounds appear in kontaxta, so I can attempt to redress the balance.

It's not "cheating" but it can spoil the fun of doing it yourself!







D. THE LISTSERV





1. How did you first hear of this list?



Google.





2. How long have you been on this listserv or on other related listservs?
Continuously? Infrequently? Off and on? More off than on and vice versa?



Just joined.





*7. Do you peruse the websites of other conlangers?



Not extensively, but yeah.





9. Have you ever set out to learn at least a little bit of someone's
conlang, if only a word or two, or a phrase?



Not so much "learn", but I have read a few people's grammars.





*11. What on-line techniques do you use to showcase your conlang, such as
Audacity or other sound programs, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, Fontography, and
so forth? Did you hear of them on the list?



I used Goldwave to make and edit my recordings.





13. Do you know of anyone who does this kind of thing but who has never
heard of the list?



I wish!  I know no conlangers IRL.  :-(





20. If asked whether it is not better to turn your linguistic talents to the
learning and speaking of natural languages (a common response I've met with
and aimed at criticizing introversion or solipsism), how would you answer?




I'd say that I /do/ spend my time studying natlangs,

and it's been very useful, not to mention fascinating.  But the main reason
for doing this is the enjoyment of the learning process itself rather than a
desire to attain the end result - and I've rarely had the occasion to put
such knowledge into practical use.  So in this way you could call it just as
"useless" as conlanging.






Finally, may I have your permission to use any of this material of yours for
my academic work on conlanging? First name? last name? pseudonym? anonymous?



Sure, as long as it's not globally broadcast or anything. :-)





---------



IB.