Re: LUNATIC SURVEY: 2005

Here's the rest of the questions I didn't get around to last night:

Sally Caves wrote:

> *10. Do you peruse Jeffrey Henning’s Langmaker.com site?
Not frequently; I've visited it a few times.

> *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 use Cool Edit for sound editing, Paint Shop Pro for illustrations
(such as the Lindiga color charts), and I have fonts for some of my
languages that I've created with Fontographer.

> 12. Have you ever tried to introduce a friend to the list?
Not that I can recall.

> 13. Do you know of anyone who does this kind of thing but who has never
> heard of the list?
No.

> *14. What other lists do you frequent related to conlanging?
The relay list.

> *15. What do you think will be the future of the list? I see it giving
> birth to alternate lists like Conworld, Lostlanguages, Romlang, etc.
> What improves the present list and its helpfulness or entertainment value?
I'm not familiar with the other lists (I often don't even have time for
the lists I already subscribe to), so I can't compare this one to the
others.

> *16. What Internet technology would you most like to see developed that
> would aid you in showcasing your language(s)?
SIL Graphite support in popular web browsers would be nice.

> *17. What lists like conlang exist in other cultures and languages that
> you know of?
>
> *18. There has been some terrific talk about CONLANG as a community. And
> yet so many of us seem to want the world to know of it and respect it.
> Is the CONLANG community enough?
I don't especially care if the world knows about us, as long as other
conlangers can find us easily enough. It would be pretty cool, though,
to see the community grow and expand into new areas of creative potential.

> *19. In my 2000 on-line article
> (http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0003/languages.php) I suggested
> that the Internet "may provide a site that, with the impetus of
> competition and showmanship, encourages inutile and obsessive activity";
> I was quoting Jeff Salamon’s article "Revenge of the Fanboys." Village
> Voice 13 Sep., 1994. He wrote that over ten years ago. Do outsiders
> still entertain such notions, do you think, about listservs like this
> one? Do you? To what extent has the list increased obsessive development
> in you? Would you be inventing as furiously as you are without the list
> or knowledge of other inventors?
I don't consider this a competitive activity. To be sure, my experience
with the list has made me more aware of the inadequacies of my conlangs,
and inspired me to try to improve my own efforts. But I don't see that
as competition. "Inutile and obsessive" ... sounds like a fancy way to
say "fun" with a few extra syllables. :-) Seriously, I suppose it might
be an obsession for some, but then anything can be. Anything that's an
enjoyable hobby might look like an obsession to someone who doesn't
understand it, and even as an obsession, it's a pretty harmless one,
like solving crossword puzzles.

> 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 can never decide which one. :-) I've spent a lot of time trying to
learn Japanese, without much success. I probably would do better with
classes, but there's no time for those. I've also tried to learn other
languages, but there's something interesting about each one, and I can
never concentrate on just one to learn in detail. It's true that
learning another language is useful, especially in these days when the
whole world is on the web, but the implication that everything we do in
our spare time for fun needs to be useful in some way isn't a fair
criticism.

> *21. In Elizabethan times there were the inkhorn neologisms. There were
> ciphers and pasigraphies. Today there is conlanging. Do you think the
> contemporary world is more open to language innovation or more closed?
I can't comment on history; that's a subject I know too little about.
There certainly seems to be a lot of resistance to language innovation
where the English language is concerned (complaints about text messaging
habits, bad spelling and punctuation, and such), but I assume that kind
of resistance has probably always been around as long as language has
been changing. One thing we have these days that's a fairly recent
phenomenon, though, is the growth of the science fiction and fantasy
genres, which provide an excellent medium for language innovation.
Stories featuring aspects of language are not uncommon, and the
occasional phrase or bit of dialogue in a conlang doesn't seem at all
out of place. You even have things like the cassette tapes to learn
Klingon phrases from, and the entire Klingon translation of Hamlet.
(What would Shakespeare have thought of that one, I wonder?)

> *22. What would Tolkien have done with such a community? He writes in "A
> Secret Vice" that language inventors "hardly ever show their works to
> one another, so none of them know who are the geniuses at the game, or
> who are the splendid ‘primitives’." He suggests that perhaps in a later
> time language invention will become respectable, and such things can be
> exhibited. Have we reached that time?
I think so.

> *23. Is there a danger that over-exposure can make conlanging "banal"?
> To what extent is it exciting because it is a) considered disreputable,
> "corny" or "mad," or b) largely unknown to the world? Does it have a
> fizzle-out date?  In other words, is it just a fad, or is it a natural
> human inclination that will stand the test of time?
I don't know; I'd like to see it continue, but a lot of the things other
humans seem to enjoy are a mystery to me, and I don't think I'll ever
really understand them.

> 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?
Yes; you can use my full name if you wish, or my first name.