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Re: Presentation on Language Creation

From:bnathyuw <bnathyuw@...>
Date:Tuesday, October 1, 2002, 15:54
 --- "Douglas Koller, Latin & French"
<latinfrench@...> wrote: > David writes
<shameless snip>
> > The "waste of time" argument irks me. I lump it > together with the > "study music so you'll be better at math and > science" ads that have > been running recently in the US. Like, what's wrong > with learning > music 'cause music, an sich, is cool? Creativity is > creativity; where > it stops, nobody knows. >
but i don't think there's any harm in getting more people on board ( i've been doing music since i was 4, and i don't think i was too concerned at that time about maths ( which was probably counting bananas ) or science ( playing with sand and water ), but it _might_ work as a ploy. all the same, it might put lots of people off . . . ' eeeurgh, i don't want to do maths, i just want to play my guitar ' ) <even more shameless snip>
> "Is there > a real/imagined parallel between coming out as a > conlanger and coming > out as a homosexual?"
hmmm. interesting that one. i'ld say telling a new acquaintance i was gay was pretty straightforward ( most of the time ), whilst explaining that i liked playing around with language structures would probably get me funny looks relatedly, the most successful anti-chat-up line i've ever used was in reply to 'what do you do ?' ; 'study philosophy' elicited 'oh, that's nice. well, see you then.' if philosophy's such a turnoff, i can see why conlanging might be seen as one ( tho i imagine philosophers are much more annoying in arguments than conlangers. actually, from what i've seen on various email groups, gay people are more annoying than both, but i don't think that's what potentially puts people off ) i suppose it boils down to the 'ick' factor ( because of course gay people have nasty dirty sex whilst straight people have lovely lavendar-smelling happy sex ) against the 'urgh' factor ( because someone who likes playing with languages must be socially incompetent and unable to express themself normally . . . that's why they have to make up their own languages surely ) anyway, i'm freewheeling . . . probably the aftereffects of the hangover/food poisoning which laid me out yesterday bn ===== bnathyuw | landan | arR stamp the sunshine out | angelfish your tears came like anaesthesia | phèdre __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Everything you'll ever need on one web page from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts http://uk.my.yahoo.com

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Douglas Koller, Latin & French <latinfrench@...>