Re: Language and "mysticism," whatever that is.

Sally Caves wrote:

> Vyko, Conlangers!  I've taken a long long holiday (which
> essentially amounts to doing my dayjob at the university).
> I hope you haven't forgotten Teonaht!
Gwaleth! How could we forget Teonaht, or the elusive Teonim!

> I'm speaking, again, at a conference in a few days, and I
> wanted to ask you a couple of questions--sort of along the
> lines of my old "Lunatic Survey."
Yes I am a lunatic. OT: I just filled in my census form, gods was I tempted
to write Carashan as my nationality.

> 1)  How many of you old- and new-comers started inventing a language
> in isolation from the list?
Me, for one.

>         1a)  If so, how old were you?
I had just started secondary school- 11.

>         1b)  Was it a project with friend or a solitary project?
Solitary

>         1b)  Did your invented language have some kind of private purpose?
>                 esoteric?  erotic? religious or mystical?
Secrecy, to begin with. Then, as an extention, erotic. The first literature
in Aredos (well, on of Aredos' forerunners) was pornography. Gods that
sounds sad, but I was only twelve, going to an all boys school, without
internet access- what could I do???? ;o)

>                 Since the topic of my panel is "the language of
mysticism,"
>                 I'm especially interested in this last.
I pray in Norreyna, and one of the first langs I learnt was Anglo-Saxon,
which I still use for devotional purposes (no joke. I was learning German
and noticed how words were similar to English and I wanted to know why, so I
discovered OE, fell in love with it and learnt it.)

> 2)  How many of you newcomers heard of the list first and thought--
> Wow! I think I'll try my hand at conlanging!
No. My first encounter with conlanging on the net was in my 17th year- when
I discovered Mark Rosenfelder's Virtual Verduria.

> 3)  How many of you, when you were starting out on this on your own,
> did this kind of thing:  you have a list of words you want to invent
> new ones for, so you drew di-and polysyllabic words out of the air.
> This is
> what I did when I was new at this and a teenager.  Many of these still
> remain vocabulary words in Teonaht, but I've since then learned to build
> up through word roots.
No, I'm not that imaginative. I bought an etymological dictionary and used
IE or Greco-Latin words.

> 4)  If so, how important was it that the new word sound "exotic,"
> "beautiful," or
> "suggestive" in some personal way of the word you wanted it to stand
> for?
Beautiful- to my ear. Lots of simple vocalic sounds, fricatives, no glottal
stuff or overly adventurous phonemes. Still the same, actually- although
I've moved onto diphthongs and away from front rounded vowels.

> 5)  How many of you invented words to express concepts that could not be
> expressed in your native language?
Yep. Those related to sex and relationships, especially. Being gay I've
always wanted to get rid of linguistic prejudice.

> 6)  How many of you used it for prayer?  For secrecy?
Both. I used to write my diary in an old form of Bulyth.

> 7)  For how many of you was it an intellectual exercise?
I suppose so. I've always loved languages, I'm a linguaholic!!!!

> 8)  A language for a conculture?
That goes without saying...

> 9)  How many of you newcomers (and I see a lot of names I don't
> recognize
> in the six months I've been away) heard of the list first and thought--
> Wow!  I think I'll try my hand at conlanging!
>
> 10)  What is your definition of a mystical language?  Would any of you
> characterize your conlang as such?
Ummmmm. Mystical. Difficult word. A language of prayer and ritual, I
suppose, like OE, ON, Norreyna, Aelya or Latin, maybe.

Dan

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Ka yokonáu iti báyan: "cas'alyá abhiyo".

Ka tso iti mantabayan: "yama zaláyá
alánekayam la s'alika, cas'alika; ka yama
yavarryekayan arannáam la vácika, labekayam
vácika, ka ali cas'alyeko vanotira."
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Dan Jones