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!
Not at all!
> 1) How many of you old- and new-comers started inventing a language
> in isolation from the list?
Yep.
> 1a) If so, how old were you?
21. It was only about 3 years ago that I started conlanging at all.
> 1b) Was it a project with friends or a solitary project?
Solitary, but my friends all knew about it.
> 1b) Did your invented language have some kind of private purpose?
> esoteric? erotic? religious or mystical?
I just wanted to see if I could do it (i.e., an intellectual exercise)
> 2) How many of you newcomers heard of the list first and thought--
> Wow! I think I'll try my hand at conlanging!
I don't even remember how I found the list. I think it was through
either the langmaker page or the LCK.
> 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.
I did this with Mungayöd, but my word generation process has become more
logical with Glïzxföösee (a consonant root language).
> 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?
I wanted words that sounded nice, but also ones that were a little rough
around the edges. Something tough, but elegant.
> 5) How many of you invented words to express concepts that could not be
> expressed in your native language?
Certainly.
> 6) How many of you used it for prayer? For secrecy?
Neither. I haven't even come up with any curse words yet!
> 7) For how many of you was it an intellectual exercise?
Definitely.
> 8) A language for a conculture?
It rather quickly became part of a con-world.
> 10) What is your definition of a mystical language? Would any of you
> characterize your conlang as such?
I wouldn't know a mystical language if it jumped up and bit me in the
behind. Mungayöd is more of a classical language, and Glïzxföösee is a
major everyday spoken language.
--
Daniel Seriff
microtonal@sericap.com
http://members.tripod.com/microtonal
Futharusào li utsoto wi pæthong, raskèsào lang li!
Si me iterum insanum appelles, oculum alterum tuum edem.