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

On Sat, Apr 28, 2001 at 10:33:36AM -0700, Sally Caves wrote:

> 1)  How many of you old- and new-comers started inventing a language
> in isolation from the list?
*waves hand in the air wildly*  Me, me!!

>         1a)  If so, how old were you?
Seventh grade.  The year we moved.  The year my parents gave me "The Book
of Lost Tales".  That would make me 13 years old.

>         1b)  Was it a project with friends or a solitary project?
Solitary.  I wrote phrases in it in my letters to my best friend, and she
was inspired to come up with her own (especially once I made a calendar for
my language, with festivals and stuff).

>         1b)  Did your invented language have some kind of private purpose?
>                 esoteric?  erotic? religious or mystical?
I used it for all my private feelings, many of which were mystical.  I made
up a pantheon of goddesses and wrote a naming-poem where they each got two
lines about their attributes.  I wrote formulas for entering certain
imaginary realms via meditation before sleep.  I wrote a poem about having
to say goodbye to my friend after she visited.  I had a word for exclaiming
about sacredness, happy surprises, etc, modeled after the use of "heya" in
Ursula LeGuin's "Always Coming Home" - mine was "alala", related to "alalt"
(wind) and "lat" (green, leaf).

> 2)  How many of you newcomers heard of the list first and thought--
> Wow! I think I'll try my hand at conlanging!
Nope.  However, it was Tolkien's example, especially as laid out in The
Book of Lost Tales (vol. 1), and later Ursula LeGuin's example in "Always
Coming Home", which inspired me.

> 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.
Well, yes.  Also, it tended to be influenced by whatever language I was
studying (first German, then Russian).

> 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?
Oh, very important :)  And there were lots of diacritic marks to make it
look more exotic and beautiful :)  And stress was marked, but I didn't
pay much attention to it and actually pronounced it with normal English
prosodic stress :)

> 5)  How many of you invented words to express concepts that could not be
> expressed in your native language?
Concepts which could not be expressed, or which I fancied could not be
expressed, yes.

> 6)  How many of you used it for prayer?  For secrecy?
Yes, and yes.

> 7)  For how many of you was it an intellectual exercise?
This is just the first language, right?  It was not an intellectual exercise.
It was very personal and emotional.  Everything after it (and a few sketches
done simultaneously with it) was an intellectual exercise.

> 8)  A language for a conculture?
I tried to have a conculture for it, but I didn't understand enough about
people to make a culture :)

> 10)  What is your definition of a mystical language?  Would any of you
> characterize your conlang as such?
My definition of a mystical language would be a language which is not used
for everyday concerns, but only for the purposes of religion or mysticism,
so that it becomes associated with the religion or mystical practice and
creates a mood of religion and mysticism.

By that definition, it was.  I was going to say that it was not purely a
mystical language due to being used for some diary- or friendship-related
purposes, but in fact it always held mystical connotations for me, and it
never did develop enough practical day-to-day words to be of ordinary use.
Every time I write a diary entry in it (which is rare, and they are short),
I end up making up new words for the missing day-to-day concepts.  These
diary-related uses of the language all occurred after it had effectively
become a dead language.  Even so, I still prefer to use it only for documenting
times of great spiritual feeling.

Amanda