andrew wrote:
>
> Am 04/28 10:33 Sally Caves yscrifef:
> > 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!
> >
> Flee! Flee! The Sally has returned! The Sally has escaped from her
> Caves.
Bwa ha ha! Well, I have been teaching a course called "The Body
Monstrous in the Middle Ages," but I didn't until now think that I
was the monstress. :)
> > 5) How many of you invented words to express concepts that could not be
> > expressed in your native language?
> >
> I have decided that any future art languages I create would include such
> words as "the warm season of an indian summer" and "cold, as the
> characteristic of atmosphere not just of an object, cold that eminates".
> :)
"Cool!" :)
> > 6) How many of you used it for prayer? For secrecy?
> >
> No definately not. For me prayer should be expressed in a language of
> the speaker or the shared language of a religious community that has
> emotional resonance for the participant(s). I have not developed a
> language to that extent.
This is very interesting. Thank you.
> > 10) What is your definition of a mystical language? Would any of you
> > characterize your conlang as such?
> >
> Hmm. Which form of mysticism? I think my definition of mysticism is
> "Seeking metaphysical communication with the Other". I found a book by
> the post-Christian theologian Don Cupitt helpful because he argued that
> language comes first then the expression of the mystical experience (I
> think). My favorite conculture, which I wrote about in a comic fantasy
> for my own amusement, used powerful magic although they were
> geographically constrained, had a high religious tradition, were
> argumentive, earthy, and fun.
What do you think of glossalalia? Is it mystical?
Sally
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scaves@frontiernet.net
"The gods have retractible claws."
from _The Gospel of Bastet_
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