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

Sally Caves <scaves@...> wrote:
>
> 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."
>
> 1)  How many of you old- and new-comers started inventing a language
> in isolation from the list?
    I did, more or less.  Gladilatian is the first language I've developed
in detail, and I began it before I found this list.  However, one of the
first things I did when I decided to invent a language is check out what
resources were available on the Internet, which is how I found this list.
So, even though I started it pre-list, I subscribed pretty early on in its
development.
    I also did some conlanging in my younger days, well before I discovered
the Internet (and maybe before there was such a thing).  One I remember was
Rundinian (or maybe Rundinnian), which was a Romance language for some
fiction which was never written, and which never got very far.  Another,
earlier one I only vaguely remember.  I don't even know its name, but it was
a priori inflecting with both ancient and modern scripts.  I think it was
supposed to be an alien language.

>         1a)  If so, how old were you?
    Hm.  For the unnamed one I think I was a teenager.  For Rundinian I was
in my 20s.  For Gladilatian I was in my 40s.

>         1b)  Was it a project with friends or a solitary project?
    These were all solitary.

>         1b)  Did your invented language have some kind of private purpose?
>                 esoteric?  erotic? religious or mystical?
    Rundinian and Gladilatian, at least, were parts of concultures which at
least in theory were to appear in my fiction (in fact for Glad.).

> 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.
    Gladilatian is a priori.  There are some similarities between words with
similar meanings.

> 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 do try to come up with something which sounds right, in some sense,
without having it sound like some real word in a language I'm familiar with.
However, a couple times Glad. words have been similar to corresponding Eng.
words, and I didn't realize it until later.  In these cases I just left them
in, because that sort of thing would happen by coincidence anyway.

> 5)  How many of you invented words to express concepts that could not be
> expressed in your native language?
    I have.  See the Alien Concepts section of my webpage.

> 6)  How many of you used it for prayer?  For secrecy?
    Not I.

> 7)  For how many of you was it an intellectual exercise?
> 8)  A language for a conculture?
    Gladilatian is some combination of these.  Its primary purpose is to be
part of a conculture appearing in some fiction I'm writing.  However, I'm
developing it more than is necessary for that end.  The reason it's being
developed more can be called "intellectual exercise", although it can just
as easily be called "because it's fun".

> 10)  What is your definition of a mystical language?
    I'm not sure.

> Would any of you characterize your conlang as such?
    Not I.

 ===========================================================================

             Dennis Paul Himes    <>    dennis@himes.connix.com
             homepage: http://www.connix.com/~dennis/dennis.htm
        Gladilatian page: http://www.connix.com/~dennis/glad/lang.htm

Disclaimer: "True, I talk of dreams; which are the children of an idle
brain, begot of nothing but vain fantasy; which is as thin of substance as
the air."                      - Romeo & Juliet, Act I Scene iv Verse 96-99