Re: Fluency Wish-List

OK, my 2 merkas: Sadly, I never get fluent in anything [I'm a language
enthusiast, not a skilled learner], so this really is a wish-list in the
Jargon File sense: "[things] that probably won't get done for a long time" -
if ever.

Conlangs:

1. Jameld. I've been working on it long enough now. Before long it'll be as
old as me :) So I should really be more fluent, but I'm getting better.

2. Jameld [Börgeslant dialect]. I want this to be sufficiently different
from the "standard" Üstzur dialect that a broad Börgeslant speaker would be
hard to understand for an Üstzur speaker. It's a conservative rural dialect,
preserving stuff like grammatical gender and more OFris roots that
mainstream J has lost. <end retrofitted conhistory note>

3. Rahha. My project for 2001!

4. Brithenig would be good to learn: I like the concept a lot and it looks
very impressive and natural. Does it sound nice? I often regret that Jameld
is less euphonic than, say, Dutch or Norwegian. [BTW, what would "James
Campbell" be in Brithenig? The surname is said to be a corruption of Gaelic
"caimbeul", meaning crooked mouth - hence my Jameldic nom de plume, Älvard
te Kraamlep {curved lip}.]

5. Folkspraak, or something similar. I'm a sucker for Germanic languages.
Arovën, for instance - has anyone heard from Joshua Shinavier recently? Last
I heard from him (December?) he was having to move out of his digs. You
there, Josh?


Natlangs:
[I often learn just a little, get stuck, then move on to something else.
Attention span of a goldfish.]

1. Norwegian, which I'm learning, and I really really *like* the feel of it.

2. Corsican, if I could ever find some info on it.

3. Norn. I am 1/16 Orcadian [on the Campbell side], so this angle of my
personal history is fascinating to me. Does Norn count as extinct?

4. Tuvan. Well, I do pick the hard-to-find ones.

5. Dutch. Another one I like a lot, and the locals always seem pleasantly
surprised when I get the 'difficult' sounds right. Only this and Norwegian
are languages I actually know any of, from this list. Hang on though, I
should be learning Frisian. And I always wanted to go back to learning Scots
Gaelic. And Welsh. Oh heck. This could take several lifetimes.

James

 =========================================================================
james@zolid.com  James Campbell  Zeugma--Our Life Is Design  www.zolid.com
 =========================================================================