Lunatic Survey (also some of my conlangs!)

Nik Taylor wrote:
>
> Laurie Gerholz wrote:
> > It
> > usually comes up right after mentioning that I'm studying a foreign
> > language (Japanese, currently) just because I want to
>
> Cool!  You're taking Japanese too?  I've just started.  How is your name
> rendered in katakana?  Is it Roori Geroruzu?
Close. My first name comes out to "Roorii". For some goofy reason that I
don't understand, I was addressed by my given name in class, and
everyone else by their family names. So I've been "roorii-san". Maybe my
family name just confounded our teacher too much? We just started the
new class year, and three more students joined us. I will have to attend
to how they are addressed.

How about your name? I'd guess "Niku Teiro".

>
> > Also martial arts (for some reason I *never* hear condescension after
> > that one).
>
> I suppose it's because that's seen as "practical", you can defend
> yourself from attack with martial arts.
No, I meant that people don't make condescending remarks about *any* of
my hobbies after they hear that I practice martial arts.

>
> > Since Lizard Speech
> > was spoken by sentient bipedal lizards, I have taken a few stabs at
> > adjusting the phonology to what speech sounds a lizard might be able to
> > produce.
>
> Tell us more about it!
The primary phonological elements which I've been examining is the
matter that lizards don't have flexible lips (at least I don't think
they do). So most of our labials are eliminated. I've also introduced a
fricative (?) which is halfway between "s" (as in "sew") and "sh" (as in
"sheet"). I've been checking that *I* can both produce and reliably
distinguish this sound, and I think I've got it down sufficiently to
include it.

The sentient lizards who spoke this tongue existed on the same world as
the humans who speak my Old Southern and Desert Tongue. But the lizards
were an ancient race, and are assumed to be long vanished by the
"current" time of that world. When I was running the campaign which
generated all of this, one of the later adventures I constructed was set
in an isolated structure originally constructed by the lizard folk. I
had reason then to begin creating some of the language which was heard
(due to residual magical effects) by the characters. I had to be able to
pronounce it well and easily, having to deliver a speech in open game
session!

Around the time that I began pondering this language I also had heard a
bit about Laadan. So I borrowed the idea of morphemes which inform how
the speaker knows what they are speaking of. This includes ideas like
"know from personal experience", "know from a trusted source", "know
from a dream", "know from logical deduction", "heard from rumor, so it
is suspect", etc. etc.

It will probably be a good while before the Lizard Tongue makes it to my
web page. I need to generate the material before I can put it into HTML.

>
> --
> "Public media should not contain explicit or implied descriptions of sex
> acts.  Our society should be purged of the perverts who provide the
> media with pornographic material while pretending it has some redeeming
> social value under the public's 'right to know.'" - Kenneth Star, 1987
> ICQ: 18656696
> AOL IM: Nik Tailor
Just FYI, I saw something about this quote on another email list I'm on.
Someone else was using it, and attributing it specifically to a supposed
interview between Barbara Walker (like for "60 Minutes") and Ken Starr.
Someone else indicated that "60 Minutes" has publically quashed this by
saying that Starr has never been interviewed on their show. So as much
as I *love* the irony in the quote, I'd also like to find an um, ...
unimpeachable ... source for the quotation.

Laurie
---
Laurie Gerholz
milo@winternet.com
http://www.winternet.com/~milo