Re: how many conlangs do you know?

At 4:48 pm -0400 14/8/00, H. S. Teoh wrote:
>I'm just curious... how many conlangs do people know here on average,
>besides their own?
>
>I'm been looking over some conlangs and I find that it takes quite a while
>to learn a conlang. Maybe I'm just slow... but I wonder how familiar
>people are with conlangs that aren't their own.
I guess a well constructed conlang is going to be of similar difficulty to
learn well as a natlang.  And if it's not well constructed, it's probably
going to be darned difficult to learn.

It depends what sort of conlang one is considering.  If it's an intended
IAL then it may well be learnt by quite a lot of people, e.g. Esperanto.
Indeed, during my time I have learnt Esperanto, Novial and Speedwords (yes,
the latter was, inter alia, intended as an IAL and I learnt it from the
author himself).

Hopefully, to avoid the flames which seem, alas, almost inevitable when
conIALs get mentioned - I did *not* learn these because I thought they were
the best.  I learnt them just out of plain curiosity when I was a teenager.
If I had time, I'd like to learn such IAL curiosity as Volapük & SolReSol
properly   :)

As for artlangs, the Grey Wizard has pointed out some of the problems here.
I would one day like to get a better grip on Quenya & Sindarin, but this
may have to wait till I retire  ;)   But we have a common problem with
these languages - they were not presented in a complete form with grammar
and full lexicon; there are many lacunae & then, to use the language, one
has to fill the gaps with guesses, which IMO is not so satisfactory.

I haven't learnt any artlang basically for the reasons the Grey Wizard gave
in his email. But if I had to choose one to learn, it would be Tepa.

As for my own - yes, during my teens when I poured out language after
language, I did try to use most of them.  I have diaries with bits written
in such languages.  But none were ever completed and all have been mostly
forgotten nearly half a century later  :=(

If I ever get 'briefscript' finished and named, I will certainly learnt it
& use it    :)

Ray.

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A mind which thinks at its own expense
will always interfere with language.
                   [J.G. Hamann 1760]
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