IIs conlang a generator of conlanging

> >This brings up another very rich question (I said this would be my last,
> >but oops I lied)... and that is: are almost all of us conlangers because
> >we caught the virus independently, or are there a growing number of
> >conlangers who have been inspired to create because they joined the list?
> >Now this would add fuel to my idea that an electronic network has not only
> >made an excellent forum for us, but is actually generating a new hobby.
>
> >My other question:  how much was Tolkien an influence on your decision to
> >invent a language?  I'm made curious by your story, Christophe, since it
> >mirrors my own (Spanish being the instigation).  I only learned about
> >Tolkien's books years after I had begun writing down early T.  and
> >starting a grammar.  This was my reaction:  stunned disbelief, joy, and
> >sullen resentment.  How could he do this to me?  How could he not only
> >create a language that was far more complex and beautiful than mine, but
> >also publish it and become famous?  With a gorgeous script to boot? I was
> >fourteen. Tolkien then sustained me and determined me, but he didn't give
> >me the idea.  Other folks have the same experience?  Sorry if I'm
> >generating just another FAQ.
As a kid in grammar school I had always made my own alphabets. I also
did sound substitution codes with my friends.

When in sixth grade, my first spanish teacher gave us an assignment to
create our own language. She divided us into groups,and told us we
needed to make a unique grammar, vocabulary,and then write a passage in
the language we had come up with. I thought this was really cool! This
was 26 years ago.

I had only heard the slightest whispers about Esperanto and I didn't
realize ,at the time, that Tolkien had written anything more than "the
Hobbit" A book I never have read.

I was not a good student and didn't complete that assignment. But that
was the point I caught the Conlanging bug. I've always been fascinated
by languages have studied Spanish
A little french, Irish pretty well, Russian,and glanced at quite a few
others. I'm not fluent in any of them, but I'm best in Irish.

-Duke