Re: "Conlang" and "Artlang" in German (was ... in Swedish)

Hallo!

On Tue, 20 Jan 2009 22:11:59 +0100, Carsten Becker wrote:

> Benct Philip Jonsson schrieb:
> > On 2009-01-20 Jörg Rhiemeier wrote:
> >> 'to fiddle about with conlangs without ever
> >> achieving a satisfactory result'
> >
> > Isn't that what most conlangers usually do?
> > Tolkien certainly did, and I do: ever fiddling,
> > never satisfied -- not for long anyway!
>
> No, I think what Jörg and Philip meant is that the _-eln_ suffix adds a
> rather derogatory connotation here.  And I share their rejection of the
> term. It sounds like dilettantism.
Indeed, that's what I meant.  The verbs _basteln_ and _werkeln_
certainly do have connotations of work that is less than professional
in quality.  (However, conlanging is unusual in that amateur often
come up with better conlangs than those found in professional media
products, but then I doubt that there are any professional conlangers.)

> I think someone at the Kunstsprachen list suggested to use 'kuspern' as
> an equivalent to 'to conlang'.
Yes, I remember that word.  It is horrible - sounds like _knuspern_,
and is completely intransparent to people who don't know what it
means.

>       However I'd be more inclined to use a
> more common phrasing there instead of a neologism, so I'd rather say
> "Sprachen erfinden", or when you want to say 'I have been conlanging'
> you could say "Ich habe an meiner (Kunst-)Sprache gearbeitet".
Which is exactly what I use, too.

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