On Tuesday, November 9, 2004, at 10:51 , Caleb Hines wrote:
[snip]
> You might be a conlanger if...
>
> *You've learned the universals of lanugage so you can make a completely
> natural-sounding language.
Nope.
> *You also like to see just how many universals you can break in your
> _other_ language.
Nope.
> *You've just created a language with 46 cases, 152 tenses, and 28 vowels
> --
> no more ANADEW!
Ach!! - no way!
> *You correct people who call a "diaresis" an "umlat".
The same as I would correct a person who called an "umlaut" a "diaeresis".
They are not exactly the same feature!!
(So I better count that as a "yes")
> *You know the meaning of terms such as "velar" and "post-alveolar".
Yes.
> *You stick fingers in your mouth in front of a mirror to determine the
> exact way you pronounce /r/.
Nope.
> *You've memorized the ALT-0nnn combinations for the enitre Latin-1
> encoding
> (and use them frequently).
Nope.
> *You've considered listing your conlang on a job application form when
> asked if you speak foreign languages.
Never.
> *You've memorized IPA, SAMPA, X-SAMPA, and CXS.
Nope.
> */ju k&n izIli rid DIs lajn Uv tEkst wITaUt Ini c@nfjuZ@n/
Started OK - but confused at the end - so I guess a no.
> *You lament the fact that the Latin alphabet has entirly too few vowels.
Nope.
> *You recieve garbage e-mail in the wrong encoding and create a new
> language
> for it.
Never.
> *You didn't realize at first that there was actually a story to accompany
> the languages in LOTR.
No - I knew about the story first.
> *You know that you could do a better job than Esperanto.
That surely should be in the "You are an auxlanger if....."
The sentence actually has no meaning as far as I am concerned.
> *You toss out your old English Grammar textbooks because they don't
> mention
> middle-passive or labile verbs.
Nope.
> *You enjoy watching foreign films without subtitles to hear the sound of
> the language.
Nope - I like the subtitles, so I know what's going on AND I like trying
to match it as far as possible to the language (not always easy :)
> *You can tell the difference between palatal and velar nasals.
Yep - not exactly difficult, is it?
> *You insult (or worse) people who compare conlangs to pig-latin.
Nope.
> *You constantly want to reform English spelling.
Nope.
> *You think the Greek definite article is cool.
Nope - no more or less cooler than most other definite articles as far as
I can see.
> *You answer the phone in your conlang, just in case its a salesman.
Nope - I let the answerphone do the filtering :)
> *Your language has a larger vocabulary than Klingon.
Nope.
> *You've created your own font, and written a text-editor application to go
> with it.
Nope.
> *You think that CV syllables are _so_ boring.
Nope - I like 'em :)
> *You've memorized which obscure languages have the most/least phonemes,
> vowels, consonants, etc.
Nope.
> *You think that eight parts of speech is way too many. Just learn Lojban.
Nope.
> *You think that _any_ parts of speech are irrelevant -- AllNoun does just
> fine without them.
Nope - actually AllNoun does have _one_ :-)
Nor am I convinced that it actually does work in practice.
> *You prefer OSV word order and postpositions.
Nope.
> *You can't sleep at night because you're meditating on the Whorf-Sapir
> Hypothesis.
Nope - I simply don't believe it. it doesn't worry me anny more than
worrying about whether the earth is flat or not.
> *You sit around thinking up new phonologies and grammars.
Occasionally.
> *You get tired of sitting around thinking up new vocabularies (but you do
> it anyway).
Nope.
> *You stall when friends ask what you enjoy doing with your free time.
Nope.
> *You enjoyed reading these jokes and want to write your own.
Sort of.....
Oh dear!! I make that:
No - 26
Yes - 3
Sort of - 2
Meaningless condition - 1
Guess I am not a conlanger :=(
==========================
On Wednesday, November 10, 2004, at 12:25 , Jonathyn Bet'nct wrote:
> I have another one:
>
> * You think the lateral fricative is the coolest sound in language.
_the_ lateral fricative? There are two of the critters; some languages,
such as Zulu and Xhosa, have them both (voiceless and voiced).
The voiceless one seems to cause most excitement on this list, probably
because it occurs in Welsh which is - wait for it - a *Celtic* language
:)
Anyway - this another 'No'. There are sounds I find much more interesting
(possibly because I am too familiar with /K/).
I am tempted to add:
* You think Celtic languages are the coolest ever.
But that gives me another 'No'. I would also BTW have given JRRT a 'No';
while he liked Welsh, he thought Irish & Scots Gaelic to be ugly & harsh
sounding languages.
============================================
I have read all the other "You might be a conlanger if........" conditions.
Most alas are still 'No' :=(
But I will add, because of my experience on this list :)
* You take a thread off topic as soon as possible.
* You attempt to turn every thread into a YAEPT.
But - sigh - again, these are both 'No'. I may go off topic, but I
actually try not too.
The one that made me laugh the most was:
On Wednesday, November 10, 2004, at 12:24 , H. S. Teoh wrote:
[snip]
> *You can talk about Tagalog grammar without actually knowing any
> Tagalog.
:-D
But 'tis another 'No' - tho I know what H. S. Teoh means ;)
The one that rang the truest was Sally's:
> You find people looking at you because you are mouthing a new set of
> syllables over and over again in the grocery store. "Cheese! Izeesh!
> Essehja. Echesee!"
Guilty of that one :)
That is a definite 'Yes'.
But as for:
> *You have to wait until after midnight to send this message because you're
> over your quota.
That is really sad. No, no.
Oh dear - am I really a conlanger?
It occurred me that an obvious one might be:
*You have constructed an artificial/model language.
But I guess that's just being just a wee bit to far :))))
Ray
===============================================
http://home.freeuk.com/ray.brown
ray.brown@freeuk.com
===============================================
Anything is possible in the fabulous Celtic twilight,
which is not so much a twilight of the gods
as of the reason." [JRRT, "English and Welsh" ]