Re: CHAT: Relays, Link 1

On Tue, Aug 21, 2001 at 09:08:41AM -0400, Bryan Maloney wrote:
> The thing to remember about the surprises one gets in this relay is that
> there really are two tasks going on:
>
> 1:  How clearly you are able to explain your conlang to someone who may
> have never seen it before--if it comes out of a step very differently than
> how it went into the step, don't necessarily blame the person doing that
> step.  Some of us are attempting to translate out of a language we have
> never seen before, dealing with transcriptions that are idiosyncratic, and
> are forced to go entirely upon the information given to us without any real
> context beyond what is supplied.  If that information is unclear, then the
> translation may be surprising.  What qualifies as "unclear" may not be
> self-evident to someone writing instructions.  As a biologist, I have to
[snip]

<g> I suppose I'm at fault with my less-than-clear descriptions of my
conlang :-P It was a hard decision to balance between conciseness and
completeness, though... Also, my conlang has a lot of idiosyncrasies that
I tried to at least mention, such as the meaning of non-verbal sentences.
Unfortunately, it would take way too long to describe such things in
detail, and leaving out too much may make the translation too obvious. Oh
well...

But I did notice that some plurals were translated as singular, which
gives a whole new twist to the passage :-P (Not to blame anyone; if I were
in your shoes I'd miss a lot more than you did :-P)

I guess one thing glaringly lacking in my descriptions was the fact that
most sentences are indicative, even though the (admittedly odd) case
constructions often seem like they should be otherwise. And honestly, it
didn't even occur to me that it may not be immediately obvious what
constitutes an indicative in my conlang and what doesn't :-P

But hey, it does make for a very interesting relay :-P I'm not sure what's
this stuff about magic eggs, but I'm sure I'll laugh myself silly when I
see how my little anecdote turned into that :-P  All in all, lots of fun
for everyone, I'm sure.

> 2:  How well the person knows his or her own conlang.
>
> These relays are not like Ss. Methodios and Cyril going to the Slavs for a
> decade and learning their language, then translating Greek into
> Slavonic.  It's more like a couple of Englishmen wandering around the Ohio
> valley asking random Indians "what's that thing called" and naming every
> other animal a variation of "which thing do you mean?"
Hehehehe... did I make you feel that way with my not-so-good descriptions?
:-P

>  They're still a
> great way to get experience with your conlang and with explaining your
> conlang.  Indeed, I encourage everybody who thinks that he or she is "not
> ready yet" to participate in the next one.  In comparison to many of the
> participants, I was certainly "not ready".  Vocabulary and grammar had to
> be invented as needed in some cases. Orthographical decisions (punctuation)
> had to be made.
Well, my conlang wasn't really "ready" either... I had the (unfair)
advantage of starting first, so I get to write only what my conlang can
handle :-P

>  I will say that having a fictional culture behind the
> conlang definitely helped.
Indeed. Almost 90% of the language decisions in my conlang were governed
by the conculture behind it.


T

--
The diminished 7th chord is the most flexible and fear-instilling chord. Use
it often, use it unsparingly, to subdue your listeners into submission!