Re: Conlang Books - ASP & CL101

I am very intrigued by your proposed conlang textbook.
I have been reading some of the comments on CONLANG,
Zompist, and the Conlang Wikibook. I might be
interested in writing the "Philosophy" essay depending
on deadlines, word counts, etc.

As for my experience with conlanging:
> I've written two articles so far about conlanging
for "mainstream" journals: one in the official journal
of the (British) Institute of Linguists (not available
online, unfortunately. The website
http://www.iol.org.uk/linguistmagazine/current.asp has
it mentioned, "Playing God."); the other in Library
Journal (Sept. 15, '06), "Speaking in Tongues:
Literary Languages" at
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6370256.html
Another article is pending for the journal VOYA, a
library journal targetted at youth services
librarians. These have all addressed the why's and
how's and a short history of conlanging (from St.
Hildegarde to the present).

> I've presented my "Imaginary Languages in Literature
& Movies (and How To Create Your Own)" program three
times now. Each time, the audience has enjoyed it and
everyone has created at least one complete grammatical
sentence in "their own language." Handouts used for
this are available for your inspection at
http://www.geocities.com/donaldboozer/
If you're suggesting a sort of "Conlanging 101" for
the book, I would call my 90 minute workshops
"Conlanging Kindergarten."

> My current conlanging projects, Umod and Elasin, are
also at the geocities address. They are still VERY
rough, first draft (i.e., in flux) languages. Be
gentle.

I have imagined myself as a sort of "conlang
evangelist" (much like the "technology evangelists" of
the corporate world) spreading the good news of
conlanging to the masses. Everyone I tell about the
craft/hobby/obsession is intrigued. I may not be
building new conlangers, but spreading awareness of it
is a good first step. I believe your book would be a
way to reach a wider audience and would like to know
how I might help.


--- Sai Emrys <sai@...> wrote:

> Hello again everyone.
>
> I'd like to tell you all that the conlang books
> project has gotten off
> to a good start.
>
> The essays book, named "Art, Science, & Philosophy
> of Language
> Creation" for now (ASP) needs authors.
>
> The target audience is people who have some
> knowledge of linguistics
> (at the level of the Constructive Linguistics 101
> book), and some idea
> of what language creation is about. There will be an
> introductory
> essay to bootstrap others, e.g. linguists,
> novelists,
> philosophy-of-language people, etc.
>
> The idea is to have a coherent but diverse
> compilation book of essays
> (each are one chapter), all of which get to the same
> major point.
>
> Some suggestions for essays are below. You are of
> course welcome to
> add your own suggestions.
>
> * Philosophy
>  o a short history of conlanging, ancient and modern
>  o how conlanging can change your outlook on life,
> language, etc; why
> do it? what's the drive?
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