Conlang Books - ASP & CL101

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?
* Technology
 o how to create a rich sign language, and overcome various related
challenges (eg transcription)
 o how to create a language for particular psychological effect
 o more thorough treatment of semantic primes
 o more thorough treatment of diachronic conlinguistics & language families
* Artistry
 o acheiving a coherent, well-rounded aesthetic
* Creativity
 o places in which the mold can be (and has been) broken - review of
innovative languages
 o different ways in which you can make a conlang – eg alone, as a
small group, a large group, a wiki, a pidgin-by-vote, ...

Essays can be written either by one author (plus editorial and
research assistance) or multiple; it's up to you. If this sounds
interesting, email me for an invite.


The other book - on teaching constructive linguistics - needs authors,
auxlangers and engelangers. (Its title is currently "Language
Creation: From conception to fruition", formerly "Constructive
Linguistics 101", or CL101 for short.)

Again, chapters can either be done by one person (if you want to) or
as a collaboration. We have most of the core documents in place:
http://saizai.backpackit.com/pub/777712. It's ready to start work in
earnest. The docs there - mainly the overview & style guide - should
give you a very good idea of what we're looking to do and how.

And again - if you want to join up to help, just let me know.


Finally, both books need editors / researchers and artists (for
symbols, cover art, etc). We have three editors and one artist at this
point, but more would be helpful especially as it ramps up.

While this isn't a wiki - we are aiming for a serious, coherent book
worthy of publication, rather than a loose collection of informal
articles - collaborative authorship still allows most of you to join
in the fun without necessarily having to shoulder a large burden. If
anything, we can wiki-write some chapters and then have a single
author (+ editors) go through it and turn it into something more
coherent, single-voiced, and authoritative; it is always easier to
start when there is a good skeleton (or a meaty one) in place already.
:-)


Thanks,

 Sai

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