Re: "Newbie"

 --- Marty Rosenberg skrzypszy:

> Hello, everyone. My nameis Marty Rosenberg, and I'm new to the list.
Welcome!

> I'm also what one mightcall a "newbie." I'm 15, and started conlanging (if,
> indeed, that is aword) about two years ago. I don't know if anyone else here
> was thatyoung when they started, so I'm not entirely sure what to expect,
> but I(usually) like surprises.
Well, I think most of us started conlanging at an age similar to yours. My own
first sketches were made in approximately the same period - although I should
admit that my first "real" conlang was started at the age of 26, more or less.
BTW There are plenty of people around here who are in their teens, so you are
definitely not alone.

And yes, "conlanging" is a word!

> First of all, I would just like to say that I've heard great thingsabout
> this list, and over the past few days, during which I have beenskimming
> through the digests, the conversation has seemed interesting.I've also heard
> that you all are very welcoming and helpful, and I dohope that this is true.
It is true indeed.

> Now that that's over with, on to my efforts - and I do mean "efforts", not
> "successes" - at conlanging. So far I've tried three things, eachone a
> failure, but teaching me a few things in that failure.
A failure which brings you closer to the truth is not a failure...

> (My friend, another amateur conlanger, who hasalso joined the list but has
> not introduced himself yet, thought itwould be too difficult to understand.)
As Nik correctly noted, every conlanger except for Marc Okrand is an amateur,
even J.R.R. Tolkien. That does not of course not necessarily mean that the same
person cannot be a professional linguist of some sort - although most members
of the list are amateurs in that field as well.

> Anyway... I look forward to meeting you all, and I look forward to
> anyassistance you may be able to provide in my conlanging efforts. And
> itwon't go to waste, as I plan to turn linguistics into a career path,
> ifpossible.
A beautiful discipline, to be sure. I wish you a lot of success, and I'm quite
sure the list will be helpful to you in many ways.

> P.S. And, yes, I already know not to get on a side of IALs here, and
> Idon't intend to anyway, as I know little to nothing about them exceptfor
> a few random words and bits of grammar in Esperanto.
Good!

* This is an approximation; I can't figure out how to properlyrepresent sounds
in SAMPA, [...]

You will learn that easily, as lost of stuff here are presented in SAMPA (or
rather in its extended version, X-SAMPA). Before I joined the list, two years
ago, I hadn't even known about it, but now I have no problem with it at all -
although I've never particularly liked it.

> First, I have difficulty coming up with words. I tried using roots
> andparticles to do so, but then I realized something else: I
> havedifficulty coming up with those too. Is there any system I should
> knowof that could help me along these lines?
Well, I believe many conlangers have problems with that. Personally, I enjoy
creating words, but that's a matter of taste. There are several ways to solve
them.
You might use a word generator, like Langmaker. Others probably give you more
details about it.
You might also consider creating an a posteriori conlang (a conlang that
derives most of its word stock from an existing language; a priori conlangs on
the other hand are made up from scratch). All my own conlangs are of that type:
Wenedyk is a Romance language with Slavic features; Hattic and Askaic come
straightly from Proto-Indo-European; and Vozgian from Common Slavic. If you
work that way, you wouldn't have to worry much about word creation - what you
need to do, however, is determining the mechanisms that make one proto-language
word develop into you conlang's word. That can be hard work, too.

> Also, in simple terms, what possible variants are there for conjugating
> verbs, [...]
I'm not sure if I understand your question.

> And add theimperative in there too, wherever that goes.
The imperative is usually treated as a mood. More difficult to place is the
irrealis, which has something in common with both mood and time period.

BTW, two things. Try to send messages as text-only, because HTML-ised messages
tend to get f*cked up. And secondly, when posting to the list you might switch
of the "reply-to" option; in that case replies to your postings are sent to the
list without changing the To-field manually.

Welcome again!

Jan

=====
"If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a closed
room with a mosquito."

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