Re: OT: Quick Intro

John Dollan wrote:
>Hello...
>
>I was referred to this list from another one, and am glad to join.
Welcome to the list! I hope you were warned that CONLANG is addictive?

>  My name
>is John, and I am currently working on various writing projects, all of
>which have the potential for several language creations.  I am mainly
>interested in getting the "basics" down just enough so as to be able to
>name
>various geographical features, and perhaps even have a few "native
>phrases".
>Primarily for use in my Leaves of Autumn setting, I plan to have three
>major
>race languages, and several different Human languages, all of which are
>spread out over several millennia.
Race languages? Does that means you're planning to have one Elvish language,
one Trollish one, one
Little-bluey-grey-cynoids-with-an-obsession-for-malt-whiskey one (or
whatever races you're including)?

Nothing "wrong" about that, of course, but, despite being common in RPG
worlds etc, a such situation is slightly odd; why are there multiple human
languages, but only one cynoid one? Explanations can, of course, be found -
the cynoids may be confined to a smaller geographical area than the humans,
say - but forgoing to make _the_ cynoid language in favour of making _a_
cynoid language frees one from having to provided them.

>I'm not sure how to start, so perhaps I will begin with a list of the gods
>in a "common tongue" (for all intents and purposes, English), and then have
>these names again listed in the first language that I am working on, that
>of
>the Äubrekka, a people which were originally going to be Dwarves, but which
>are now quite un-Dwarf-like in both form and, for the most part, habit.
I'm hoping they're not cynoid nor like malt whiskey ... :-)

>But, not knowing how things go here, I thought I would ask first!
I'm not sure exactly what you are asking _about_? Still, I hope you find
what I wrote above re "race" languages helpful, whether it causes you to
change anything or not.

>And, as a quick note, I am an English graduate (even though my e-mail
>writing can be pretty sloppy at times!), but I have studied very little
>linguistics, and so am essentially clueless as to how to actually create
>even a basic language.
I'm sure the links Daniel gave you 'll be helpful. Also, one can learn alot
of linguistics by simply following the discussions on this list - that's how
I've got much of my linguistics knowledge. Looking in you're local library
for a book or two on basic phonetics could help too.

>At any rate, I am glad to be here, and look forward to hearing from you
>folks!
And we're happy to have you here!

                                                     Andreas

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