Re: OT: Whatever

Dirk:I dont think your lack of interest in YA*PT's is despite your
phonological specialty, but because of it. Not only do you know this
stuff, but youve internalized in a way that the rest of us cant, even
though we may have read and may even own JCW's books.  To you, it's
like a thread popping up every few weeks with another
"newly-discovered" consequence of something trivial, like the earth's
rotation.  "Hey, you mean it's LATER in Rightpondia?  Cool!".
Followed a few weeks later by "Whoa, so, like, it's not dark there
right now?  What color would you say your sky is, exactly?"



On 12/21/07, Dirk Elzinga <dirk.elzinga@...> wrote:
> On Dec 21, 2007 1:47 PM, Gary Shannon <fiziwig@...> wrote:
>
> > --- "Mark J. Reed" <markjreed@...> wrote:
> >
> > <snip>
> > >
> > > although I enjoy seeing discussions of other interesting* conlangs, and
> > even
> > > > natlangs, provided it's not about phonetics and phonemes.
> > >
> > >
> > > Gary Shannon?  Is that you?
> > >
> >
> > Nope, not me. True, I'm not particularly interested in phonetics as it
> > relates
> > to conlanging for the simple reason that every language has dialects and
> > accents, so describing the *precise* pronunciation of a conlang seems
> > rather
> > pointless.
>
>
> Now, this is interesting, since it seems you are assuming that languages are
> constructed in order to be spoken. If this were always the case, you would
> be right; everyone imposes their own peculiar pronunciation habits on
> whatever language they are speaking and the narrow specification of
> pronunciation isn't likely to help a great deal (although general guidelines
> are useful).
>
> The languages I'm most interested in working on and reading about are not
> languages that I would ever want to learn to speak. They are fictions. I
> enjoy reading fiction, but not because I want to live in the worlds that are
> depicted. For me, the more fully an imagined world is depicted, the more
> satisfying the fiction. Likewise, a constructed language which narrowly
> specifies pronunciation and sound alternations is more satisfying to me than
> one which gives a perfunctory phoneme inventory and then moves on to "more
> interesting" matters. I am a phonologist by training and profession, and the
> phonology *is* the interesting part. (Of course, grammar is interesting as
> well.)
>
>
> > I do, however, enjoy reading discussions on YAEPT, since dialects
> > and accents are interesting in non-conlang contexts.
>
>
> Even though I am a phonologist, I find the YAEPT threads to be extremely
> tedious. I have a copy of Wells' _Accents of English_, and a handful of
> other reference works on English phonetics and phonology, so I don't really
> want or need more of it from this list. So I generally just move on when
> these threads come up. And yet I haven't felt a need to give up this list or
> to discontinue reading it. I may not post a lot anymore, but I do follow the
> discussion as much as I am able.
>
>
> > --gary
> >
>
> Dirk
>

--
Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>

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