Re: OT: What makes a good conlang? (was Re: Super OT: Re: CHAT: JRRT)

Jörg Rhiemeier wrote:

>Hallo!
>
>On Wed, 10 Mar 2004 00:37:52 -0000,
>And Rosta <a.rosta@...> wrote:
>
>
>
>>David P:
>>
>>
>>>Joerg wrote:
>>><<People who follow their intuition often create better and more
>>>realistic art than people who try to be exact.>>
>>>
>>>The only caveat I'd add to this is that, with visual art, for example,
>>>there's little chance of someone being influenced by anything other
>>>than their own intuitions if they choose to follow simply their own
>>>intuitions. In conlanging you run the risk of emulating your L1, or
>>>any other language you know.
>>>
>>>
>
>True.  My earliest conlangs were pretty much modelled after the Latin
>I had learned in school, though the morphology was more regular
>than that of Latin.
>
>
>
>>>     So I'd say it's important to draw a
>>>distinction between the instinct of what sounds right/makes sense,
>>>and what sounds right/makes sense *within* the framework of the
>>>language one's inventing.   After all, I think we've all probably
>>>seen examples (and, indeed, I've *been* an example) of someone doing
>>>something because they think it sounds/feels right, and what they do
>>>ends up emulating English, or some other known languages, almost exactly.
>>>
>>>
>>As words of advice to a novice conlanger that all makes sense, as
>>does Teoh's rejoinder that anti-L1ism can result in gratuitious
>>and grotesque ("frankenlang") exoticism (-- I remember the time when
>>98% of the artlangs on this list were ergative...).
>>
>>
>
>Yes.  The wave of ergative artlangs in the 1990s is reminiscent
>of the frequent appearance of dirigibles in alternative-history
>stories.  People tried to be different from what they were used to,
>and ergativity was an obvious option.  A few conlangers pioneered it,
>and then everybody jumped onto the train, before people got bored
>with ergative languages, and started making active and trigger
>languages.
>
>
>
Kalon is a freaklang, but I like to think it's an original freaklang.

Essentially, everything is inflected on, or with, nouns.  Everything -
tense, aspect, voice, mood, case(two kinds), and gender.  Not number though.