Re: Presenting a language?

Patrick Dunn wrote:
>
> Woof!  A language in ten minutes.
>
> As a teacher, I'd say throw up the assignment and I can give you clearer
> advice.  AFter all, if your teacher wants a *complete* description fo the
> project (unlikely, I'd guess, since he/she allowed you to do a language
> knowing that he/she would only provide ten minutes for the presentation)
> I'd advise different things than if your teacher wants a synopsis.
>
To clarify, this is for my "Independent Enrichment Study", where we are
allowed to do whatever we want provided we have something to show for it
at the end of the year. Part of our mark is for a presentation (three
marks out of thirty-five), and the project is worth a quarter of the
year in my Gifted Interdisciplinary Studies course. The rest of the
marks, for my project specifically, are based on a detailed outline of
the language, more a grammar reference guide than a textbook; and from
that, a few marks for the consistency and completeness of the grammar.
Some marks to prove that the languages works, I'm going to provide some
written examples and an explanation of them with my grammar outline.
Also some marks for some criteria that are only known by the creator of
the Independent Enrichment Study program, who is no longer at the
school. Most teachers give very high marks for these, because the
critera are unknown. The presentation is more to tell the other students
what I've been doing for the project rather than tell the teacher,
because he knows.

> In the latter case, which is most likely, I think, I'd recommend that you
> come in with a text translated into your language and explain it for those
> ten minutes, focusing only on those grammatical features used in the text.
> I'd also offer handouts (we teacher types love those things -- shows
> initiative!) of paradigms and grammatical notes.  If you've ever seen
> those study guides for a foreign language that are written on six fold-out
> sheets of paper, you'll have some idea what I'm talking about.  (BTW, I
> *love* those things and if I ever get rich I'm going to buy every damned
> one of them in existence!)
>
I was thinking of doing something like that. I'm going to explain what a
conlang is, why I did one, and then provide examples of the language and
how it works. I'm also going to talk to my German teacher, and ask her
how she'd present German to monolingual English speakers in 10 minutes.

> You simply won't have time to explain the finer points of phonology,
> grammar, or lexicon in ten minutes.  It could take me ten minutes to
> describe how *one* sound is made in one of my languages -- but then, I'm
> more discursive than most.
>
I might run into trouble with the velar fricatives, because some people
in the class won't know how to make them, but other than that I'm aware
that 10 minutes isn't enough to describe a language that's taken since
February to make.

> If, as in the former case, your teacher wants a complete description of
> the language in ten minutes, you need to schedule an appointment to talk
> to him or her and explain the impossibility of this.  Perhaps your teacher
> misunderstands the scope of the project.
>
I'm not sure he understands the full scope of the project, but I know
he's learned other languages in the past, so he should have some
appreciation for how much is involved in a language.

Thanks for the advice!

--
Robert