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Re: Conlanging techniques

From:Yoon Ha Lee <yl112@...>
Date:Wednesday, April 4, 2001, 2:42
On Tue, 3 Apr 2001, David Peterson wrote:

> All my projects usually start with some sort of orthography (which is, to > me, by FAR the most interesting part). After I come up with some sort of
<wry g> I've screwed myself up badly by doing orthography before phonology. I can only envy you.
> writing system, I attach sounds to the characters. Then I usually come up > with one word (usually a verb that's very simple, like "eat"), and I play > with it: Moods, conjugations, aspects, tenses, et cetera. After that, I come > up with a noun, and play with it as well. Then I come up with pronouns and > write a sentence. After that, I come up with some grammar to work with these > things. Then I get to classes of nouns and verbs and so forth, and come up > with a thing that looks like the "Overall Guide to" whatever language in a > language dictionary. Then comes the fun of creating words. Unlike what > appears to be most people on this list, I love creating words, and usually > create a lot. For instance, my first language (on the computer; my Mac--the > most superior machine out there, no matter what those eunuchs say!) has over > 100 pages of words--my dictionary.
A kindred spirit! (The fact that I also have a Mac is peripheral...I don't use Painter 6 deeply enough to use its superior? graphics capabilities but I got it freshman year because I liked what I heard about stability, and as a writer it is less important to me whether I can play the latest cool computer games--though I enjoy them--than whether the computer will *safely* and reliably hold my WP files for extended periods of time. But I'm hearing Windows platforms are more stable these days, so....) Words. I love working with words. Perhaps someday there should be a conlang exchange, where people "exchange" lexicon-creation for basic syntax-creation, or whatever they don't want to do that others like to do. I could happily sit there and devise words if I felt I had a good "feel" for what words ought to sound like, the aesthetic of the particular conlang. (Well, not now; but perhaps in the future, after I graduate this spring....) YHL