Re: Uber newbie-conlanger conlang

How kludgy do you want it to be?  I mean, I can go back as far as my
pubescent days, with absolutely NO knowledge of linguistics.  Is the kludgy
conlang by someone who's had a taste of other conlangs?  Or is he a conlang
VIRGIN?  Here are a few mistakes I made at eleven, peppered with naivetes
I've seen in some of the nineteenth-century conlangs I've been studying:

1)  Make it a TOTAL calque of English.  Or French.  Or whatever your native
language is.  Even the homonyms match:

    Can  I      put  this  in the can?
    Sens eep tupa eda do ra  sens?

 2)  Having been exposed to Spanish, however, or French, on an elementary
 basis, make a few adjustments in syntax.  Have the kludgy conlanger be
 impressed by a new word order:

      Not can    I    put   this  in the can.
     Poni sens eep tupa eda do ra sens.

 3)  Have the kludgy conlanger invent words that are phonically similar to
 words in his native language, borrowing shamelessly from function words in
 Spanish and French:

      Go I     to the field  of  poppies?
      Ag eep a  ra   fleea de  paparon?

 (Poppies are good, since they're the state flower of California, which may
 or may not have survived the Apocalypse.)

 4)  Having been exposed to Spanish and French (and perhaps German), and
 impressed by the diacritical marks, add a little orthographic flair to the
 conlang:

     Go I to the field of poppies?
     Ach íp â r'Flia de Päp'ron?

 5)  Decide that every "s" sound is going to be expressed by |x|, and every
 "p" is going to be expressed by |ph| to lend more "exoticism."

       Not    can  I   put   this   in the poppy.
       Phon' xenx íp tûpha èda do rá Phäpro.

 6)  Having suddenly discovered CASES, make about twenty of them to cover
 every preposition you can think of:    with the poppy, to the poppy, by the
 poppy, on the poppy, in the poppy, over the poppy, away from the poppy, of
 the poppy, alongside the poppy, under the poppy, after the poppy, before
the
 poppy, behind the poppy, into the poppy, out of the poppy, during the
poppy,
 without the poppy, etc. and attach them as suffixes.

 7)  Having picked up a book like Comrie's, decide that you're going to make
 it ergative, and that you're going to get rid of the verb at the same time.
 :)  This will take some planning, so it's a clean erase, and back to the
 blackboard.

 Is this kludgy enough? ;)


 ----- Original Message -----
 From: "Sai Emrys" <saizai@...>
 To: <CONLANG@...>
 Sent: Tuesday, March 15, 2005 4:36 AM
 Subject: Uber newbie-conlanger conlang


> One of the people in my class is doing a conlang that, in the
> conculture, is meant to be a somewhat kludgy conlang.
>
> If you think of this a bit, what this means is essentially one of the
> goals is to be as much like a newbie's conlanger as possible... but
> more so. Almost, one could say, a parody thereof?
>
> So: Advice? What would you want to do to not grow out of, but *build
> upon* all those newbie's mistakes you've made?
>
> (This is presumably somewhat different than merely the opposite of the
> "naturalism" goal, though that's a good starting point.)
>
> FWIW, the setting is post-apocalyptic California.
>
> - Sai
>

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