Re: Ephphatha

 Well... I've never made a successful conlang in my own opinion, because
whenever I try I feel such deep dissatisfaction with the results that
invariably after a couple of weeks I decide its unsaveable and start
again. Having said that, I did go through a period when I learnt a
little latin and I think that was one of the things that started me
reading up on languages. I also have to confess to having a desire to
make a better International Language at the start too (I was 15/16...
the world seemed simpler then lol). The more I read about linguistics
though, the more I realized that the quest was a hopeless one, because
better is always relative, and what you find easy depends on the
language(s) you currently speak.
 I think the Lord of the Rings was also an inspiration. I used to write
stories in the same kind of genre (sci fi / fantasy) and the fact that
Tolkien did it encouraged me to try inventing a few languages to go with
my stories. They were never complete, mainly patched up just enough to
fulfill the limited needs of occasional foreign dialogue in the stories,
but they did have a proper grammar of their own instead of just being
english with all the words swapped for made up ones.
 *hums* As for what foreign languages I speak now... since I guess this
influences ideas that feel natural to you when conlanging... I mainly
speak Spanish and English, I've forgotten a lot of French (but if
pressed I can still manage to say common and simple things), and I've
learned bits and pieces of a lot of other languages. At the moment I'm
trying to learn Tagalog and Hungarian lol... I'm not sure why I stopped
learning Swahili, since I found it much easier than either of those two.
It really did seem amazingly simple and quite logical for the most part
(even if I did think the class system was a little bit excessive)...
maybe that's why I got bored. I'm having quite a lot of difficulty with
the Tagalog since it shares many (borrowed) words with Spanish, often
slightly corrupted, and speaking spanish as well I often find I want to
pronounce it the way the spanish do not the way the Pilipinos do (eg
ispada --> espaDa kalye --> kaye etc). I've only done a little of the
Hungarian, but its really interesting... I'm having a hard time getting
the long consonants right, and I suspect my accent is completely
atrocious, but never mind. I'm thinking of going to Hungary or Spain
this year since I haven't been abroad in years, but I haven't decided
which yet. :) Perhaps I'll go to la costa verde. :)
 I'll stop nattering now... guess I went a bit over the top answering
that question.

Chris.