Re: What is it we are saying in our languages?

Hallo!

On Sun, 2 Jul 2006 16:09:41 -0400, Sally Caves wrote:

> This is a philosophical question of a different order... and may have
> already been raised. The thread on tinkering versus creativity has given me
> a lot of thought, and what I want to pose in this thread is the extent to
> which we focus on *language* as creative or *message* that is creative.  Or
> both.  In other words, what are we saying that is unique in our languages,
> and how do our languages help us *say* something that the world can hear--
> or deem unique?
A language reflects a worldview.  As several others who responded in this
thread, I'd say that conlanging is a personal philosophical matter:
the creation of a language that could express the way I see the world
and appeals to my personal sense of linguistic aesthetics.  I am trying
to build a language that is, in its own terms, _vern_, i.e. "true" and
beautiful.

The culture of the Elbi, the speakers of Old Albic, is largely based on
my personal feelings about the world and the meaning of life, and the
language will reflect that.  (I say 'WILL reflect that' because it is
still quite far from completion, and it is especially the vocabulary
- the grammar is already quite advanced - that still requires lots of
work.)  There will be many words for concepts particular to this worldview
that cannot easily be translated into English.  On of these words is
_phanara_, whose closest English equivalents are the German loanword
'gestalt' and the rather technical-sounding 'morphic field'.  A _phanara_
is a form-giving entity that exists in resonance with other entities of
its kind, and ultimately, the whole universe is a vast hierarchy of
_phaneri_ within _phaneri_.  (There are more such concepts, such as
"the Purpose", for which, however, I haven't fixed the Old Albic words
yet.)

Interestingly, this "personalized philosophy" purpose of Albic gradually
crystallized during the process of creating it.  I didn't really start
by saying "Well, I'll invent a language to express my personal
worldview".  It all began with a Tolkien fan-fiction story about
Tolkienian Elves in the modern world which I found in the Web.
I started to wonder, "What kind of language would such Elves speak?",
and created a modern-day offshot of Sindarin.  Some of you may still
remember it; it was named Nur-ellen.  Now I was strongly attracted to
Tolkien's Elves who felt so beautiful and truthful to me; I began to
project my own worldview into this fictional race, my version of which
by the same time became more and more independent from Tolkien's work
and evolved into the _Elbi_ or "British Elves" as I fancy them today.

... brought to you by the Weeping Elf