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

Hi,

First off, Sally -- could you please elaborate on what you
mean by saying "original" again? All languages differ from
one another. Is that what makes them unique? The way of
expressing things? Do you mean the different attitudes of
the speakers of a language and how they express them in
language, or even, how viewpoints change with the use of
different languages, among these our conlangs? I don't
understand how else messages from different languages can be
more "original" than others. Sure, there are shades of
meaning lost in translation. But still I don't fully
understand what you mean by the "originality of a message".
I guess I cannot contribute anything new with Ayeri, at
least not yet. Hrm, sometimes I wonder whether I'm thinking
just too analytical, whether I'm too young or too stupid to
understand (read: have no feeling for) philosophical musings
...

From: "David J. Peterson" <dedalvs@...>
Sent: Sunday, July 02, 2006 10:29 PM

> So just because it doesn't come up on conlang doesn't mean
> that conlangers aren't doing it--it just means they're not
> talking about it...on conlang.  ;)
There was a thread called "What do you write in your
conlang?" on the ZBB recently. Well, the only things I have
written in Ayeri so far are translations of the "typical"
translation exercises as well as of some poems and songs I
like. The translations were made from English, German or
French. I also have some very private journal entries in
Ayeri. The problem here is that I'm not fluent in Ayeri, so
I tend to think of a sentence in German first and then
translate it into Ayeri with the help of my dictionary. I
guess that way, the things coming out are neither more nor
less "original" than the original German sentence (no pun
intended). However, a year ago I wrote up a beginning of an
adventure story out of the blue and since then I can't get
it out of my mind. I just feel I *have* to do something with
it, and I have also formed a fuzzy idea in my head how it
could go on, but realizing this idea would involve much more
work than I have time for at the moment and also more
writing skills than I think I have -- I am not sure whether
I'm a good writer regarding creative writing. My German and
English teacher have said my writing skills *were* good
considering that I get 12 or 13 out of 15 points on style
usually. But due to school I'm used to analytic essays and
not to creative writing. However, if I will ever work on
with that beginning, I certianly want to include bits of
Ayeri language and culture, but the problem is that I lack a
cultural background for the language, since I haven't cared
yet too much about that. I am not very creative regarding
culture, compared to the descriptions of cultures and
cultural aspects, including stories and myths, written by
fellow conlangers. However, I would naturally start off
writing in German, and not in Ayeri, since my command of
Ayeri is not very good. But then, writing in Ayeri, I would
have free choice over words, since the dictionary with its
1200-odd entries is not very big yet and leaves much, very
much space -- of which I'm afraid for some reason.*

Carsten

*) Sartre proves right again and again by saying that humans
are afraid to have absolute freedom of choice ... and, I
have a problem with my self-confidence ...

--
"Miranayam kepauarà naranoaris." (Kalvin nay Hobbes)
Pinena, Rayam 14, 2315 ya 00:42:36 pd

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