Re: conlangs and audience...

On Thu, 16 Mar 2000 18:22:25 -0800 Sally Caves <scaves@...>
writes:
> elaborate.  And those years in my teens where I spent every
> leisure hour working on my model "city."  It wasn't even three
> dimensional.
> It was all mapped out.  Maps and maps and maps.  Does anyone have
> any hobby
> comparable?  I wonder, now, if the map-making and the house plans
> have
> some cognitive/creative link with conlanging?  These aren't
> argumentative
> projects, nor are they even really visual.  Designing space ships...
>  I see
> a lot of people doing this.
> ============================================================
> SALLY CAVES
> scaves@frontiernet.net
.

My brother, who helped start (and then abandoned) my/our first conlang,
ool-Nuziiferoi, has a series of about 20-25 maps of a place i call
"Alan's World".  It is definitely tied in to conlanging - he even
invented the basic sketches of language for the names of places in his
maps.
For instance:

The language of the (low-tech) country of Iq uses _-i_ as an adjective
suffix.  Iq is bounded on the ocean by a large bay called Port Iqi.

In the language of Kexomlure, the ending [ur] means a country/land, and
[@n] means a body of water 'belonging' to that land.  The river that runs
through Kexomlure is called Kexomluren.  One of the colonies of Kexomlure
on the Southern Continent is called Zexomjour.  Next to it is another
country, Zexomjouren - which revolted from the totalitarian Zexomjour
government and seceded.  Why the _-en_?  Because it's in a
Netherlands-like lowland area, which would be flooded if they didn't have
seawalls.

There are four countries that make up the Sihil Square.  Probably once
one nation, they split up according to the compass directions:
Drishtasihil = east Sihil
Findayourishihil = west Sihil
Nimyajaiasihil = south Sihil
Saiyasihil = north Sihil

There are also countries/places near eachother with similar names:
Latatu-Dinan and Latatu-Sidan
Kasana and Kasana-D'Cotto
Xatian Sea and Exatia
Yahil and Tanhil
Shorea Channel and Shoriakalea
Saian and Saian-Liqua
Inshin Ocean and Inshiñola

(all diacritics besides eñes dropped)

Also, part of the sparse conhistory of Alan's World reached its way into
Rokbeigalmki.  The explorer Kaylauk, who "discovered" the Southern
Continent for the people of the Northern Continent, had
children/followers who founded the mountainous country of Kaylautia.
_keilauk_ in Rokbeigalmki means "explore".


-Stephen (Steg)
 "...and still the nights in Canaan are beautiful before the sun
rises..."  ~  _hora_