Re: probably a bloody obvious question...

On Sun, 20 Aug 2000, Padraic Brown wrote:

> On Sat, 19 Aug 2000, Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
>
> >(Sorry I seem to be spamming the list.  Please, please feel free to tell
> >me to shut up.  In my experience it takes over a month before one gets a
> >feel for the dynamics of a particular mailing list....)
>
> On the contrary! I have enjoyed reading what the writers have
> had to say. Perhaps, if any of them wish to pepper their writing
> with conlangs, I am sure they'd be welcome to visit us!
One woman wanted to know how to subscribe, so I hunted down the info for
her.  :-)

And OC now that I know more about conlanging, it'll show up in my writing.

> >When y'all design languages, do you have a checklist or template you work
> >from?  I'm using the Language Construction Kit and Pablo Flores' pages
> >for now--I find them an easy-to-use starting point due to my lack of
> >experience.
>
> Absolutely!
>
> ( ) Location/Culture
> ( ) Language Type/Relationships
> ( ) Grammar
> ( ) Lexicon/Texts
> ( ) Phonology
>
> :D Sorry that's probably not the kind of checklist you're
> looking for! Even so, the first two items are the first
> steps I use when working on a new language. The rest kind
> of falls in place.
Hey, anything's good.  Culture/location is almost automatic, since any
conlang I make is going to be intimately tied to a story, and
culture-building *is* something I take time with.

> >But someday I'd like to make sort of a reader/learning grammar for
> >Chevraqis, once I have more of the syntax hammered out (I'm evolving
>
> Buy _any_ one of the Teach Yourself series. I don't really like
> them for the precise reason that they _aren't_ set up like a
> reference grammar; but for teaching a language, I think you'll
> like the setup. Just copy their template! They have exercises,
> vocabulary sections, grammar sections, cultural sections, etc.
<nod>  Thanks.  The teaching books I like best are the ones that start
out like that, and have a reference grammar in the back once you're more
familiar with the language.

> >I'm looking at my own natlang grammars, and the one I like best is
> >_Living German_ by R.W Buckley, copyright 1965 and probably very out of
> >print.  The organization makes beautiful sense--it made transition into
> >an actual college intro German class absolutely trivial.  But I think
> >this also depends on the two languages (to-be-learned and learner's)
> >you're working with.  Another I liked is C.J. Cherryh's intro to Latin
>
> Quid est hoc?
Where is it?  (Apologies--I lost my printouts of that intro...and it's
not yet complete, is my understanding.)
>
> >Has this been discussed before?  Is there a website on
> >teaching-grammar-construction that I missed?  A FAQ I can look at?
>
> Not very in depth; though we _have_ done two or three rounds
> of phrasebook type exercises on Conlang.
I'll keep an eye out, then.  Thanks!

YHL