Re: probably a bloody obvious question...

On Sat, Aug 19, 2000 at 09:28:59PM -0400, Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
[snip]
> 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
> postpositions from serial-verb constructions in Aragis, which is fun but
> exhausting), but I'm not sure what's a good way to organize it.  I've
> seen a number of conlang pages that have grammars, but not so many that
> have coherent learning guides with examples, exercises, maybe even
> pictures.  Perhaps I haven't looked hard enough?
[snip]

I'm actually developing my conlang by writing a learning guide to it! :-)
It's organized as a set of lesson-like pages, which progressively covers
more and more detail about the conlang. Right now, though, I'm stuck with
a few language issues that I have to work out before I go on... but I hope
to have a preliminary webpage for my conlang setup.

I might write a reference grammar later on, but I prefer the
learning-guide approach because I can often sprinkle concultural
descriptions in the prose without feeling that I'm cluttering the
reference grammar.

I don't know how you other conlangers go about the conlanging process, but
for me, writing a reference grammar directly isn't exactly the most
productive approach. Writing a learning guide often bring up minor issues
to be ironed out, that I would've missed if I were just writing a
reference grammar. Besides, I find reference grammars very boring and
tedious to read (including my own)... I much prefer using tutorial-type
material; even if I'm just using it for reference, I find it much more
approachable.


T