Re: ,Language' in language name?

Am 09.12.01, Irina Rempt yscrifef:

> On Wednesday 28 November 2001 22:53, Padraic Brown wrote:
>
> > Possibly. We're talking about "external labels" we apply to our
> > conlangs / concultures. To me, at least, that name isn't as potent
> > or "real" as the Name given by the conpeople themselves. I suspect
> > Irina was pleased as punch to find out _at last_ what Valdyans call
> > their own language.
>
> Yes! Even though it's just the very boring "the languages".
:)

No loss there! It's the discovery and the knowing that are important!

> > This viewpoint
> > is derived from my philosophy of conlanging: that of discovery, not
> > creation.
>
> What came first, the philosophy or the realization that this was the
> way it worked for you? For me it was the latter.
Actually, neither. It's just how I've always done it; whether the
language or the culture comes first doesn't seem to matter. Mind you,
it certainly _is_ how it works for me!; though I never consciously sat
down to think about it.

I've tried once or twice to actually "create" a language. The attempts
always fail after an hour or two of staring at blank paper! Kerno and
Tallarian essentially happened overnight, because I let them happen
the way they'd work for me. They were full blown languages right from
the start - even if I couldn't see them clearly - and simply had to be
written down. Nothing could be easier!

The philosophy came some time after joining this list, realising that
there are other, if strange (and disconcerting), ways of doing it! I
found here people that craft whole worlds and languages, speaking the
command that imposes shape and form on chaotic matter and sound;
people that set up experimental snippets just to see how a piece of
grammar works, the way a scientist might create a miniecosystem just
to observe; people that are driven by the need to make, but not
maintain; people who love grammar but despise phonology; people who
can never get past tinkering with how the language should sound;
people that can't conceive of a language shorn of its culture, and
those who can do without the culture all together; and those like me
who open the inner Eye and realise "ah, so that's the way it is!"

> > I can't just sit down and say "these people I shall call
> > 'Dacridations'" on a whim. I have to visualise them, look around,
> > explore and ask them what they call themselves.
>
> Absolutely right.
:)

Yes. I would feel I've let down, or in some way stomped all over the
people of the conculture in question. After all, they made it up! I'm
just the interested visitor.

>    Irina
Padraic.
--
Bethes gwaz vaz ha leal.

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