Re: ,Language' in language name?

Padraic Brown froge sionk (?), scripsit (Swedish?), yscrifef (something
Celtic?), ak sekalge (Sturnan):
>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 make language whilst a culture rattles around in that misfiring hunk of
machinery I flatter by calling a brain. I don't really think about the
culture; it just...happens. For instance, I wrote a good bit of Sturnan,
and then I thought, "What sort of world would make a language like this?"
It was already there: Erdhom, the Marki Lago, Lenoria, Ifenia, the whole
bit. Another example is the Romantic Hindi I'm trying to make. It's not
enough to make the language; I have to ask myself, "How could Hindi so
heavily influence Latin to make this? Did a group of exiled Romans go to
India, or vice versa? Were they transported offworld sometime in the past
and mixed together, first making a pidgin, then forming a new language?
What happened?" Then it gets hazy and I don't know if I'm making or
discovering.

Anyway, I love grammar and enjoy phonology. The hard part is making all
the words. "How many until I'm done?" I ask myself. The cruel taskmaster
inside shouts with glee, "You'll never be done! Mu lahahahaha! Snurfle,
ha-ark, gah."

Today, I ran across a couple language sketches from the early days, my
third and fourth attempts (1 and 2 failed, then I got Mark Rosenfeller's
guide). I glanced at the grammar and thought, "Hey, I could make this
work. I could really do this!" Then I looked a bit further. Then I
visited the bathroom and trashed the sheets [of paper upon which the
language sketches were written] upon return.

Christopher Wright, the one who does not attribute quotes and whose
quotes are occasionally not attributed...we're all dancing on the same
melon.
The master of weregilds
The Orange Balloon Man

Reply