Experiences learning conlangs (was Re: Case system in

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> Jim Henry wrote:
>
> > While I was doing a lot of work in Thauliralau in late 1996, and
> > translated several texts into it, I got moderately fluent in it, in the
> > sense that toward the end I was able to write with infrequent
> > reference to my grammar & lexicon notes.  But after I started
> > working on Llegisia and {gzb} I lost most of that.
>
> That's more than I can say, surely!  What kinds of things did
> you do to go about learning your language?  Just constant working
> with it via translation projects like those we do so often here, or
> is there anything special that helped you?
Yes, I did three translation projects - the Babel text, Jabberwocky, and an
"untranslation" of the Thau' creation story which I'd earlier written in an
English version, plus a few proverbs. Also helpful was the relatively simple
isolating grammar.


> > The grammar is simpler than Esperanto in several respects
>
> So, do you mean that your language has an isolating grammar?
> That was my impression based on your website.
Yes. Most morphemes are an entire syllable, and don't undergo any significant
phonetic mutations by context. The postpositions however agglutinate from
one-phoneme morphemes similar to the Esperanto correlatives.

> > (though admittedly far less flexible)
>
> Well, just because a language doesn't have a complex morphology
> doesn't mean it can't be flexible, though it does depend on how
> complex you're willing to make the syntax.
Because I'm not using adjective agreement, or distinct endings for adjectives as
opposed to adverbs (they're identical, as in German and some dialects of
English) the word order is much less flexible than that of Esperanto. On the
other hand I have an open-ended set of "cases", something few languages can
claim. :)


>
> Looks like an interesting project.  Keep up the good work!
I've fixing to start concentrating on translating texts again for awhile. I should
finish "How the Enemy Came to Thlunrana" in the next month or so - after that,
the Babel text should be trivial.


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