Re: Introduction (+ I need advice)

En réponse à Quentin Read <quonton79@...>:

> Hi, I'd like to introduce myself to this group. My
> name is Quentin Read and I am a junior in highschool.
Welcome Quentin!

> I have dabbled in conlangs since 8th grade.  The first
> one I came up with was Ysthol ("our language.")  It
> was a bunch of bizarre-sounding words held together by
> an extremely sketchy grammar.
Most of us (if not all!) began this way :))) . My first conlang was basically a
relex of Latin that I made because I was bored in Latin classes ;))) .

> I developed a language with all the roots randomly
> computer generated (has anyone else done that?) and am
> now working on 2 projects: SimIE, (Simplified
> Indo-European Language) and Ulm (a monosyllabic
> language).
Please share with us what you've done until now! Especially the Simplified
Indo-European Language is interesting. Is it a language based on
Proto-Indo-European, or a language which contains common features of all IE
languages? This monosyllabic language is intriguing too. I have a "Dragon
language" which I never really developped (it's mostly a naming language), but
which is also purely monosyllabic, and I'm wondering what you developped with it.

> So far I have translated the Our Father, the 23rd
> Psalm, the first part of Genesis, etc. into them.  I
> would like some advice about creating conlangs.
> So far I have madea basic vocabulary, the alphabet,
> the rules of grammar,and a few translations.  What
> should I do now?
Increase the vocabulary and make new translations (maybe not all based on the
Bible ;))) ). According to what you say, you already did more with your
languages that I usually do with mine, so in this case *you* should be the one
giving me advice ;)))) .

  I don't want this to fizzle out
> like my other ones.  I need some direction.  Also what
> are some basic, widely recognized texts I can
> translate besides biblical ones?
The North Wind and the Sun is a common one. We also have smaller sentences, like
"Fight Language Extinction: Invent a Language!". And of course, there are the
texts of the different conlang relays, which are also interesting to translate,
to confront your languages with other conlangs. The conlang relays are dispersed
on the web, but I'm sure someone around here maintains a list of the websites
containing conlang relays ;))) . I personally cannot look for them right now :(( .

  How much
> does one have to do before the conlang is considered
> complete?
What do you mean by "complete"? ;))) Only dead languages are "complete".
Conlangs are eternal works in progress, which are completed at the death of
their creator (unless they are taken over by some else, but that's rare :)) ).
But you can consider that you language is "usable" when the grammar is stable
and handles most cases (and describes the most common expressions) and the
lexicon is large enough that you don't need a new word for every sentence you
want to translate :)) . It's already a high goal though :)) .

  Finally, where can I get fonts for
> characters I need?  I would appreciate any advice.
It depends: what characters do you need? If you need IPA characters, Thryomanes
and/or SILDoulos IPA (which is normally already installed on your computer if
you have Windows) are the best around. For any other kind, just fish them out on
Internet :)) (Google is a great finder of things :)) ). There are quite a lot of
usable fonts around, but quite a few are non-free unfortunately :(( . Arial MS
Unicode is a must (a big must, but a must anyway ;)) ), but Microsoft put it out
of free circulation (Grr!!!). I have it though, if you're interested.

Anyway, welcome again Quentin. I hope you'll like it here! :)

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.

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