Re: your conlang, please? (Rich Aunt gets hold of the Lunatic Survey)

Sally,

To answer your questions,

>11) what your conlang is called,
My conlang is called Yibrisitoj.  When I first introduced it to this
list, I spelled that _Yiblisitoj_.  It is based on the English word
_implicit_.

>12) what are its unique features, and
Yibrisitoj is language turned inside out.  It makes implicit what other
languages make explicit, and it makes explicit what other languages make
implicit.  It has words to make distinctions that few, if any, other
languages do.  It lacks words to make distinctions that most languages
do.

Here's an example of what I mean by making explicit what is normally
implicit:

In English the word _or_ can be ambiguous.  Consider the question, "Are
you going to heaven or hell?"  The humorous answer is, "Yes, it's
definitely one or the other."

In Yibrisitoj this couldn't happen because there are two words for _or_.
One is used in declarations and yes-or-no questions, and the other is
used in questions that ask, "Which?"

Kovid vav karev det barakev?
Eat   you dog   or  cow?
Did you eat the dog or the cow?  (The speaker is expecting a yes-or-no
answer.)

Kovid vav karev ket barakev?
Eat   you dog   or  cow?
Did you eat the dog or the cow?
Which did you eat--the dog or the cow?

Here's an example of what I mean by making distinctions that other
languages don't:

The word _kinoj_ means the front part of the knee, the part we normally
think of as the knee, while _jiroj_ means the back part, the soft part
that is opposite of the knee cap.

However, Yibrisitoj lacks a usual distinction--_kinoj_ and _jiroj_ not
only refer to the knee but also to the elbow.  To specify whether you
mean the knee or the elbow, you must say "the _kinoj_ of the arm" or
"the _kinoj_ of the leg".  I was inspired by Spanish's lack of a word
for toe (you must say "finger of the foot"), and took this to the
extreme.

>                 13) whether you have a website.
Not yet.


>                 14) Also: Mikhail Bakhtin wrote (in _Problems of
>Dostoevsky's Poetics_):
[Snip.]

Right now I wouldn't want anyone else to speak Yibrisitoj.  I'm still
doing a lot of revising.  However, once I fix the grammar and get a
vocabulary of a few hundred words, I hope to find at least a person or
two who would like to try to learn it.  But I'm prepared to just amuse
myself with it, since conlangers are rarely so lucky.

>        What would happen if someone got hold of your conlang and
>        vast numbers began using it and speaking it and changing it?
>        Remember the "No Rich Aunt" scenario?  What if she made you
>        a village?
>
I would be delighted!  However, I hope that if that happens (big _if_),
people will preserve the original language so that they can see where it
has come from.  Also, since my language is experimental, it would be
interesting to start all over again, and see what direction it takes the
next time.

I have already provided some amount of variation in my language to
compensate for the difficulty and inflexibility of other features.  For
example, some passive sentences can be formed in two ways.  Features
like this will make the language easier to speak and perhaps even easier
to understand (both methods "make sense", because they are each a part
of a larger pattern), but if a large number of people began speaking it,
I suspect they would gravitate towards one form or the other.  That's
fine with me.

Pharamond
toj faramon tet

--

"Oh, that's the name of the song, is it?" Alice said, trying to feel
interested.

"No, you don't understand," the Knight said, looking a little vexed.
"That's what the name is _called_.  The name really _is_ _'The Aged Aged
Man.'_"

(from _Through the Looking Glass_ by Lewis Carroll)

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