Re: Delurking...

>>Hi all! I've been on-and-off-lurking for a while now, but I guess I
should eventually start participating, too. Maybe now's the time...<<

Welcome! I've been here awhile, but I haven't been participating much
either, so I guess I've sort of been lurking, too (though some of the
people who have been on the list awhile might vaguely remember me :P)

>>I'm a 20-year-old chemistry student from Finland. <snip> <<
Chemistry, eh? That's fun. I like chemistry, though not enough to major in
it. (I'm an anthropology major.)

>>As for my conlang(s)? I believe I come from a background different from
many of you; I have no linguistic background at all (everything I know
I've
learned online), nor concultures or other works of fiction to go
alongside.<<

I'm the same way, though my career path will take me to at least some
knowledge of linguistics.

>>So. You all have probably created various "secret alphabets" as kids?
You
know, thinking up replacement symbols for the Latin letters and
punctuation (and using them to write secret messages.) I've in the past
created lots of
them, too. Then, back in 9th grade, I created one which was not just an
one-to-one replacement. I threw away a bunch of redundant or unwanted
letters (eg. b c x) and put in some I deemed more useful (eg. /D N S/). It
kind of took off from there... I added more "weird" sounds, my own variety
of redundant letters (eg. pl, kw, oa, ie) and the like. Eventually I
started to clean the system up a little, and like I said, about a year
ago, I though that I might as well make a language to go with it.<<

I started pretty much the same way; I've made not only secret alphabets,
but numerous ciphers using the Roman alphabet. I eventually threw out
letters like c, q, and x... then using these letters for other purposes.
My first true conlang, though, wasn't necessarily inspired by this as much
as it was learning about the Korean writing system, Hangeul. I was
fascinated by the idea of stacking letters. Not that I was too successful
at doing so, but I tried doing the same. Now, though, my conlang writing
systems tend to resemble Japanese katakana/hiragana, mostly in function
(though sometimes in form). Anyways.... welcome to the list!

The Aquamarine Demon

"There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge." - Bertrand Russell


		
__________________________________
Discover Yahoo!
Have fun online with music videos, cool games, IM and more. Check it out!
http://discover.yahoo.com/online.html