Re: Average life of a conlang

Jörg Rhiemeier wrote:
> Hallo!
>
> On Thu, 28 Aug 2008 16:46:59 +0100, R A Brown wrote:
>
>> Jörg Rhiemeier wrote:
>>> Hallo!
>>>
>> [snip]
>>> On Thu, 28 Aug 2008 08:38:22 +0100, R A Brown wrote:
[snip]
>> Help? Could I then suffer the same fate as Jespersen? Memories of
>> the Novial-wars come back when competing camps (at least 4 IIRC)
>> were flaming each other, and at least one them claiming to know the
>> mind of Jespersen himself! (It was during this internecine flaming
>> I decided it was time to quit Auxland).
>
> I sincerely hope that this sort of thing won't befoul you and your
> language.  Novial is not the only case of that.  Look at places like
> TolkLang or Elfling, and you see the same.  Quibbles about
> reconstructions of unattested Quenya and Sindarin words all the time,
> with many scholars taking the position that such reconstructions are
> overall illegitimate.
Groan - I forgot that one. I cannot imagine that JRRT would've been at
all pleased. I remember seeing him interviewed on the TV many years ago
and saying how he would not want to meet with fellows and talk High
Elven all afternoon. It seems to me that he regarded his languages as
part of his literary creation and that they belonged there, and not *here*.

> Avoiding this alone is a good motivation to develop a conlang to a
> fair degree of completion before you pass away.
Though I guess it depends to some extent on the language concerned. I
suspect most conlangs would simply be left to rest in peace, unless
there was something other about it that made people want to continue or
resurrect it. In the case of Sindarin & Quenya it was the whole appeal
of the LotR and Middle Earth. It is just possible that Briefscript/
Piashi might be 'finished' if I failed to develop it any more in that
(a) some people have ever since Dutton's day shown interest in the idea
of an international briefscript, and (b) I have received private emails
expressing interest in my project.

I have no similar fears about mu experimental loglang. If that's not
finished, people can do what they like with it. As for rival camps
flaming each other over it - extremely unlikely, I think   ;)

>> Nah - I had better get the thing finished soon    :)
>>
>> As it happens, I've had two or three emails sent me privately about
>>  Piashi (the final incarnation of the Briefscript project). These
>> have prompted me to turn back to the project again - and I have
>> been working on it fairly seriously again in the past week.
>
> Good to hear that you make progress with it.
Thanks - I hope I will have got some stuff into a form that I can put
onto my website before the end of the year.

--
Ray
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Frustra fit per plura quod potest
fieri per pauciora.
[William of Ockham]