R: my first conlang

Patrick Jarret wrote:

> Okay since Tierian is my first conlang, I want to see what process
> others go through, I have the alphabet down. And I have the Language
> Construction kit printed out and all, but I was wondering if I should
> write grammar first or do idioms first.
I generally do them together. I mean, if I find a grammatical feature I like
and that I'd like to include in the Conlang, I pick it up. To test the
feature I obviously have to generate a phrase including it, and the
generation of the phrase needs vocabulary. If your grammar has already
reached a good stability, then you'll find yourself making up words only for
fun.

> Sorta a judgement call I
> imagine, but as I mentioned before Tierian will be very caste based with
> lots of greeting and farewell sayings. One of the things which I think
> will make Tierian different, but I haven't looked at too many other
> conlangs, and in the ones I have I havent seen this yet, but one of the
> interesting things about Tierian is that in the greeting and farewell
> will let all involved know where they stand with the other person.
>
> So for example, if two people meet on the street and engage in a
> conversation. The greeting would let each other know they have no
> standing (or just normal standing) and by the end of the conversation
> they would find out if they advanced in the feelings the other has for
> them first. Of course this allows people to lie about it and all, but it
> would not be one of the "acceptable" topics to lie about.
Cool. Have you already thought about ways of doing this? Onorifics? A wide
range of greetings each one with his own familar, onorific, respectful
overtones?

Luca