Re: conlanging and journaling

>>...You're not saying that in order to be a Real Conlanger, you'd have to
>>have started, say, before the age of 15, are you?
>
>I believe _most_ people who are going to be lifelong
>conlangers start before the age of 18 or so. This is
>based on all the introductions and surveys I've seen
>here over the years.
I do get the impression that many current conlangers have, too. I'm less
sure whether this can be generalized to hold for all time, after all we just
agreed that conlanging beyond the canonical examples has recently become
more visible, thanks to the internet. It's easy to accept that getting deep
into conlanging requires certain inclinations & interests; but saying that
everyone, or even a majority of those who have these should be able to
"invent" conlanging with just a little encouragement, makes about as much
sense as saying the same about just any hobby whatsoever.

On the other hand, if we assume the popularity of conlanging to keep rising
logistically, then the proportion of the "conlanging-predisposed" to be
explicitly exposed to the craft would also gro, and the average age for this
would drop, thus there would only be a temporary blip of older-age starters,
between the transistion from "no scene" to "saturated scene"...

>I have not used the term Real Conlanger ever, as far as I can recall.
Sarcasm. :b

>>I'm in the "triggered by conlangs online" camp, but possibly because I had
>>previously gotten the impression that you had to be a linguistics professor
>>and spend thirty years minimum to produce anything that works.
>
>Are you saying that you once considered langmaking but
>were dissuaded by the impression you mentioned above,
>and then X number of years later you discovered that the
>requirements aren't so steep? That is interesting. If I'm
>understanding all of the above correctly, may I ask
>how old you were when you first considered langmaking and
>how many years went by until you actually started?
>
>---
>Richard K. Harrison of Florida
Well no, it did not go: step 1, "I want to make a language", step 2, "oh,
but it must be too complex". I first came across Esperanto & Volapük at the
age of about six; had scribbled "secret alphabets" since about the same age;
read LotR when 11; came across other artlangs in short order. Yet, I did not
consider actually creating a whole language at all, or had a more than
cursory look into any conlang before the age of 19, when an online frend
mentioned in passing that he was working on a conlang to be used in a novel.
I started about the same time  sketching grammar for a non-Latin-alphabet
based conscript I had worked on & off on for a few years, altho I don't
remember the chronology *exactly* since there was never a conscious decision
of "hey, I think I'll make a language". More of a gradual development around
the ages 15 thru 20, but it clearly coincides with my discovery of
"hatching" conlangs, just as clearly as it does not coincide with my
discovery of "finished" conlangs.

John Vertical