Re: My Conlang Museum in Netscape too

> From: Barry Garcia
>
> Christophe.Grandsire@bde.espci.fr writes:
> >>I hope you don't mean my conlangs. They are embarrassingly
> >>simple compared to y'alls langs out there. I really should
> >>be working on Rinya or Laranao to come up with something
> >>that I can be *proud* of showing you guys.
> >>
> >
> >        You can already be proud of what you did! Simplicity and
> >complexity have
> >nothing to do with esthetics. Some do complex things, some do simple
> >things, but that doesn't mean that the first one is better than the
> >second.
>
> I agree. My conlangs are all fairly simple too. I'm always bewildered by
> languages with complex verbal systems, 20 cases to the nouns ;), or
> complex morphological processes. I feel they all are interesting, even if
> i can't follow all that well.  I think i've read most of all the conlang
> web pages out there. Even though I am hardly a linguist, I am proud of
> what I have accomplished, because I have something all my own.
Language by definition is complex.  If you have created a language then you
have created a complex thing.  If your language doesn't have 20 cases then
it has a complex prepositional system and/or complex word order paradigms
that serve the function.  If your language is not morphologically complex
then there must be complexity in your syntax or some other set of complex
structures.  If your verb system is simple, then you've discovered an
elegant way of expressing tense and aspect and mood and argument structure
etc. that conceals its complexity. I think it is this complexity that draws
us to conlanging.  I was trying to explain our unusual hobby to some family
members once and not doing a very good job of explaining what motivates us
when my daughter piped in with "Its like a puzzle!  Daddy always loved
puzzles"

Bottom-line, what I am trying to say, if not very well, is that we all us
are engaged in a complex endeavor and the fruits of our labors are in
different ways complex.  Don't think less of your language because it lacks
surface "complexity".  Perhaps you have just found a more elegant solution
to a complex problem.

> Sometimes I think my languages could be more complex to be more
> interesting (though, I did make the verbal system a bit more complex
> recently) , but i feel that as long as I like them, it doesn't really
> matter what anyone else feels. They really are for my edification, and
> even though they aren't as rich as Teonaht, for instance,  I still like
> them for what they are, personal creations.
This has always been, IMHO, the major advantage of artlanging over
auxlanging.  No one has to approve of your decisions but you!  We are free
to create very personal languages that express our very personal aesthetics
and understanding of linguistics.  What fun!

David

David. E. Bell
The Gray Wizard
dbell@graywizard.net
www.graywizard.net

"irvorisel in villissen ciroinarrion unastil
senil el findien vivas na elieth en errutharth limie"

"Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards
for they are subtle and quick to anger"
JRRT