Hi, John! About the off-topic threads... they seem to happen on all
listservs I frequent, and the only thing you CAN do is viciously cut without
reading. I miss some interesting discussions that way, but it's the nature
of this list to be voluble!
I second Stone's request to see some of your languages sampled! I loved
what I heard at the talk.
Sally
scaves@frontiernet.net
Eskkoat ol ai sendran, rohsan nuehra celyil takrem bomai nakuo.
"My shadow follows me, putting strange, new roses into the world."
http://www.frontiernet.net/~scaves/whatsteo.html
----- Original Message -----
From: "John L. Leland" <CountSirJehan@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Thursday, May 22, 2003 10:54 PM
Subject: IntroductionThanks for the welcome to Conlang. I am very glad I was
told about i
> Thanks for the welcome to Conlang. I am very glad I was told about it at
> Kalamazoo.
> I have to say, I may not be able to stay on if it goes into another huge
> batch of off-topic discussion--it literally took me hours to wade through
it, the
> first few days I was on.
> I am now ruthlessly deleting all offtopic messages without reading
them--many
> are interesting in themselves, but I just don't have time to deal with
them:
> I am on several other lists; before joining conlang it took up to an hour
a
> day to keep up--reading all conlang messages doubled that). Fortunately,
the
> proportion of relevant material has increased since the survey and I hope
it will
> stay that way.
> About myself and my conlangs: I am 53 years old, and began creating my
first
> major conlang in 1962 when I was12. (Sara in her paper at Kalamazoo noted
many
> begin conlangs about that age).That language was Natece Atechana (Sacred
> Language) ; it was supposed to be the deliberately invented sacred
language of a
> conworld. The earliest texts were very limited chants (on the order of Aum
Mane
> Padme Hum with less profound meaning) but I developed the language by
> translating the Book of Genesis and some shorter Bible passages into it
(as many
> natlangs developed their literary form from Bible translation). (This was
> supposedly done by Episcopalian missionaries, the Order of St.Clive
(C.S.Lewis)). It
> was a crude language with many obvious borrowings from English, Latin and
> German (the natlangs I knew at the time).Natece eventually became a "dead"
language
> in that I was no longer developing that conworld, though the language
became
> a sacred/magical language in another conworld, chiefly developed for solo
D&D,
> called the World of the Intercosmic Collapse (WIC for short) which I began
in
> 1976. In that world there are theoretically several conlangs, but the only
> one developed significantly so far is Meridonian, a Romance conlang
derived from
> Latin by a regular set of sound (and spelling) changes; at least, High
Court
> Meridonian is supposed to be regular, though Low Meridonian consists of
any
> Romance word I happen to think of when I need it, run through the
sound/spelling
> changes. It occupies a cultural position in that world roughly that of
French
> in our world's high middle ages. It has never been as systematically
worked
> out as Natece or my recent inventions. After many years in which I did
only
> slight casual conlanging, a few years ago I had another major burst, in
which
> the principal developed conlang is Rihana-ye varoha (Coldland-of
speech)(more
> properly Rihana-ye fivaroha, Coldland-of language). I have written quite a
few
> texts,mostly fairly short, in this language, and some of them I typed and
> circulated in Elanor, an APA loosely associated with the Mythopoeic
Society.
> Apparently I cannot attach them to mailings to this list (I tried and it
bounced)
> but I couldsend them individually to anyone interested. My custom is to
> actually compose the text first in Rihana-ye, then do an extremely literal
English
> translation. This language is influenced by Korean and Japanese, which I
was
> studying at the time (I taught in Korea 1987-88), though I have to say
> underlying English influences slip through. There are several other
conlangs in various
> staging of development in that conworld (Their Rihana-ye names--by which
I
> usually call them-- include Hemana-ye, Pihana-ye, Zatona-ye, Pizatona-ye,
> Zanona-ye). I did a lot of work in that conworld for a few years, but then
it began
> to get too complex (especially with trying to develop the other conlangs
and
> concultures), so of late I had been devoting more time to the WIC, which
is
> less demanding (as most WIC records are kept unashamedly in English). I
hope now
> with the inspiration of the Conlang
> list audience to go back and develop Rihana-ye and the other langs of
> thatconworld more.
> John Leland
>
>