Re: Language changes, spelling reform (was Conlangea Dreaming)

On Thu, 12 Oct 2000, Robert Hailman wrote:

> Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
> >
> > On Thu, 12 Oct 2000, Robert Hailman wrote:
> >
> I've always wanted to make a con-script writing on a line like Hindi,
> but I haven't gotten around to it.
I sort of did mine within 2 days, but that was because I cheated and used
similar shapes to that of Korean (since King Sejong knew what he was
doing when he designed the thing, and was certainly a better phonologist
than I am even accounting for the time difference).  The ordering
principle is rather different, though.  I wanted to take into account, as
Sejong did (or so argues one of the essays in _The Korean Alphabet_) the
fact that the alphabet was invented at a time when writing with brush and
innk was very common, and vertical strokes are easier to make, among
other design principles.  (If the alphabet had developed when people were
chiseling things into stone I'm sure it'd look very different indeed....)

> > I collect used grammars.  I've got 2 for German (plus a book on
> > "streetwise German" for colloquial), 2 for Japanese, none yet for Polish,
> > 1 for Italian, an intermediate Welsh grammar I'm too terrified to touch,
> > two for Turkish, and probably a couple others I can't remember at the
> > moment.  While I don't expect the books to make me fluent in any sense, I
> > like familiarizing myself with the written language and grammar.  I'd
> > collect tapes and CD's but they're soooo darn expensive.
>
> Cool... where do you get all these? I have a copy of "Latin Made
> Simple", but that's all.
Regular bookstores often have decent grammars in the Foreign Language
section.  In U.S. bookstores that often seems to be near the reference
books section.  Also, used bookstores are absolutely wonderful for this
sort of thing, since old German grammars aren't exactly in high-demand,
and therefore cheaper.  The best grammar I have, period, is a 1960's
German grammar.  (Gives some interesting insights into differentiation of
sex-roles, among other things.)

> > <LAUGHlaughlaugh>  My boyfriend set up a Diablo II account for me called
> > "Eincrab," and though I don't remember offhand what German for "crab" is,
> > I kept mistyping it "Einkrab" because my mind went into German-spelling
> > mode.  :-)
>
> I'd probably do that too. My mind is in German-spelling mode pretty much
> all the time, which is odd considering how little German I actually
> know.
On a somewhat related note, what language, if any, do you default to when
you're reading made-up names in a fantasy or sf book?

I tend mostly to default to Japanese sounds because Japanese has a lovely
set of sounds.  If the names look vaguely French, German or Italian I
approximate using sound-principles from those languages (though very
poorly for Italian).  Otherwise, it's anyone's guess.

Interestingly, though, while my sister and I have very similar language
backgrounds, we end up pronouncing everything in a fantasy or sf novel
differently.  We once spent an hour comparing pronunciations of names in
Eddings' Belgariad.  =^)  I once had a vague dream of conducting some
sort of survey or study to figure out what determines how people
pronounce made-up names not-from-any-existing-language, but I don't have
the background to do it properly and it's probably too frivolous for
someone with the background to care.

YHL