untitled miniconlang

[pauraque_bk]

In the writing project that only _hannelore is allowed to see, I was using France as a model for the homeland of the POV character, giving him a French-sounding name and so on. When I reached the point where he was going to be so ashamed of what he was writing in his diary that he would conceal it by writing in his native language, I had to stop and spend a day modeling it. Of course it's a cipher of French with various tweaks, and that was just fun.

Zavre a nu brun. Se brun gov nule mapo ku nu straven te nule rabul. Se brun sor te plum e plum, o pulbe su atandrebe. Fral skelen. "Su mapo kranas kilme," bu. "Vutibe su zavrebe te du."

have(3p) there a(m) bear. the(m) bear see(3s) a(f) apple which a(m) height-in of a(f) tree. the(m) bear jump(3s) of again and again, but can-neg it(f) reach-neg. retreat(3s) shame-in. the(f) apple bitter(f) probably, say(3s). want(1s)-neg it(f) to-have-neg of all.

There is a bear. The bear sees an apple high in a tree. The bear jumps again and again, but he cannot reach it. He retreats in shame. "The apple is probably bitter," he says. "I don't want it anyway."

Listen to it. Forgive me, I have a cold. But yeah, HEY BONUS: That's what my voice sounds like now, kinda.


Then somehow the writing system needed to be modeled after Cyrillic, in that the letters look familiar, but if you tried to sound it out you wouldn't get it right at all. It's an abugida! I like those.



Before I got into LJ fandom, I basically just hung out with conlangers. And that was fun, and I learned a lot, but sometimes the culture of it is sort of stifling, in that there's too much value placed on having a magnum opus conlang of maximal detail and realism that you've worked on for twenty years. Not that I decry these -- I have them too -- but I just don't think they're "better" than a cute little toy lang you make in five hours and then never touch again. This is a toy airplane, and this is one too, and so is this. They all succeed at modeling an airplane, but it's level of detail, zooming in and out.

To put it in fandom terms, you can write an epic novel, or a 2000 word story, or a 15-minute drabble, and I see no qualitative difference, they just are what they are.

It's hard to compare conlanging and fic writing, though, at least for me. I find writing very challenging, and most of my satisfaction comes from feedback. I don't know if a story is "good" until someone says they liked it. Conlanging just... gives me pleasure. It may take work and concentration, but it isn't hard or frustrating in the way that writing is, ever. It's nice if someone admires what I did, but it's a very distant concern, which is probably why I find it hard to motivate myself to post my stuff anywhere.

Comments

[wootsauce.livejournal.com]

Well, I like it when you post this kind of stuff. I forgot how much I love different writing systems. Man, now that I think of it, writing systems almost never came up in linguistics!
Conlanging sort of gives me a headache because I feel like I have to come up with EVERYTHING, like I can't just start with basic assumptions because they are probably based in english, and so I never get anywhere. So I like to live vicariously through people who do.

[pauraque]

I can't just start with basic assumptions because they are probably based in english

That was partly what tickled me here, that I was intentionally importing assumptions based on French.

Scrubbing your brain completely clean of English assumptions is hard/impossible. Speaking other languages helps. Research helps. So does patience with yourself. I mean, I can point to things in every lang I've worked on and go, "That was English and I didn't know it at the time," but it's just a learning process.

Best one semi-recently -- syntactic ergativity. Have you read about this? It's so beautiful, and I would NEVER have thought of it on my own.

[wootsauce.livejournal.com]

What I love ergativity is that it's so "backwards" (for lack of a better word) and yet it makes so much sense. I would love to learn an ergative language... everything I've studied so far has been nominative or active/passive.

I took a class, syntactic typology and universals. The entire time I was making mental notes of things to remember to use in conlangs. There's so much stuff that I would just NEVER think of...it's crazy. And awesome. Crazy awesome!

[sedesdraconis.livejournal.com]

Man, now that I think of it, writing systems almost never came up in linguistics!

Heh, that's cause writing bears almost no relation to language! ;-p

Conlanging sort of gives me a headache because I feel like I have to come up with EVERYTHING

Yeah, I've never gotten very far in making languages either, myself, for the same reason. I know enough to to what should be going into it, but don't have a firm enough grasp to do it.

So I mostly stick to Consociobiology! I have a better grasp of that, I know when things click and what leads into what in a way that eludes me in conlanging.

[wootsauce.livejournal.com]

I know, I know. Just the entire time I went through the program I kept secretly hoping I would have a professor with a secret fascination for writing systems. Alas, I am alone.

edit: grammar

[kaptainsnot.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed this, and though obviously someone with a much better grasp on conlanging would appreciate this more, it's really interesting to see tidbits of something that is so inherently logical and creative, and the idea of having to assimilate it as a sort of whole or efficient thing is kinda pointless.

Also I enjoyed hearing your voice for probably the first time I can remember. :D I'm glad it seems like you're feeling better.

[asphodeline.livejournal.com]

I love your language posts - we need MORE (please :) )

[woolf.livejournal.com]

Way late. But seconded. :D

[http://users.livejournal.com/_hannelore/]

Eeee! :D This just added an epic level of coolness. Also, my cold is worse then yours. Ta da.