[net.nlang] Invented languages

dts@gitpyr.UUCP (Danny Sharpe) (01/10/85)

...

I recently read a lecture by JRR Tolkien entitled "A Secret Vice"
in a book whose title is, I think, "The Monsters and the Critics".
He talks about making up your own language, and how many people who
indulge in this passtime tend to stay in the closet and not share
their ideas with each other. Perhaps this is because of fear of
ridicule, or perhaps it's because making up your own language is
such a personal thing.

Anyway, I'm curious. A friend and I started making up a language
about ten years ago and I'd like to know how many other people
do things like this, too.

How many shy persons out there in netland have invented, or at least
worked on, their own languages?


-- Either Argle-Bargle IV or someone else. --

Danny Sharpe
School of ICS
Georgia Insitute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332
...!{akgua,allegra,amd,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo,ut-ngp}!gatech!gitpyr!dts

friesen@psivax.UUCP (Stanley Friesen) (01/15/85)

In article <468@gitpyr.UUCP> dts@gitpyr.UUCP (Danny Sharpe) writes:
>...
>
>How many shy persons out there in netland have invented, or at least
>worked on, their own languages?
>

	I have (started to) make my own language, it is intended
to be a more universal equivalent of "Esperanto". It is *far*
from complete.
	I have also studied Tolkien's languages quite extensively.
-- 

				Sarima (Stanley Friesen)

{trwrb|allegra|burdvax|cbosgd|hplabs|ihnp4|sdcsvax}!sdcrdcf!psivax!friesen

mcdonald@smu.UUCP (01/21/85)

I haven't myself, but my best friend from high school invented a language
and alphabet intended for use in a series of science fiction novels;
the language, as I recall, was complete, with a full set of tenses,
pronoun cases, etc. and a large vocabulary.  At one point she was writing
a text for learning the language...
   We're still working on the first of the novels.

                                             McD

andyr@ihuxa.UUCP (Ronald R. Anderson) (01/22/85)

See "aUI* - Language of Space" by Johann Wolfgang Weilgart, Ph.D.
If I ever find my copy, I can supply publishing info to those
interested.  The book and the language (and the late Dr. Weilgart)
are (were) very strange.

	*Pronounced aah-oo-ee
-- 
-- Ronald R. Anderson
   AT&T Bell Laboratories
   Naperville, Illinois
   [...ihnp4!]ihuxa!andyr

friesen@psivax.UUCP (Stanley Friesen) (01/25/85)

	There has been some interest in hearing more about my
invented language.  As of now I have established a phonology,
an outline grammar, and a vocabulary outline.
	In developing the grammar I applied general principles
of linguistics from my reading on that subject.  It is,
intentionally, *not* a generalized Indo-European grammar
like Esperanto.  Many of my ideas have come fom such books
as "Linguistic Universals" and my (sparse) knowledge of various
languages.  
	I developed my vocabulary outline by starting with the
Basic English vocabulary, making modifications to make it less
Earth-centric, since the language was originally intended to
be an interstellar standard in a science fiction series I was
thinking of writing.  The writing project has now been trashed,
but I am continuing with the language for the fun of it.
Also the vocabulary is actually much larger than Basic English,
because each of my roots can take on several meanings by means
of various suffixes. I get an average of between 3 and 4 words
per root.
-- 

				Sarima (Stanley Friesen)

{trwrb|allegra|burdvax|cbosgd|hplabs|ihnp4|sdcsvax}!sdcrdcf!psivax!friesen