zompist bboard

Someone once said that poetry is the only art where more people produce it than consume it. I think conlanging is similar. You post a marvelously detailed conworld on the internet, a few people say it looks neat, and then it falls off the radar. How disappointing. So, I am proposing to solve that. I will be done with school shortly, and when I am, I will dedicate several hours to learning people's conlangs.

Here's what you get: I will learn your conlang at least to the level of being able to have a conversation with you on any topic of your choosing (but with some warning of what the conversation will be about) in the venue of your choice (instant messenger, IRC, Skype, a thread on this board, etc.), until both of us have exhausted our ability or desire to converse any further. If you like, I can even roleplay a member of your conculture or play D&D with your in your conlang. Having me learn your conlang will not only be fun (and hopefully an ego-boost), but will also make it possible for me to give you feedback on your language that would be impossible for a casual observer, or even you the creator.

I will probably only have time to do this for one language, though. Post in this thread if you are interested. I will pick the conlang that looks most interesting and complete in the next few days.

EDIT: your conlang does need to have a more or less complete grammar and several hundred words for this to work, but other than that any and all conlangs are welcome. I will make a list of everyone who is interested tomorrow and we'll see what's available. Also, if your conlang is extremely difficult, I reserve the right to establish a time limit for the learning process, and then go from there with whatever I've managed to learn in that time.

List of possible candidates so far:
Feayran
Rammy
Kala
Xhaimeran If I can get online materials in English
Inyauk

Final edit
We are doing Inyauk.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/53089619/Lessons0-2

This is way cool. I'd beg you to do it with South Eresian, but a) I am only just now documenting the grammar and b) its vocabulary is extremely impoverished, so I'll leave this to someone with a conlang more worthy.

This would be entirely awesome.

I've created a lot of teaching materials for Feayran for various people, and the grammar is developed and stable*. If you'd be interested in learning, that would be a whole bucket of fun!

* EDIT: I should clarify--the language's grammar is developed and stable, but the online documentation is old. I have documents done on various topics that are up-to-date, just not smoothed for presentation and compiled into a single reference grammar, that I can provide for feature-by-feature reference. Since your goal is conversational fluency, what sorts of materials are you going to want to study from?

I wish I 1) had something that I could give you and 2) could participate in the learning as well.

I wish I had a conlang period.

That would be awesome. My conlang Rammy does have a more or less complete grammar, and a few hundred words. I'll apply, and let you judge for yourself.

I apply as well. My conlang has a generally complete grammar, I believe, though it doesn't have a lot of words. But I can do a lot of work and create the needed words. Anyway, I will let you judge.
And what you are doing is a very good deed.

Xhaimeran might be a candidate (or not).

For: Documented grammar, 16000+ words in alphabetic word list, 10 complete introductory lessons, lots and lots of existing text (both original and translated), currently 5 more or less fluent speakers.

Against: Grammar & lessons all in Swedish, full word list only on card index (transfer to digital in progress but won't be finished before this fall).

Wow. Xhaimeran sounds so... complete.

A great idea, but sadly Rawàng Ata has neither a stable and documented grammar, nor more than a dozen words of vocabulary, so I'll have to pass.

Ashroot wrote:I wish I had a conlang period.

don't worry, when you grow up it will come


xD

I would say go for Falgwian but its syntax is far too different from English's and undocumented. Plus it would be torture to learn to pronounce.

Mr. Z wrote:Wow. Xhaimeran sounds so... complete.

True. One may like or dislike the language itself but it's as complete as I believe a constructed language can be and it's fully usable. Of course there are empty spots (I guess I could not write a nature guide in Xhaimeran and name every plant and animal in the forest), but still.

The Count wrote:16000+ words in alphabetic word list

Sixteen thousand? I'm barely at forty-two...

This sounds bizarrely interesting.

I cannot apply with any conlang of my own. However, I might want to do what OP is doing, because I always enjoy a challenge and I have some pretty reasonable knowledge of linguistics. Like OP said, it has to be a conlang that I find interesting, that is at least reasonably naturalistic and has a complete grammar and a good amount of vocabulary.

sirdanilot wrote:This sounds bizarrely interesting.

I cannot apply with any conlang of my own. However, I might want to do what OP is doing, because I always enjoy a challenge and I have some pretty reasonable knowledge of linguistics. Like OP said, it has to be a conlang that I find interesting, that is at least reasonably naturalistic and has a complete grammar and a good amount of vocabulary.

It would be awesome if you jumped on board with this. Do you think you'd like to do different languages, or would it be cool if a group of us all learned the same one?

What kind of conlang do you find interesting? None of mine are anywhere near an acceptable state of documentation for external consumption, but it'd be interesting to know what interests you.

Let's up the ante, if we choose a language interesting enough to me (realism, completeness, and not-blatantly-IE being my main concerns) I'll try and learn it too.

Zoris wrote:Let's up the ante, if we choose a language interesting enough to me (realism, completeness, and not-blatantly-IE being my main concerns) I'll try and learn it too.

We could create a learn a single conlang group! I would be down for participating.

3 people learning a conlang?

Then I could really start a cult.

roninbodhisattva wrote:

Zoris wrote:Let's up the ante, if we choose a language interesting enough to me (realism, completeness, and not-blatantly-IE being my main concerns) I'll try and learn it too.

We could create a learn a single conlang group! I would be down for participating.

I like where this is going, but we still need a list of available languages, and so far we only have a few offers. Do you think we should cross-post this in Ephemera, where it might get more attention?

I guess I'll throw Inyauk into the running. I have a stable grammar and some recently revised beginner lessons.
Inyauk is not as established vocab-wise as some others, but I think it might be fun to let you add your input as you learn.


EDIT: Here are my Basic Lessons you can look at as a sample.

I'll jump in too. Feayran would be my first choice of someone else's conlang to learn, but as Zoris said, if you guys end up picking something else, I'll see how I like it and then decide if I'll join in.

Ossicone wrote:I guess I'll throw Inyauk into the running. I have a stable grammar and some recently revised beginner lessons.
Inyauk is not as established vocab-wise as some others, but I think it might be fun to let you add your input as you learn.

I'd learn Inyauk (assuming that it's the one in your sig). I like how it looks.

I would like to join as well. However, be aware that I don't really have any mode of communication other than this board.