Perspective On Conlangs!
Mar. 12th, 2010 03:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bloodyrosemccoyA tl;dr Q&A in the NY Times about conlangs
Not a very satisfactory “panel” there—Okrent’s not a conlanger but a sort of outside ethnographer, and Frommer’s a little tangled up in Na’vi right now. It’s most interesting to me as a sort of snapshot of how folks who never thought much about conlanging approach it.* I kind of like reminding myself that not everyone takes for granted the things I do.
*In a lot of cases, with an almost entertaining veiled hostility. Count how many of the questions subtly note that there are a lot of better ways a conlanger could be spending their time! It’s made me decide to start asking vaguely insulting questions about hobbies I don’t share! “Couldn’t you spend that time you use playing football to volunteer at a soup kitchen?” “Don’t you have enough quilts by now? Why make more?”** “Who’s going to look at this sketchbook, anyway?”
**Actually, somebody asked my mom this.
Not a very satisfactory “panel” there—Okrent’s not a conlanger but a sort of outside ethnographer, and Frommer’s a little tangled up in Na’vi right now. It’s most interesting to me as a sort of snapshot of how folks who never thought much about conlanging approach it.* I kind of like reminding myself that not everyone takes for granted the things I do.
*In a lot of cases, with an almost entertaining veiled hostility. Count how many of the questions subtly note that there are a lot of better ways a conlanger could be spending their time! It’s made me decide to start asking vaguely insulting questions about hobbies I don’t share! “Couldn’t you spend that time you use playing football to volunteer at a soup kitchen?” “Don’t you have enough quilts by now? Why make more?”** “Who’s going to look at this sketchbook, anyway?”
**Actually, somebody asked my mom this.
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Date: 2010-03-13 03:18 am (UTC)Something still felt like it was unbalanced, though. Partly it was that both questions and answers had a lot of focus on learning the conlangs--yes, there are groups of people who study others' conlangs, and conlangers themselves love to see other peoples' ideas--and were less focused on creating them. There was an assumption that it's done for recognition, or commercial gain, or ... some tangible social reason, and glosses over how so many who build the languages do it purely out of some artistic drive and love of language--and that pick up long before they discover that anyone else does it or find out that anyone would be interested in their own, so fame, fortune, and number of speakers aren't really the motivators.
I was glad she pointed out that your average conlanger is, of course, a language nerd. And I was very glad she sent folks to the Language Construction Kit. I think that would ultimately be the best resource for folks who want to try it themselves. And as for folks who don't get it, well, the defense is appreciated!