[conlang_learners] shortlist

[kate rhodes]

2009/6/16 Matthew Turnbull <ave.jor at gmail.com>

> cool, If anyone else wants to nominate a language, just put it on the page,
> I'm going to go alphabetise the languages.


I just added Láadan to the list.
Some of the interesting things it has going for it: non-english sounding,
sentences start with function words ("Speech act") and end with
evidentials,  a prejorative marker, easy pronunciation, created by a
linguist, has 10 starter lessons, dictionaries to and from English, and most
importantly, an interesting perspective on life.

Accents are just used for stress and can be replaced with capitals for
easier typing, so sháad and shAad are equivalent.

I don't know if we'd get any help in leaning it from its creator but from
skimming the site and a little Googling there appears to be a decent enough
amount of well documented material to learn it with, and Suzette has
mentioned that she's ok with the language growing with usage, and the
dictionary indicates that many of the words have been created by others.

I marked it as OK to use for the project because of this from the FAQ:

*Question 4:   Is it possible to get permission to do things with Láadan?
What if I want to write poetry in Láadan, for example, or fiction? What if I
want to start a Láadan study group? What if I want to make some changes in
the language?*

*Answer: *  No living human language is "owned" by anyone or anything. Since
Láadan was launched as a scientific experiment, intended to live or die on
its own like any other language, there was no way I could "own" it except in
the sense of having copyrighted its original form. From the very beginning,
every chance I got, I made it clear that I not only was willing to have
other people do things with the language, I encouraged it. Nobody has to
have my permission; nobody has to clear what they do with me, or report to
me, or anything like that. People who want me to credit them for new Láadan
words and materials in a future edition of the *Láadan Grammar &
Dictionary*(and when I write or speak about the language) have to send
me what they’ve
done; there’s no other way for me to know about it. But that’s entirely up
to them.



-Kate
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