[conlang_learners] Food for thought

[Olivier Simon]

Sellamat Dayle !
 
I agree, that's going to be an interesting point, if the chosen auxlang permits such minor changes. 
On the auxlang list, a few months ago, we had wondered about the possible evolution of our invented auxlangs. 
For sambahsa, my interrogation concerned the existence of the "undetermined" gender, i.e. when the gender of the substantive is unknown or when it is a plural of different genders. Will the speakers maintain it or, on the contrary, drop it, and replace it with the masculine ? Another question refers to the optional endings of substantives which appear mainly in the written language. Will they endure or be given up ? 
The mother language will surely reflect in the use of tenses; I know that I tend to use more periphrastic tenses when I translate from English than from French. 
The vocabulary will surely bear the mark of its speakers (Sambahsa has a lot of influences), in a first time, they may tend to overromanize it ! 
 
Olivier
http://sambahsa.pbworks.com/ 

--- On Tue, 6/23/09, Dayle Hill <dwhmusic32 at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:


From: Dayle Hill <dwhmusic32 at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: [conlang_learners] Food for thought
To: conlang_learners at conlang.org
Date: Tuesday, June 23, 2009, 2:42 AM







You know what's going to be interesting about this project? The degree of how much the chosen conlang may change or mature.
 
It's like: you paint a wall in your house, just plain white. But then you start adding pictures or other colours, borders; it picks up dirty marks from the dog or the children, and over time it's no longer the white wall it once was. Thats a bit like our conlangs; when we create them, they're quite rigid at first, not too dynamic. But after a while, we change things (or others change or influence it) and it becomes much more dynamic and 'colourful. 
 
Sometimes our own thinking becomes quite narrow, and the introduction of a fresh mind can have some interesting results.
 
Another thing I was thinking about, was the stylistic value of a conlang (or indeed a natlang). I think that the hardest part of learning a language is not the grammar or lexicon, but its style. This is something I feel that can't really be taught, but has to be felt or understood from the heart. If I can give a tiny example: "There is a dog in the garden"...but say in German: "Es gibt einen Hund im Garden". Then quite literally translate that: "It gives a dog in the garden". Very different in style.
 
I think this is going to be another interesting feature of this project; seeing how we adapt to the style of the chosen conlang. 
Dayle


"I'm strange to those who are normal, and normal to those who are strange; quite frankly-I prefer the latter"!

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