Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Eighth Annual State of the Language

It's SEPTEMBER! I am so late! I had planned to do this much earlier in the year, in the form of a video address, but I had a baby in February and it has been pretty much non-stop craziness since then. I thought I might record a video tonight, but it is 11:30pm, I am in my pajamas, and I look terrible. (I thought about taking a still shot to demonstrate how terrible, but it was too terrible to show. I need to get some sleep and tame my snake-hair.)

Sorry about all that.

Enough with the excuses and apologies. Here's what's going on:

I haven't been doing as much conlanging as I might have liked over the last year, but I have done a little here and there. The grammar of Nevashi seems to be shifting in subtle ways as I use it more, but I am not prepared to describe exactly how. I've been  giving a good deal of thought to the separation of  Ashea (Earth) Nevashi and Ianea (Fictional World) Nevashi, but it hasn't quite escaped the thought stage yet. The lexicon is up to 832 entries. I found some word lists while repacking my belongings to move, so that number may jump soon.

I found my notebooks for Laozhea when I was repacking, so that project may see some work soon, also.

I've been thinking more about how and why I create languages, and why it is that I remain a serial conlanger, despite wanting to settle down with and become proficient in one of my languages. I am still looking for The One. I don't think Nevashi is The One-- it's fun, and I enjoy tinkering with it, but it isn't where I want to settle down. Ea-luna definitely isn't, although I find it charming and quirky at this point. I don't think Laozhea will be either; I had some notion that it might be when I started it.

I always have that notion before I start.

So, we're well on our way to 2016, and I just started a heavy fall semester, which will be followed by an equally heavy spring. I wouldn't expect much before I graduate in April, really. I will continue thinking about the underpinnings of my personal conlanging, though, and I may turn out a few posts on that topic before it is all over.

I have been thinking more about what I want in a personal language made for my own use (rather than what I think might be fun to experiment with), and I've also been considering another stab at a collaborative conlang at some point. My idea for that is to provide a basic or "classical" language and see if I can trick persuade people to use, expand, and modify it, individually, in community, or both.

But not tonight.

Veku! Bye!