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title: "ReConLangMo 1: Name, Context, History"
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date: 2020-05-05
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series: reconlangmo
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tags:
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- conlang
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- lewa
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---
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# ReConLangMo 1: Name, Context, History
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I've been curious about how language works for a very long time. This curiosity
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has lead me down many fascinating rabbit holes, but for a long time I have
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either been cribbing off of other people's work or studying natural languages
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that don't have a cohesive plan or core to them. [Constructed
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Languages][conlangs] (or conlangs as I will probably be calling them from here
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on out) are a simpler model of this. You might be familiar with
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[Klingon][tlhnganhol] from the Star Trek series, the [various forms of
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Elvish][elvish] as described by J. R. R. Tolkien or [Dothraki][dothraki] from
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Game of Thrones. This series will show an example of how one of those kinds of
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languages are created.
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[conlangs]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructed_language
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[tlhnganhol]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klingon_language
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[elvish]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvish_languages
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[dothraki]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dothraki_language
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Recently a challenge came up on [/r/conlangs][rconlangs] called
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[ReConLangMo][reconlangmo] and I've decided to take a stab at this and flesh
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this out into a [personal language][perslang].
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[rconlangs]: https://www.reddit.com/r/conlangs/
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[reconlangmo]: https://www.reddit.com/r/conlangs/comments/gbgvu0/reconlangmo_2020/
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[perslang]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artistic_language#Personal_languages
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This post will be the first in a series (with articles to be listed below) and
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is following the prompt made [here][reconlangmo1prompt].
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[reconlangmo1prompt]: https://www.reddit.com/r/conlangs/comments/gd8z18/reconlangmo_1_name_context_and_history/
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## L'ewa Overview
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The language I am going to create will be called L'ewa (⁄l.ʔɛ.wa⁄, also
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romanized lewa for filesystems). This word is identical in English and in L'ewa.
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It means "is a language". The name came to me in a shower a while ago and I'm
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not entirely sure where it came from.
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This language is being designed as a personal language to help me keep a diary
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(more on that later) and to act as a testbed for writing a computational
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knowledge engine, much like IBM's Watson. I do not expect anyone else to use
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this language. I may pull this language into fiction (if that ever gets off the
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ground) or into other projects as it makes sense.
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Some of the high level things I want to try in this language are ways to make me
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think differently. I'm following the weak form of the [Sapir-Whorf
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hypothesis][sapirwhorf] by this logic. I want to see what would happen if I give
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myself a tool that I can use to help myself think in different ways. Other
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features I plan to include are:
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[sapirwhorf]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity
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- A [seximal][seximal] number system
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- A predicate-argument system similar to [Lojban][lojban]
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- Nounlessness (only having verbs for content words) like [Salishan][salishan]
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languages
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- An [a-priori][apriori] (or made up) vocabulary
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- Grammatical markers for the identity of the thinker of a sentence/phrase/word
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- Make each grammatical feature and word logical, or working in one way only
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- Typeable with standard QWERTY en-US keyboards
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- A decorative script that I'll turn into a font
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[seximal]: https://www.seximal.net
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[lojban]: https://lojban.pw/cll/uncll-1.2.6/xhtml_section_chunks/chapter-tour.html#section-bridi
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[salishan]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salishan_languages
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[apriori]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructed_language#A_priori_and_a_posteriori_languages
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## L'wea as A Diary Language
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When I was younger, I used to keep a diary/journal file on my computers off and
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on. I was detailed about what I was feeling and what I was considering and going
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through. This all ended abruptly after my parents were snooping through my
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computer in middle school and discovered that I was questioning fundamental
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aspects of myself like my gender. I have never really felt comfortable keeping a
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diary file since then. I have made a few attempts at this (including by using a
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dedicated diary machine, air-gapped TempleOS machines and the like), but they
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all feel too vulnerable and open for anyone to read them.
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This is my logic for using a language that I create for myself. If people really
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want to go through and take the time to learn the ins and outs of a tool I
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created for myself to archive my personal thoughts, they probably deserve to be
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able to read them. Otherwise, this would allow me to write my diary from pretty
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much anywhere, even in plain sight out in public. People can't shoulder-surf and
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read what they literally cannot understand.
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---
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I plan to continue going through this series as the prompts come out and will
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put my responses on my blog along with explanations, analysis and sample code
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(where relevant). I will probably also reformat these posts (and relevant
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dictionary files) to an eBook and later into a reference grammar book.
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Like I said though, this project is for myself. I do not expect this language to
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change the world for anyone but me. Let's see where this rabbit hole goes.
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