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