Fantasist's Scroll

I finished Describing Morphosyntax : A Guide for Field Linguists this week.

I wish I could reccomend it whole-heartily and without reservation, but I just can’t. First, it is a very techinical book. When this book was reccomended to me, it was with the idea of learning various aspects of language so that I could create a more realistic conlang. And, it will do that, I have to admit, but it will help me as a reference book. So, imagine reading a dictionary of linguistic terms with some examples, primarily in languages that you’ve never heard of before. (Well, okay, that part is actually cool. Some of those languages were really interesting!) Not the easiest thing to read.
Second, it reads like a textbook, which, of course, it is. At least, of a sort. The author intended this to be a guide for amatuer linguists in the field trying to save dying languages. And, I’m sure it serves that purpose quite well, if those linguists have a fair amount of linguistic study under their belt already. This is definately not for the first time linguistic reader. I have read several books on linguistics and I still found myself overwhelmed more than once.

So, while it was certainly a challenge for me to get through, I will absolutely refer back to sections of this book while working on conlangs. It really presents information and ideas that no other book on linguistics seems to touch. A little dry at times, but worth the effort.
In short, Describing Morphosyntax is not for the begginer, but the dedicated amatuer linguist or conlanger (conlinguist?).

A “do-it-yourself” Rosetta stone!

For those of you who are already familiar with my conlang resources, you know that they’re mostly based on scripts originally written by Chris Pound. Well, one of the scripts he wrote was to automatically transliterate a text into a more or less realistic conlang text that’s generated on the fly. Sounds fun, right? Well, now you can do it on the web with Fantasist.net’s Rosetta Stone Game! Using the same principles and source files as the Conlang Word Generator and the Name Maker, you can make your very own, original Rosetta Stone to “decrypt”.

Okay, so maybe this is only fun for linguistics and conlang geeks, but still, it’s Friday, so lighten up and have fun with it.

Ever want to learn a conlang?

Was it just too intimidating? What if you could learn it one word at a time? Well, Terrence Donnelly created the Tsolyani Word a Day page just for you! Yes, now you, too, can learn a created language one word, per day, at a time. Don’t delay! Start today!

I’m a “Top 10 Conlanger”?

Well, according to the Wikipedia, yes, I am. That’s really interesting to me, since I don’t actually have any conlangs at the moment. Apparently, they’re basing this ranking on hits in Google, which, of course, means that I am, in fact, in the “Top 10”. Mainly for the free tools and such that I have here for conlangers. Still, it’s a bit, well, odd to me that I’m in the “Top 10” list of anything, much less conlanging…
It’s kind of cool, actually.
Oh, my resources are all at this page. Enjoy them!

Strange things travelers might need to know…

My step-daughter goes to school with a lot of people from other countries and, right now, there are quite a few kids from Korea at her school. She has at least one friend that’s taught her some things in Korean, but she wanted to know more, so when we were out this weekend, I bought her the Lonely Planet Korean Phrasebook. Well, we were going through some of it and found some interesting phrases. Things like “I don’t do drugs” and “I only smoke marajuana occasionally”. But, they also had “My period is … weeks late” and “Stop harassing me!”. How often do “travellers” really need phrases like this? What occasion calls for the discussion of drug use while in a foregin country?
I have some older Lonely Planet phrasebooks, but I don’t remember seeing phrases like this in them! I guess they’ve updated it for the new century. Hmm, at least it gives me some ideas for updating my Conlang Phrasebooks!

I can’t pronounce mine!

Okay, this isn’t the most “accurate” of tools, but it is interesting. Basically, it’s a little web gadget that takes some information from you and pops out your, roughly approximated, Chinese “equivalent” name. The disclaimer says that you should get an expert to help you choose a Chinese name before using it in a real-world situation, since the Chinese feel that names are quite important to the character of a person. All of which is very interesting to me in terms of a created culture or created language.
For instance, I can picture a culture that has a separate language for naming. Or who hide their names for magical protection. Or who change their names for the same reason! Really, the possibilities are endless.

Oh, yeah, you can find the “Get a Chinese Name” tool here…

On the cheap!!

Here’s a website called Fontifier that lets you make your very own, hand-drawn font. For free. At least, it’s free right now. It might cost something eventually, but this week, it’s still free. So, get it while it’s hot!
You just go to the website, download the template, fill it out, scan it and send it back. Then, you get a personalized font. The only thing you need is a printer to print the template, a felt-tip pen to write the font, and a scanner to scan it in. They pretty much do the rest. Cool stuff.
Make sure to read the FAQ if you’re interested in doing a font for your conlang.

An interesting website.

Ricardo Pinto has put up a website to support his series of books, which is really one book in three parts, called The Stone Dance of Chameleon. The third book is forthcoming, but the first two are out. (They are The Chosenand The Standing Dead, in case you’re interested.) I haven’t read either book yet, but the world displayed on the website is fascinating. It has quite a few similarities to Mayan or Incan cultures, but, of course, with a very unique twist or three to them. It really looks like a rich, full world that one could spend quite a bit of time exploring. Certainly, the author seems to have spent quite a bit of time creating it: over ten years, according to his claims. He has a created language and maps of the geography in the books. Not only maps, but actual sculpted models, too!
This website is the first introduction I’ve had to the books, but I’m impressed enough that I might just have to hunt the books down when I get caught up in the reading department. Go see for yourself!