When I was younger I liked the idea of engineered languages. I wanted to make languages that broke new ground, or were totally alien. One of my earliest conlangs came about after being so inspired by Rowan Atkinson's touching performance in Blackadder Goes Forth that I decided to make a language in which every word ended in -bble (wibble, jabble, blobble, fubble, etc.). It was weird and I don't remember getting too far. I also made a snake language which made heavy use of sibilants but didn't use any voicing or back vowels. That was also the language where I tried eliminating verbs, after the fashion of Sylvia Sotomayor's Kēlen. I also had a few failed attempts at entirely logical languages. I don't think that I ever thought much about whether my languages would ever be used, though I suspect that I somehow thought they might.
I while ago, though, I had a shift in thinking. As I learned more, I came to conclude that humans speak the way they do for a reason. Such a pristine, inhuman system, would fall apart to an imperfect mess if it were ever to be used. Rather than change humans, though, something which I think was at the core an assumption I made when making such otherworldly langs, I began to focus on the humanity of language itself. A language is a system only in practice, and I had to admit to myself that what I was making wasn't really a language. I suppose that it would have been easier simply to admit that I wasn't making a language and move on, but that realization was accompanied by a shift in motive. My prior projects, I decided, were merely exercises in aesthetics or information theory. There's certainly nothing wrong with such pursuits, but I lost interest in making something that was ultimately unrepresentative of the real world.
I think that a lot of conlangers, particularly new ones, set out with same sorts of goals that I did. This is by no means an attempt to talk such people down. Indeed, I think such experimentation can be fun and useful. Perhaps, if anything, this is more of a reminder. Humans will always slur their words, break rules, and delight in ambiguity because it serves a purpose. To create something that has grounding in human experience, or in fact in the logical rules that language must follow, it's necessary to follow the model of real people. This might lead to a shift in focus, as well. I know that it has for me. No longer am I like an painter trying to invent new colors, or to hope against hope that I might be able to make the canvas perfectly smooth. I'm merely trying to appropriate what I see, and use the materials given to me, to create something that I find beautiful. This makes conlanging a much more personal experience as well - rather than try and create something of objective merit, I try to make something that makes sense and feels good to me. I'm only trying craft my own identity, something which is perhaps more useful anyway.
I while ago, though, I had a shift in thinking. As I learned more, I came to conclude that humans speak the way they do for a reason. Such a pristine, inhuman system, would fall apart to an imperfect mess if it were ever to be used. Rather than change humans, though, something which I think was at the core an assumption I made when making such otherworldly langs, I began to focus on the humanity of language itself. A language is a system only in practice, and I had to admit to myself that what I was making wasn't really a language. I suppose that it would have been easier simply to admit that I wasn't making a language and move on, but that realization was accompanied by a shift in motive. My prior projects, I decided, were merely exercises in aesthetics or information theory. There's certainly nothing wrong with such pursuits, but I lost interest in making something that was ultimately unrepresentative of the real world.
I think that a lot of conlangers, particularly new ones, set out with same sorts of goals that I did. This is by no means an attempt to talk such people down. Indeed, I think such experimentation can be fun and useful. Perhaps, if anything, this is more of a reminder. Humans will always slur their words, break rules, and delight in ambiguity because it serves a purpose. To create something that has grounding in human experience, or in fact in the logical rules that language must follow, it's necessary to follow the model of real people. This might lead to a shift in focus, as well. I know that it has for me. No longer am I like an painter trying to invent new colors, or to hope against hope that I might be able to make the canvas perfectly smooth. I'm merely trying to appropriate what I see, and use the materials given to me, to create something that I find beautiful. This makes conlanging a much more personal experience as well - rather than try and create something of objective merit, I try to make something that makes sense and feels good to me. I'm only trying craft my own identity, something which is perhaps more useful anyway.
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