Oh Time Thy Pyramids

Announcing a new regular feature for this blog:

I’ve said before that I believe conlanging to be a highly skilled endeavor, and that I currently feel that I lack the necessary skills to do it well. I have some long-term goals in terms of conlanging exercises for myself to help build these skills; saa nglok is one of these exercises. But I feel that there’s as much to learn from studying other people’s conlangs, and trying to identify what makes them work. Like all conlangers, I suspect, I spent a certain amount of time perusing other conlangs, looking for inspiration, but what I’m talking about now is something a bit more formal: Studying a language in enough depth to get a sense of what’s important.

And so, to that end: Every month, starting today, I will pick one conlang from out in the community. Over the course of the month, I’ll try to study the language in some detail – actually working on learning the grammar and some basic vocabulary, posting regularly about my observations. By the end of the month, I hope to know enough to translate an English text or two into the conlang, as in the Reverse Translation Relay. Then, if the conlanger agrees, I’ll conduct a short interview with them, in their conlang, and post that here with translations.

I’m actively looking for more conlangs to work with in the future, so if you want me to do yours, just send me an email or leave a comment below! Just as a general rule, I won’t ever work on a conlang without the creator’s specific permission – part of the point of this project is to think critically about the language in question, and I know that not all conlangers will be willing to have their creation subjected to public scrutiny. Furthermore, if any creator wants to respond to my comments publicly, I’ll make sure that their response makes it onto this blog in a post.

And so, without further ado – this month’s conlang will be Kamakawi, by the inimitable David J. Peterson! Kamakawi’s high level of development and strong web presence make it an obvious candidate for this project, and it’s an intimidatingly cool language to boot. I’m definitely looking forward to spending some time with it.