User:Thirty7

Userboxen This user also posts on the CBB as Thrice Xandvii.
This user's native language is American English. This user is proficient in Spanish. This user is somewhat familar with German. This user has a menial understanding of traditional Chinese characters.
This user is creating an alternate Earth conworld called Carnassus.
This user is currently creating a conlang called Vưng-Ḍác Tõ. This user is currently creating a conlang called Śitaall. This user is currently creating a conlang called Isλǫtaλao. This user is currently creating a conlang called Dŭhoug. This user is currently creating a conlang called Gnücwik̦.

About Me

Hey there! I figure you stumbled onto this page at least mostly on purpose, so I guess I should introduce myself. I am a self described conlanger and student of language and linguistics. Ever since I was first able to take a course in a foreign language in school I have been interested in languages. I'm interested in psychology and sociology as well.

If you want to know anything else, say my social security number, where I work, my mother's maiden name or some more specific identifying information, I'm probably most definitely not going to tell you. I mean, unless, all you want to know is my gender and approximate age... because that I'll tell ya: male, and I was born in the early 80s.

Conlanging

I've been conlanging since probably the Eighth Grade, or thereabouts. My first conlang, Lexen was a horrid and uninspired re-lexicalization of English that borrowed heavily from the Spanish and German vocabulary I knew at the time. I made endless lists of words, and verb conjugations and such. I mean, I loved that thing, but in retrospect, it just wasn't very good.

Since then, I have made probably hundreds of different short-lived projects over the years. I've also since learned of the fact that there is actually a conlanging community and I am not, in fact, the only human outside of Tolkein to do this sort of thing (not that there are many humans inside of Tolkien, that is... or at least I should hope not). It wasn't until a few years ago that I went looking for a new forum community to spend time perusing after the shut-down of the MMO City of Heroes (trust me, there is a tie-in to that, I'll get back to it) that I found the CBB. From there, I eventually made my way here.

In terms of conlanging, the part that I find myself most drawn to is in creating conscripts (or on occasion neographies for existing languages). It was this, actually, that drew me in to beginning to learn written Chinese. I am fascinated by the different ways in which cultures begin to express themselves in writing. What I think is perhaps the most interesting aspect, is how cultures come to acquire a written language after getting along for, in some cases, thousands of years without one.

My first conlangs always had an alphabet, but as I went along, I discovered that my favorite type of script is the abugida. While it isn't well suited for all languages, I find it to be a pretty awesome method for those with which it works well.

Conventions

First off, I love making tables for my Conlang pages. In fact, it's probably the best thing about using a Wiki for conlanging purposes.

I've also changed over the naming convention of all of my Conlang pages so that they are the Anglicised name of the language, not the native one. Unfortunately, that meant that all of them would need to be renamed. Of course, this wasn't exactly a tiny undertaking. Shitullian, Vingdagese, Islhontish, Dahoukki, etc. all needed to come into line with requisite moves of other connected pages, files, and categories as well. It's these types of things that make me wish I had a bot! (That actually reminds me that I have a penchant for reorganizing things in such a way that it causes me an annoying amount of extra work. On a constant basis.)

Also, I have begun to use a red diamond (♦) to indicate when a construction or word is ungrammatical. I find this to be somewhat prettier than the typical asterisk. (There is also the case that it is often used to mean the word is from a reconstruction or an ancestor language. This introduces some un-needed ambiguity.)

Wiki-ing

When I played CoH, I became active in the ParagonWiki which was the unofficial wiki for the game. I eventually became an Admin over there, and it taught me some of the really cool things about being involved in a collaborative project like that. Not to mention, that it kind of forced me to learn the wiki markup language.

As such, I see myself enjoying my time here.

Also, if you, o' traveler of these wiki pages, happen to find yourself in need of assistance in crafting tables, templates or other such things, I may be able to help you out. Maybe. I am still learning stuff too, and CSS always seems to trip me up. Drop me a line on my talk page, though, if you think I may be able to help.

To Do List

• Add more detail to Carnassus

Useful Links

• Flag Orbs: For making further Userboxes related to spoken languages.
• Perseus Dictionary: A very nice Latin/English dictionary using macrons!
• Zompist's Word Generator: Seems like a pretty powerful tool to help define phonotactics and available syllables.
• Thirty7's Subpages: All of my subpages.
• 1000 Japanese Words: Self-explanatory... most likely only useful for Dahoukki.
• Flag Waving Site: Allows the input of an image file, and the flag is placed on a pole with somewhat realistic reactions to wind.