I'm sorry to come so late to this, Alicia, and I hope it's in time for your 
project, but the semester is almost over.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Alicia Chang" <[log in to unmask]>


>   For those who are interested in helping out with my project, these are
> the questions I have come up with:

> Basics:

    Since I'm so pressed for time, Alicia, I invite you to look at the page 
I put up
    on basics:  http://www.frontiernet.net/~scaves/whatsteo.html  Sorry not 
to post
    it here, but that site will tell you what you need to know about the 
volitional and
    non-volitional aspect, the split nominative, the law of detachability, 
etc.

> Name:  Sally Caves
> Age: 53
> Occupation:  University Professor (hence in your position: hurrying to 
> finish
    my semester duties!)
>
> Language questions:
> What languages have you created?

    Teonaht is my main one.  I have thought about dialects of Teonaht 
(Menarilis), and about
    one of the UR-languages it has incorporated (Nenddeyly), but not 
documented them.

> How extensively have you developed them?

    As extensively as I can!  I've been working on it since I was ten, and 
picked it up
    again in graduate school, then again in my first years as a university 
prof, and then
    again, wildly, when I discovered this listserv.  It has a vocabulary of 
about 3000
    words, many of them not posted on the Internet.  I'm working to increase 
my
    vocabulary, and started a taxonomy some years ago, still unfinished:
    http://www.frontiernet.net/~scaves/teotax.html


> If it is possible, can you give me a few example words from these 
> languages?

    Krefimort.  A word uttered that is harmful, but escapes your lips 
unexpectedly
    or rashly.  It's also a rebuke: Krefimort!  Uttered by the people you 
have offended.
    It means "fist to mouth."

    Felrreo.  A complicated word that means a wraith of a living person, but 
most often
    an invented person that begins to take over your life.  An imaginary 
friend, for instance.
    A ghost.  A demon lover, etc.  There's a really weird novel by I forget 
whom, published
    by Tor, called _The Pillow Friend_.  There you have it.  It means 
"lovely prisoner." An
    invented creature that struggles to escape your influence.

    Kemkrilyt, "labyrinthine."  Difficult, complex; also an aesthetic. 
Kemkkrily means
    "something that is beautiful in its complexity or difficulty."  A 
puzzle, too

    delry hejvan.  "I happied."  A stative verb that expresses mental 
attitudes.
    delry bovin.  "I blued."  A word meaning I felt lofty, reserved, aloof, 
as far
    away as the sky.  Elry is a combination of the preterite particle and 
the
    first person pronoun.  In stative verbs, the verbal-noun suffix prefixes
    the preterite particle.  Present tense

    Yry firrimby.  "As for me, grateful."  A non-volitional expression that
    means "thank you," for a gift or a deed that I have had no control over.

> If there any, what are the real-life roots/inspirations for your 
> languages?

    Many!  Teonaht is primarily a-priori, but I have been impressed by 
structures
    from Welsh and German (infixed and separable prefixes).  Teonaht has 
been
    described as Indo-European, but it also has some non-IE features, and a
    vocabulary that is largely not IE.  In my salad days, (ten, eleven years 
old)
    I was impressed by Spanish syntax, but I soon moved beyond that.  T. is
    emphatically not an inflected language.  There are very few case endings
    (word order is essential, then, but somewhat flexible), and the verb is
    without conjugation, except by a closed class of prefixes.

> What caused you to become interested in creating your own language?

    My exposure to Spanish, a need to gift my exotic people with their own
    language.  I didn't hear about Tolkien until I had started this, and of 
course
    I knew nothing about political constructed languages.  This was the 
early
    to mid sixties for me.  I was also impressed by exotic cultures:  Thai
    dress, Japanese architecture, medieval English romances, although the
    Teonim are most interesting to me now in their eighteenth and 
nineteenth-
    century eras.  Think "steampunk."

> What do these languages/creating languages mean to you? Feel free to
> interpret this question in any fashion you desire.

    They are a part of the private world I inhabit and write about, and are
    akin to my making maps, models, miniatures, and simulacra.

> What have these languages given to you? Personally? In terms of a
> community? Etc.

    Since they were so private for so long, I didn't have a community!
    My family endorsed my private language and people, but didn't involve
    themselves in it.  I did a lot of drawings of the "heaven cats" (which
    evolved into humans when I hit puberty), which were admired by
    my family, but the venture was pretty solitary, until I learned of 
CONLANG.
    What it has given me is an obsessive compulsive joy.  It's also a 
creative
    burden.  I am contemplating writing a memoire about it and it's 
obsessions.

>   Thanks. Alicia

Vo tafwo!  "No pain," i.e., you're welcome, de rien, etc.  Here 'tis, better 
late than never.

Sally