The following is the de facto Conlang-L FAQ, hosted at:

    http://wiki.frath.net/Conlang-L_FAQ

This is automatically posted once a month, copied directly from that page,
for the benefit of new members. If you would like to change it, please
edit it at the link above.

**Henrik


   Link: copyright

                                 Conlang-L FAQ

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   Contents                                  
                                             
     * 1 Where to get Conlang-L              
     * 2 A brief history of the list         
     * 3 List behaviour                      
          * 3.1 Posting limits               
     * 4 Subject Topic Tags                  
     * 5 Acronyms                            
     * 6 Other conlang-specific vocabulary   
     * 7 CXS (Conlang X-SAMPA)               
     * 8 Resources                           

Where to get Conlang-L

   The official archives are at
   http://listserv.brown.edu/archives/conlang.html . From there, you can
   search the archives, get an RSS feed, manage your subscription, etc.

   It's also the ONLY place you can go to sign up and post things to the
   list.

   A read-only archive with a nicer user interface is at
   http://archives.conlang.info/ . [As of April 2009 this archive has ceased
   mirroring new messages. Henrik Theiling knows about the problem and has
   said he's planning to fix it but hasn't had time to do so yet.]

   Conlang-L is also mirrored as a Yahoo group, but there is no way to have
   posts to the Yahoo group sent to the actual list. Do not subscribe to the
   Yahoo group. It has no admin anymore. Go to
   http://listserv.brown.edu/archives/conlang.html instead!

A brief history of the list

   The list evolved from some informal email conversations among an early
   group of language enthusiasts. The earliest mail mirror was run by John
   Ross out of the BU physics department, and was up and running by 29 July
   1991. It moved to Denmark on 23 March, 1993.

   The original note reads in part:

     By agreement with John Ross, the CONLANG mailing list has been moved to
     diku.dk, the mail hub of the CS Department of the University of
     Copenhagen. Send all submissions to CONLANG at diku dot dk. The address
     at buphy still works, but it is just an alias for the new list.

     Lars Mathiesen (U of Copenhagen CS Dept) (Humour NOT marked)

   (Note that the submission address in that historical note NO LONGER
   WORKS.)

   Later, growing traffic and changes at the university necessitated a move.
   In January-February of 1997 the list moved to its current home at Brown
   University's LISTSERV server. David Durand made the move and actively
   moderated the list from that point on.

   Before the move, threads centered on debates on the relative merits of
   auxlangs had become common on CONLANG; these were often incendiary and
   irritated many listmembers. Accordingly, when the new CONLANG list was set
   up at Brown, a sister list AUXLANG was set up to cater to participants of
   these threads, and auxlang advocacy was banned from CONLANG. It still is.
   (Dispassionate discussion of auxlangs is welcome.)

   In ??? John Cowan took over actual moderation duties, as "Lord of the
   Instrumentality".

   Later the torch was passed to Henrik Theiling.

List behaviour

   The CONLANG list rejects attachments.

  Posting limits

   As a traffic-limiting measure, if the list receives more than 99 messages
   in a given day (in Brown's time zone), all subsequent messages will be
   automatically held and not delivered until the admin unblocks the list.

   Sometimes, during longer periods of high traffic, a further limit is
   imposed restricting each person to five posts a day. This restriction is
   currently in force. Messages beyond the daily limit are simply bounced,
   not held for the next day.

   Posters are encouraged to consolidate several shorter replies on a single
   topic into a single message.

Subject Topic Tags

   In the subject line of a post, you can mark the post with one of the
   following tags. Tags are only recognised if a colon follows immediately:
   no other decoration (e.g. brackets, an extra space) should be used. Any
   'Re:' etc. is irrelevant -- the software skips it.

   Good tag syntax:

  CHAT: Is the world really round?

   Bad tag syntax:

  [CHAT]: Is the world really round?

   These are the official tags the listserv software can be instructed to
   filter automatically. There are currently exactly four:

     * OT: off-topic stuff
     * CHAT: off-topic stuff of the conversational sort
     * USAGE: natural language usage (all of the YAEPT and similar should use
       this)
     * THEORY: linguistic theory discussions

   Only the above tags are official and configured for filtering. However,
   most advanced mail clients can be set to have extra filters, such as for
   the following unofficial tags:

     * OFFLIST: not actually seen on-list, this tag is added to make
       explicitly clear that you are taking a subject offlist (i.e. you're
       emailing someone directly about it)

   The following are explicitly not included in the list of filterable tags:

     * META: threads about CONLANG-L itself
     * TECH: technical issues (e.g. email programs, list-related technical
       problems, etc)

   Finally, there are two meta-tags:

     * [CONLANG]: This should not be actually added when starting a new
       subject; you can make the listserv prepend it automatically to all
       email (so that you can set your mail client to filter all list
       traffic)
     * "was": used to change the subject, or more commonly, to indicate that
       the subject of a thread changed a while ago and you're no longer
       pretending it's about the original topic

   Example:

  JAMA says flat earth leads to flat [@] (was CHAT: Is the world really round?)

   Note that tags ARE included after the "was", but "Re:" is NOT, nor is
   [CONLANG].

Acronyms

   List of acronyms specific to the Conlang Mailing List:

     * AFMCL - "As for my conlang.."
          * AFMOCL - "As for my own conlang"
     * ANADEW - "A natlang's already dunnit, except worse"
     * ANADEWism - Something you thought was unique, but ANADEW
     * IML - "in my 'lect" (dialect or idiolect, depending on context)
     * LCC - the Language Creation Conference
     * LCS - the Language Creation Society
     * NCNC - "No cross, no crown". In the context of the list, "don't
       discuss religion or politics" (not its more general meaning).
     * NLF2DWS or NLWS - Non-linear [fully 2-dimensional] writing system
     * YAEPT (the original acronym) - Yet Another English Pronunciation
       Thread
          * YADPT ... Dutch Pronunciation ...
          * YAGPT ... German Pronunciation ...
          * YAEGT ... English Grammar ...
          * YAEUT ... English Usage ...
          * general pattern: YA(Language)(Topic)T

   Acronyms not on this list might be in general usage: try Google's define:
   or Acronym Finder.

Other conlang-specific vocabulary

   From here and here. See also Conlang terminology.

   con__

     * constructed __ (generally a contraction): conlang, conworld,
       conhistory, conculture, ...

   __lang

     * a language characterised by ___ (generally a contraction): conlang,
       artlang, auxlang, ...

   artlang

    1. A language constructed for the beauty or fun of doing so. [From
       art(istic) + lang(uage)]
    2. (See conlang) [From art(ificial) + lang(uage)]

   auxlang

     * A language constructed to replace or complement natlangs to facilitate
       cross-linguistic communication. [From aux(iliary) + lang(uage)]

   concultural [From con(structed) + cultur(e) + al]

     * Adjective form of "conculture".

   conculture [From con(structed) + culture]

     * A fictional culture created as a backdrop to a conlang. See also
       "conworld".

   conlang [From con(structed) + lang(uage)]

    1. n. A constructed language
    2. v. To construct a language

   CONLANG (all caps), conlang-l, Conlang-L, or CONLANG-L

     * A very active conlang mailing list hosted by brown.edu, and currently
       operated by Henrik Theiling

   conworld [From con(structed) + world]

     * A fictional world created to host a conlang or conculture. See also
       "conculture".

   engelang /*endedlaeN/ [From eng(ineered) + lang(uage)]

     * A conlang that is designed to certain criteria, such that it is
       objectively testable whether the criteria are met or not. This is
       different from claiming that the criteria themselves are 'objective'.
       For example, the Lojban/Loglan roots are designed to be maximally
       recognisable to the speakers of the (numerically) largest languages in
       the world in proportion to the number of speakers. It is not a matter
       of taste whether this criterion is met; it is something that can be
       tested. (by John Cowan) [From eng(ineered) + lang(uage)]

   etabnannery /ra:mnaen@ri/ (rare)

     * The state of appearing entirely unpredictable, but, upon closer
       analysis, failing at even being that. [From Eta*bnann(i), a conlang by
       Tristan McLeay, which was supposed to have an unpredictable
       orthography, but ended up just having a confusing one. Damn people
       trying to make patterns everywhere. At least it's a bugger to
       typeset!... errm... back to the derivation + -ery]

   maggelity /m@"gE:lIti/ (rare) [From Maggel, a conlang by Christophe
   Grandsire which has a rarely predictable orthography]

    1. The state of being entirely unpredictable. (Tristan McLeay)
    2. The state of being regularly unpredictable, such as to horribly
       confuse anyone unfamiliar with the language, lulling them into a full
       sense of security before pointing out, cartoon-character-style, that
       the ground no longer exists where they're standing. (Tristan McLeay
       and H. S. Teoh)

   Maggel's Paradox (rare)

     * Your radical ideas have already occurred to others. (Muke Tever)

   natlang [From nat(ural) + lang(uage)]

    1. A natural language, i.e., one that naturally developed in the world,
       as opposed to a conlang.

   ObConlang (or ObCL)

     * Just before something about conlanging in an otherwise off-topic post.
     * From ob(ligatory) + conlang (i.e., an obligatory on-topic comment
       about conlangs just so that the post isn't completely off-topic).

   translation relay

     * A game similar to Telephone or Chinese Whispers, wherein the
       participants translate a passage one at a time, in serial, into their
       own languages - and then marvel at how far from the original the
       translations have gotten.

CXS (Conlang X-SAMPA)

   CXS is a version of X-SAMPA for use on the CONLANG mailing list. X-SAMPA
   is a way to write the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) using normal
   plain-ASCII text that everyone can read.

     * Theiling Online: Conlang X-Sampa (CXS) - includes CXS-to-IPA
       conversion chart
     * CXS at Wikibooks

Resources

     * Arthaey's Conlang FAQ
     * LangMaker - repository of many conlang "biographies"
     * Frath Wiki - a similar site, and host of the Conlang-L (wikified) FAQ
     * Omniglot - which has information on more writing systems than you
       thought could exist
   Retrieved from "http://www.frathwiki.com/Conlang-L_FAQ"
   Categories: Conlanging culture | Terminology

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