Fwd: Conlangs Symposium @ Cal

[Sai Emrys <sai@saizai.com>]

Sound like something y'all would be interested in?

 - Sai

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Hello, everyone.

I am planning a constructed languages symposium / conference on campus
for late April / early May, on behalf of the newly-created UCB student
group, the Language Creation Society (LCS). It will probably be in a
fairly 'traditional' format - speakers on various topics, panel
discussions, chats over canapés, etc.

For those of you who don't know: constructed languages - or 'conlangs'
- are languages that are intentionally created. People do this for a
wide variety of reasons and in an even wider variety of ways;
Esperanto, Klingon, and Elvish (Quenya/Sindarin) are the most famous
examples. I am teaching a DE-Cal about conlangs this semester, for the
second time. If that's not clear enough or you find your mind boggling
(in a good way, I hope), look it up on Wikipedia or email me w/ your
questions.

The range of topics for this conference will be anything directly
related to language design & creation, and created languages. For
example: sociological issues about conlangers; how to spread a
conlang; creating new vocabulary in a 'good' way (fill in what that
means); creating linguistically-interesting languages to test or
demonstrate some theorie(s); creating unusual languages (e.g. signed
or written mode only); philosophical perspectives; etc. This is by no
means intended as a specific list of topics - just some suggestions.

There are only two restrictions: it has to be related to conlanging
(or adapted to fit the forum - eg to reuse a talk originally given to
linguists or sociologists or Xists), and no proselytizing (i.e. no
teaching of any *particular* language except for using it as an
example of how to [not?] do X [like make a auxlang, or a women's lang,
or whatever else of interest to the general conlanger]).

Aside from that no-proselytization part, I do not see any particular
need to discriminate against auxlangers.

It is likely that I will have some funding available for event costs -
and possibly even for honoraria (i.e. to pay someone to come out
here). I don't know yet how much that would be, but if that's a
significant consideration for you (and you think you have something
cool to talk about), let me know.

So, what does this mean for you?


First: Would you like to be a speaker? Think you have an interesting
topic to talk about? Know someone who does? TELL ME! I'm definitely
open to suggestions. (And FWIW they need not be strictly from any
particular perspective - e.g. if your 'thing' is linguistics, or
computers, or sociology, or cog psych... as long as it would be of
interest to attendees, have at it.)

For those of you who are into more traditional branches of linguistics
or psychology, please consider that there are actually many topics
that very directly relate; for example:

* language revitalization (all conlangs start with only 1-2 L2
speakers; how do you address the issue of keeping the language alive
past its creator(s)?)

* language engineering (you want good, natural vocabulary with rich
and unique meanings [not just glosses])

* cognitive psychology / cognitive linguistics (mini-conlangs are used
in research into language acquisition, language processing, etc.)

* language universals / typology (can you create a conlang that breaks
a universal? What are the real, hard limits of what languages are
capable of, or the rules they must follow?)

* metaphor, frames, knowledge structure, & Sapir-Whorf (what are
commonly overlooked aspects of language design that are carried over
from L1 assumptions? What happens if you intentionally create
languages to encode particular ways of looking at the world? How much
can an unusual language affect thinking - longterm, shortterm, and for
L1 speakers if any exist?)

... etc. I'm sure you can think of more.

I know that many of you are experts in your respective fields (or keen
observers thereof at least); though conlanging may sound a bit odd at
first, I think you'll see that we are interested in many of the same
issues - so that paper you just wrote for some other conference or
journal may well apply here as well.


Second: Do you have suggestions for the conference? Anything from
pragmatics of running the thing (I'll have some help from the Office
of Student Life people, but nevertheless I've not done this before),
to whom to invite, to what to talk about, to what format to use, to
when to hold it... whatever to help it be a worthwhile (and attended)
event, let me know.


Third: Come! I'll be sending more info as it becomes available to
those who have emailed me their prereg form (attached). Anyone
interested in conlanging for whatever reason is welcome to attend.

If it sounds like something you're interested in but may or may not
attend, send it to me anyway and tell me about your situation. I would
like to get as many interested (and interesting!) people as possible,
and the time I need to start planning the details of budget,
scheduling, etc., is right now.... so the more (and more quickly) I
know, the better.


Lastly: Tell others! Not everyone reads this forum, and I know there
are plenty of 'closeted' conlangers out there, some of whom you know.
So, spread the word. This isn't (alas) a topic that has a ready avenue
for advertising, given that it's still somewhat taboo for academics to
take seriously and etc... Feel free to copy this email to any forum
you like. (Just please send me a link to your posting when you do.)

That's all for now.

See you in a few months!

 - Sai

P.S. One question I'd like to ask you all (under promise of anonymity
- I know that some of you are closeted about it): Have you ever
dabbled in language construction before? If yes, how has it impacted
your academic or other interests, your life in general, or your
perspective on the world?

Conlangs Symposium @ UCB - Pre-Registration Form

Please answer these questions, and EMAIL ME at conlangs@saizai.com with the subject line:
Conlangs PreReg
(for ease of sorting).

I don't yet know if our budget will require us to have a door fee or not (I hope not). There are also a few questions for format / content suggestions.

Please send me this if there is ANY plausibility that you will be attending.

All of these questions are approximate; I'm not asking you to commit to anything, just to give me a sense of what I'm dealing with.

Thanks!

 - Sai


NAME(S): (if you'd be bringing more than one person)

EMAIL: (I promise not to sell it to anyone)

POSSIBLE DATES: (delete those you couldn't come to)
April 22
April 23
April 29
April 30
May 6
May 7
May 13
May 14

HOW LIKELY YOU'D ATTEND (1-10): (assuming it's on one of the above dates - if this varies a lot, tell me)

COULD YOU HELP OUT?: (running a conference does require people for registration, tech help, general running around, speaker prep, tables setup, cleanup, etc etc...)

ENTRANCE FEE YOU COULD AFFORD: (I'll try to make this $0, but that'll entirely depend on our budget)

AMT. YOU COULD DONATE: (tax-deductible nonprofit!)

ORGANIZATION(S) YOU'RE AFFILIATED WITH: (incl. universities)

ORGANIZATION(S) YOU KNOW THAT MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN SPONSORING THE EVENT: (e.g. in return for ad space on the program or etc; perhaps your company / university / etc - tell me any details for me to follow up with)

TOPIC(S) YOU COULD SPEAK ABOUT: (if you're interested in being a speaker)

TOPIC(S) YOU'D LIKE TO HEAR ABOUT:

PEOPLE I SHOULD INVITE:

IDEAL LENGTH OF CONFERENCE (HRS): (with breaks every hour or so for milling & food)

IF YOU CAN RIDESHARE - # PASSENGERS & LOCATION: (if you want to carpool with someone else, just location)

SWAG YOU'D BE INTERESTED IN: (delete / insert as applicable)
Conlang flag (http://wiki.frath.net/Conlang_flag)
Conlang flag lapel pins
other:

CONTINGENCIES: (i.e. you would come IF [insert something that I might be able to affect])

ANY ADAPTATIONS I SHOULD KNOW ABOUT: (e.g. restricted diet [vegetarian / vegan / meat-only / etc], need an ASL interpreter, loop headsets, etc)

WOULD YOU BE INTERESTED IN HAVING A TABLE: (not allowed to sell things on campus [except as fundraising for us], but you're allowed to pitch them or hand out flyers etc)

OTHER COMMENTS / SUGGESTIONS / GLARING MISTAKES ON MY PART: