True Confessions of a Language Addict
Last week, I lamented the lack of good resources for learning, say, Gaulish or Indo-European. I stand partially corrected.
If you want to learn "reconstructed Gaulish," apparently for druids, there's something called Labarion. It came up on google in a search for Gaulish vocabulary. Here's your link.
Labarion is not exactly Gaulish, but its noun declensions are quite close to those posited for Gaulish, at least the few I've found. I'm a bit less sure of the verbal system, but then again you've got to fill in the blanks with something and the Gaulish inscriptions didn't leave a lot to go on. The big problem with the Labarion site is that it's a bit like picking up those old Latin textbooks that had tables and a vocabulary and figured that somehow you could make do with that. That said, the tables are pretty clear and the exercises, though too few, give you an idea of what Labarion's creator(s) had in mind. So kudos to whoever came up with Labarion. If you showed up in ancient Gaul, they might know you're not from around there, but you'd be able to get your point across at least and maybe even convince them that yours was the way people were talking these days if you go three valleys over.
Then, there's Indo-European. Apparently, some folks are creating "Modern Indo-European." And they want to make it the language of the EU! Here's the link. For the record, I think this effort has about as much chance of success as Esperanto. Which is to say that if they can get Britney Spears to record an album (of really dirty songs) in it and the teenyboppers take it up as a form of rebellion, there's no telling what might happen. Right now, though, the IAL is bad English. In other words, if you want to promote your IAL, you don't need rational arguments. You need to get it associated with money, power, rebellion and cool stuff. (All of which adds up to sex, I think.) Anyway, what about Modern Indo-European? The site is fantastic if you're interested in Indo-European, are looking for free downloads of info about Indo-European, have always wanted to see what short form texts might have been like in Indo-European. But if you're a goofball who wants to make a really ancient character for your role-playing games, you're probably not going to last long at this site. It's too driven by documenting Indo-European, as opposed to bringing it to life. There are associated wikis, linked at the sidebar, where efforts are being made. But a cursory glance at the grammar links and such did not win me over. The Labarion site, though far poorer in content, was clear enough that someone with a little background in Latin, Greek, Russian or German - or any other language with complex declensions and conjugations - could get started in fairly short order. The modern Indo-European site, on the other hand, has too much content for you to pick through on your own but not enough guidance for you to hang around and learn a little Indo-European on a lark. And let's face it, the one thing going for Esperanto is that if someone wants to learn it on a lark, it's possible.
This post is called True Confessions of a Language Addict, so here they are:
I know you can put a few sentences of Labarion together (badly) in fairly short order because I have.
I'm back on the Breton. Reading about Gaulish and Labarion left me trying to recall the Breton for comparison. I'm delighted and distressed at how much I remembered, at at how quickly things came back when I dragged out the Assimil books, in addition to listening to Breton on the iPod. I offer this as a word of hope to other language learners who lost track of one of their languages - it comes back far faster than you'd think.
After a week or two off, I listened to a few Pimsleur Farsi lessons again. I'm dead if you ask me to do math. But my pleases and thank yous are in good working order and if you ask me to lunch I'll know just what to say.
I ran across a copy of Italian through Pictures some time ago. I've been reading it again, along with a conversation book I stumbled across.
For Uzbek, I've been skimming the Lonely Planet Central Asia phrasebook, just to keep key phrases in mind.
Finally, of course, I've been chattering in French and Spanish with colleagues.
Pretty scattershot, I know. But there are so many delightful languages out there to explore. If you feel the same way, explore away. You'll be surprised at how many connections you'll make and how in tune with the world you feel when you've got at least a word or two for most everyone you meet. Or, if you prefer, you can visit Ramses and see the benefits of picking one language and sticking to it. :)
If you want to learn "reconstructed Gaulish," apparently for druids, there's something called Labarion. It came up on google in a search for Gaulish vocabulary. Here's your link.
Labarion is not exactly Gaulish, but its noun declensions are quite close to those posited for Gaulish, at least the few I've found. I'm a bit less sure of the verbal system, but then again you've got to fill in the blanks with something and the Gaulish inscriptions didn't leave a lot to go on. The big problem with the Labarion site is that it's a bit like picking up those old Latin textbooks that had tables and a vocabulary and figured that somehow you could make do with that. That said, the tables are pretty clear and the exercises, though too few, give you an idea of what Labarion's creator(s) had in mind. So kudos to whoever came up with Labarion. If you showed up in ancient Gaul, they might know you're not from around there, but you'd be able to get your point across at least and maybe even convince them that yours was the way people were talking these days if you go three valleys over.
Then, there's Indo-European. Apparently, some folks are creating "Modern Indo-European." And they want to make it the language of the EU! Here's the link. For the record, I think this effort has about as much chance of success as Esperanto. Which is to say that if they can get Britney Spears to record an album (of really dirty songs) in it and the teenyboppers take it up as a form of rebellion, there's no telling what might happen. Right now, though, the IAL is bad English. In other words, if you want to promote your IAL, you don't need rational arguments. You need to get it associated with money, power, rebellion and cool stuff. (All of which adds up to sex, I think.) Anyway, what about Modern Indo-European? The site is fantastic if you're interested in Indo-European, are looking for free downloads of info about Indo-European, have always wanted to see what short form texts might have been like in Indo-European. But if you're a goofball who wants to make a really ancient character for your role-playing games, you're probably not going to last long at this site. It's too driven by documenting Indo-European, as opposed to bringing it to life. There are associated wikis, linked at the sidebar, where efforts are being made. But a cursory glance at the grammar links and such did not win me over. The Labarion site, though far poorer in content, was clear enough that someone with a little background in Latin, Greek, Russian or German - or any other language with complex declensions and conjugations - could get started in fairly short order. The modern Indo-European site, on the other hand, has too much content for you to pick through on your own but not enough guidance for you to hang around and learn a little Indo-European on a lark. And let's face it, the one thing going for Esperanto is that if someone wants to learn it on a lark, it's possible.
This post is called True Confessions of a Language Addict, so here they are:
I know you can put a few sentences of Labarion together (badly) in fairly short order because I have.
I'm back on the Breton. Reading about Gaulish and Labarion left me trying to recall the Breton for comparison. I'm delighted and distressed at how much I remembered, at at how quickly things came back when I dragged out the Assimil books, in addition to listening to Breton on the iPod. I offer this as a word of hope to other language learners who lost track of one of their languages - it comes back far faster than you'd think.
After a week or two off, I listened to a few Pimsleur Farsi lessons again. I'm dead if you ask me to do math. But my pleases and thank yous are in good working order and if you ask me to lunch I'll know just what to say.
I ran across a copy of Italian through Pictures some time ago. I've been reading it again, along with a conversation book I stumbled across.
For Uzbek, I've been skimming the Lonely Planet Central Asia phrasebook, just to keep key phrases in mind.
Finally, of course, I've been chattering in French and Spanish with colleagues.
Pretty scattershot, I know. But there are so many delightful languages out there to explore. If you feel the same way, explore away. You'll be surprised at how many connections you'll make and how in tune with the world you feel when you've got at least a word or two for most everyone you meet. Or, if you prefer, you can visit Ramses and see the benefits of picking one language and sticking to it. :)
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