Posted by Philip Newton on 5:56 7/12/01
In reply to: (none)
This is a question for Mark, but since I thought others might be interested in the answer, I decided to post it to the board for his comment. (Though others can also post to this thread if they want to talk about which languages they have gained fluency in.)
Mark, do you actually speak Almean languages? By which I mean, you could hold a conversation without having to reach for a dictionary.
I presume you speak Verdurian the best, since it appears to be the most well-developed language on the site. Are you fluent in it, by the above criteria? What about Cadhinor or Cuêzi (which appear to be the next most well-documented languages)? Others?
Can you read Verdurian script fluently? Do you prefer Verdurian script or Romanisation? When you hand-write Romanised Verdurian, do you write e.g. rh or r-with-hacek?
Do you have a favourite Almean language? If so, which one and why?
I can speak Verdurian without a dictionary... though as I think I've said in the Secret History, I seem to have permanently crippled my Verdurian by changing a bunch of words, so that I constantly do check the dictionary to make sure I'm using the right word. Unfortunately, I couldn't speak any of the others!
I can read Verdurian script fairly easily. It's occasionally rather convenient to have one's own alphabet to write in...
As for a favorite, it'd be a tie between Verdurian (because of its familiarity, completeness, and intricacy) and Kebreni (because it's so non-Indo-European).
I'm also fond of bits of other languages: Wede:i for its conciseness and logographic script; Cuêzi for its (to me) classic sonority; Barakhinei for the little jokes, à la Klingon, about its speakers' warrior culture. (Check out the etymologies from Cadhinor, for instance, to see how meanings have changed.)