So here I am, whoever I am. I'm a linguist first and foremost and a writer of folklore fantasy and mythology second, and unfortunately, I do the former much better than I do the latter. That said, composing stories of various kinds of mostly fantastic stories does interest me a great deal, though I find it to be immensely difficult, so this seems like the sort of place to be for that. Hopefully it goes over well. So, here's hoping for a warm welcome.
Welcome, Bhrodhnos Here you will find an array of linguists, polyglots, wordsmiths and other sundry folk interested in the lore of the word, both written and spoken. My major at university was applied linguistics with a minor in anthropology, but I work as an interpreter, which is rather different as you may well know. Is that a chart of I-E family I see there as your avi? Have a look through the Forum Rules paying particular attention to those concerning posting within the Writing Workshop. Wrey
Yes it is an Indo-European family tree. My primary area of interest has been in historical linguistics, focusing on Indo-Iranian. This has lead to a great deal of reading of really, really old texts in Sanskrit and Avestan (Ṛgveda, Gāθās, etc.) and an appreciation for mythology as a form of storytelling. It has also lead me to become obsessed with the phonetic realization of dorsal obstruents and obstruent clusters from Proto-Indo-European into Indo-Iranian, for whatever that's worth. If you work as an interpreter, what languages do you act as a go-between for? (PS. I like your "sacred aum as elephant" picture. I almost didn't recognize it at first without its vertical bar and with the anusvāra all off to the side like that)
There are a few different variations I have seen on the om Ganesh, incorporating the visage of Lord Ganesh into different parts of the symbol. I have one tattooed on my forearm where Ganesh is made by sweeping the shushupti* down and into the trunk. I trained as a slavic interpreter (Russian, Polish and Czech) but I work now as a Spanish interpreter for the federal court in Puerto Rico. *I'm sure you're aware that this not a word from the arena of linguistics, but instead has a spiritual context.
The slavic thing is really cool. I did some Russian at school, and I'd like to learn Old Church Slavonic if the opportunity presents itself. Actually, as for shushupti, I only know something like that as {suṣupti}, locative singular meaning "well in sleep" RgV 10.47.31. If that's not what you're referring to, them perhaps you could explain. I have made a couple of languages of my own devising. I might hesitate to use the word "full" since I always get lazy about the creation of vocabulary. I'll simply say that at the moment, I have two languages which have fully operational grammars and could, with sufficient tedious vocab making, be used for the expression of any sentiment. Is making languages something you do as well?
I've attempted to, and I'm not a linguist so I research instead when I'm doing that. I usually play around with English by making mutated versions of them. Since I write Science Fiction, I'm always looking to put in a fictional dialect when possible, whether it's part of the full story or just something a little extra.
What exactly do you mean by "mutated" versions of English. Forms of English which have undergone change over the course of time?
