Create a Language Project

For those of you who don't know there are two major parts of my life. Firstly I am doing linguistics at Uni (or at least I will if my final marks ever come in so I can enroll!) and secondly I am into story writing. Now before you get excited I should say I've never let anyone ever read my stories, even though I have dozens. However it got me thinking recently.

A few weeks ago I saw Avatar the movie. It was incredible! The graphics, the originality, the story, the people, the creatures, the plants. Just amazing. I'm against spoilers however I will say that I spent a lot of the movie either holding my breath, in tears or both and I would give almost anything to spend a hour alone with the person who dreamt up those creatures, James Cameron, and the person who created the language, Paul Frommer.

Anyway I've been writing for several years, just for myself and part of what I've always wanted to do is create my own language. And I don't mean something like Pig-Latin or a variation on an existing language but my own unique language with its own alphabet, grammar, structure, sounds and pronunciation. So I'm going to. And in the spirit of another movie I (annoyingly) missed, Julie and Julia, I'm going to document my progress in this blog.

I love language. I find it fascinating that deaf children learn sign language much the same way other children learn spoken languages. We have dozens of languages, all with different styles of script...why? Why are some scripts, like Chinese, really detailed? Why are some curly, like Arabic? Does the type of language that a culture has reflect its attitude toward life?

I want to find out these answers and I believe there is a lot one could learn about language and its role in society when one creates their own. So that's what I'm going to do. I have begun. I have begun to work out an alphabet and in the spirit with the story and culture this language goes with my language will be for a slower, more deliberate society. The script will not be as artistic as Chinese or Japanese, nor as flowing as Arabic, but it will have detail and flow more than English/Roman characters.

As for the Grammar. There will not be any gender differences and unlike English, which apparently has 12 tenses (although I am still confused by this) this will only have 3. This project will take me a while. I have only just discovered the Conlang community online and hope they will help me undertake this.

I have no idea why I want to do this, I only know that I do. And at the moment I have no desire for my language, which does not yet have a name, to become "the next Klingon" however if people like it and wish to learn it I have no intention of stopping them. I will be putting up more information as I go and at any rate this will be my own diary of this process.

Windows OS - I give up

Ok it's happened. After about 15 years of using, defending and being loyal to Windows I've given up. Why you ask...let me explain.

A couple of months ago I got a beautiful new laptop. However it had come with Vista so since I had a chance to try Windows 7 I installed it. I'd heard Windows 7 was the OS to save Microsoft. I hated it. Yes it was smaller OS, no stupid trial games and it even had mahjong included which is a fav game of mine. However there were several things which drove me crazy. The biggest was the lack of remembering where folders where supposed to open. Here's the thing. I like 'My Documents' on the right, 'My Computer' in the middle and a space on the left for programs like Word and PsPad. That way I only have to minimise one window to get at my desktop icons.

So I open 'My Documents', put it on the left, open 'My Computer' put it in the middle. Go about my work close My Computer, close My Documents. The next morning I come back, open 'My Documents' and it opens....randomly in the middle of the screen. Long story short the entire part of Windows that remembers where I want the folders had gone. I looked up some forums. Found over 500 posts of annoyed people wanting the same function. MS refuses to comment or solve the problem.

Alternatives.....I HATE Ubuntu. I know I'll get my butt kicked in the comments for this but it's true. I've tried it at least 10-15 times and each time I feel like screaming with frustration after 5 minutes. People swear it's the answers to all things OS and yes, for a while I was using a very old version. However enough is enough. I just don't like it Ok!

I've also tried Mac. I worked at a web design company for a while which forced me to use a Mac and whilst I could see it was very fancy, and probably better quality than Windows, it's like driving a bus when you are used to driving a car. Just too different for me. I've used Windows since I was about 10. I used Microsoft before they even had Windows.

So this brings me to my solution....I'm going to make one. Yes. I am going to MAKE an OS. I'm going to design, code, compile and build my own OS. It will be free, the one part of Ubuntu I agree with, and it will be made for the USERS! Not for coders (like I suspect Ubuntu is), not for business the way Windows and Mac are, but for the users. And to that end I need your help!

I want to know your most loved and hated features of your OS. Any of them. I want to know what it always does that drives you crazy, what you love about it and what you always wish it would do but doesn't. ie. My most sought after feature is an Australian Dictionary which is actually an Australian dictionary. In Aus we spell colour with a 'u', centre with 're' and customise with a 's'. My "Australian" dictionaries always spell the words: 'color', 'center' and 'customize'.

So that's a feature I'll include. What would you include? What do you really not care about. Would you want to set everything or have it all done for you? Would you want more vertical space or are you happy with documents being wide because of modern screens but only have windows have enough space for 5 lines because of all the toolbars?

So give me your comments! Because some day, some way, some how...I will have a computer which doesn't make me scream!

BTW - If you are a coder/designer who wants to help me out keep an eye on this blog. At some point I'll put out a call for people to help me. This is for users. I'll need help from users. NOTE: I am totally serious about this. I don't care if they are obsolete by the time I'm finished. I'm still going to do it and I know it will take me a while but you watch...I'll do it!