Sometime between the ages of 8 and 14, I realized with horror that any English speakers would be able to read my diaries if they found them. So naturally, I started creating and using cyphers that would obscure the contents of my diaries. This small and esoteric pursuit of privacy blossomed as I got older, until I created my first language, Tônê Wegnê Klômna in 9th grade, around 2008. That language was somewhere between a relexification of English (word-for-word, Tônê Wegnê Klômna meant 'The Old Language') and an English-like conlang. I still have the loose-leaf dictionary for that language squirreled away somewhere.
Soon after, I discovered Wikipedia articles about linguistics and conlanging, and I became completely obsessed with constructing languages. I read grammars of natural human languages, lustfully consumed academic books on typology and language description, such as Describing Morphosyntax, and connected with other conlangers online through the CONLANG listserv, deviantART, and tumblr. For my senior project at Tech Valley High School, I created a conlang named Wexamazeovra — that language was a non-starter, but it allowed me to pour myself into researching linguistics and languages of the world while I applied to study linguistics at NYU.
As Wexamazeovra reached its natural limit with my graduation 2011, I read an article about linguistic universals, and I had an idea: what if a language did not have personal pronouns? With that idea and some interest in 'minimalist' conlangs like toki pona, I decided to create a language that lacked personal pronouns and expressed a sacred connection to the natural world. On the school bus one day, I drafted an early version of a language like this, which would eventually become łaá siri. I have been working on this language since. While pursuing the scientific study of language, łaá si-ri, has been a constant companion throughout the evolution of my thoughts, relationships, and worldview. Needless to say, I find language to be a sacred and profound expression of life on and in relationship with earth.
Born on the school bus in 2011, still unfolding. łaá siri is a personally constructed language for artistic pleasure which has eleven contrastive phonemes (ʔ, l, ł, tł, s, ts, y, r, a, i, u), a somewhat complicated system of tone/pitch accent, and morphologically encoded spatial deixis instead of person. Having outlasted all the others, it is currently my only conlang under active development . . . continue reading »