I'd Like to Buy an 'E'...

Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule.
- Stephen King

~*~

Grammar sucks. There is no other way to put it, if you are a speaker of the English language. Other people, who speak other languages, can say other things. Things which do not translate into “grammar sucks.” You see, these other people have languages whose grammar MAKES SENSE. We do not. There are more exceptions than rules in English grammar, or so it would seem. There are enough exceptions to the rules that Holly Lisle, in her ‘Create a Language Clinic,’ has a method called “the English Method” which allows you to disregard any rules you want to. You just say that the nouns (verbs, etc.) are “exceptions to the rule” and have done with it.

Of course, this is silly, since you are creating the rules in the first place. But it does raise a good point about the insanity of the English language.

Now, the reason this is all being brought up is because I am building a language. (Lesley mentioned in the comments yesterday that I was super-organized because I was planning out my NaNo novel already… I assure you that while, yes, I am planning my NaNo, I am doing so now (and in such detail) because I don’t want to spend the two years fixing it that I have already spent on SS (my ‘05 NaNo) and still be nowhere near done with it.)

This year’s NaNo needs to be submittable by April ‘08. So… plan now, stress less later. (I hope.)

Anyway, I don’t really think there was a point to all of this. Except to say how much fun I am having building this language. I won’t want to do it for every new story I write, because then I would be liable to end up with some of my languages all sounding the same (my flaw, not Holly’s Clinic’s flaw) because I like certain sounds and styles better than others. Also because while it is fun, it is also work.

Yeah, mom. It’s work that takes time when you could be playing with me, instead. –Suzy