Where to speak ...
Donald J. Harlow
trying to _speak_ a spoken conlang. For most conlangs this never becomes a
consideration, since nobody ever speaks them (among the artlangs, fictlangs,
etc., Klingon, Quenya and Sindarin may well be exceptions). Among auxlangs,
this is more common, though perhaps not as common as it could be. One way to
actually use a conlang is to attend a conference where that conlang is
spoken.
If you're interested, here are some of the conferences that I know about.
Speakers of Ido hold an annual "Ido-Konfero" with generally 15-25
participants. The group photo from last year's Konfero in Berlin indicates
21-23 participants (including the guy holding the camera). This year's
Konfero will be held on October 19-25 in Paris. You can get more information
at http://www.ido.li/Idorenkontro2007/ .
Speakers of Klingon generally hold an annual qep'a', usually somewhere in
Pennsylvania (though it has ranged as far afield as Belgium, once upon a
time), with a turnout not dissimilar to that of the Ido-Konferi. For the
twelfth and, I believe, most recent qep'a', the group photo shows 17
participants (including the guy with the camera). The page
http://www.kli.org/stuff/qepa.html is supposed to have information about the
next qep'a', but unfortunately all it has is the picture from the last one.
The Union Mundial pro Interlingua has been pretty faithful about holding an
international conference every two years; the last one occurred in Sweden in
2005. There was supposed to be one this summer, perhaps in Estonia, but for
the life of me I can't find more than a single reference to it (in someone's
blog, written in 2005); there's no sign of it at the site of the UMI. The
usual turnout is around 50 participants; based partly on an analysis of
almost 200 photos shot during the 2005 conference, and partly on a comment
from a Swedish Interlingua speaker, it looks like the 2005 turnout was
around 50-70 (the figure of 250 quoted in the English-language Wikipedia art
icle on Interlingua is grossly exaggerated). I'll try to get more
information on a potential this-year conference.
I believe that Toki Pona speakers sometimes get together during Esperanto
youth conferences to practice their "little" language. I also suspect that
this will not happen this year, when the major Esperanto youth conference is
being held in Hanoi and a majority of the participants will be Asians, among
whom interest in other planned languages such as Toki Pona is generally far
less than can be found among their European counterparts.
Lojban speakers generally hold, apparently in conjunction with some SF con
or other, what is generally known as an annual "logfest" (the correct Lojban
name appears to be "jbonunsla"). Last year's logfest, held at Philcon,
attracted, according to Matt Arnold, 20 participants (the group photos,
however, show only 13-14 -- 14-15, if we count the guy with the camera).
Unfortunately, I can't find any evidence that a logfest has been arranged
for 2007.
Best bet, of course, is Esperanto. A more-or-less complete list of Esperanto
events for 2007 and 2008 (certainly not complete for 2008) can be found at
http://www.eventoj.hu/2007.htm . I maintain a page of my own which includes
those events for which I've been able to find a descriptive web page (or
on-line registration form or the like): it's at
http://www.donharlow.org/Esperanto/eaccess/eaccess.conferences.html . (The
Hungarian page includes _all_ conferences for which they have information,
whether or not a web page is available.) A list of upcoming events from my
page follows.
I can't tell you how many people are likely to be at these events. For most
of them, the figure will be a few dozen. For a few -- like the two New
Year's events in Germany, several national congresses, or the Youth Congress
in Hanoi -- the figure will be in the low to middle hundreds. For the World
Esperanto Congress, it will generally be in the low thousands (as of April,
some 1600 people, if I remember correctly, had already signed up for the
Congress in Yokohama).
Note that there are at least a couple of conferences where the ordinary
reader of this newsgroup will probably not be welcome as a participant: most
notably, the two children's congresses, in Japan and Slovenia, where none of
us can satisfy the age limits ... ;-)
---
Springtime Get-Together of Esperanto Speakers on Pohorje, Kope, Slovenia,
May 25 - 27, 2007
84th German Esperanto Congress, Hamburg, Germany, May 25 - 28, 2007
Interassociational Congress of Espéranto-France, Espéranto-Jeunes, GEE,
Espéranto Rhône-Alpes, Bourg-en-Bresse, France, May 25 - 29, 2007
7th National Esperanto Meeting, Santiago, Chile, May 26 - 27, 2007
International Meeting, Antwerp, Belgium, May 26 - 28, 2007
55th Congress of Esperantists in Kansai, Hirakata, Japan, June 9 - 10, 2007
29th Baltic Esperanto Springtime, Mielno, Poland, June 12 - 20, 2007
Scottish [Esperanto] Congress 2007, Lanark, Scotland, June 15 - 17, 2007
International Art Esperanto Festival Velvet Season 13, Yalta, Ukraine, June
22 - July 1, 2007
EKOTUR 2007, Radošov, Czech Republic, June 30 - July 6, 2007
55th Summer Esperanto Camp, Lančov, Czech Republic, June 1 - Aug. 11, 2007
66th Spanish Esperanto Congress & 12th Andalusian Esperanto Congress, Palos
de la Frontera, Spain, July 5 - 8, 2007
Summer Esperanto Courses at Château Grésillon, Baugé, France, July 7 - Aug.
18, 2007
42nd Brazilian Esperanto Congress, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 8 - 13, 2007
5th SOMERE (Summer Middle European Meeting), Jünkerath, Germany, July 13 -
28, 2007
43rd Baltic Esperanto Days, Siauliai, Lithuania, July 14 - 22, 2007
Meeting of Friends-5, Lake Baikal, Russia, July 15 - 22, 2007
Program-free Get-Together, Callosa d'en Sarrià, Spain, July 16 - 22, 2007
20th International Youth Week, Tab, Hungary, July 19 - 25, 2007
Fourth Baltic Esperanto Forum, Kaliningrad, Russia, July 21 - 26, 2007
80th Congress of the World Anational Association, Châtenay-Malabry/Antony,
France, July 21 - 28, 2007
29th Meeting of Esperanto Families, Nagyvisnyó, Hungary, Jul. 22 - Aug. 2,
2007
16th Self-Caring Lake Enjoyment, Délegyhaza, Hungary, Jul. 25 - Aug. 5, 2007
55th National Conference of the Esperanto League for North America, Tijuana,
Mexico, Jul. 27 - 30, 2007
Artistic Light Festival, Kuopio, Finland, Jul. 27 - Aug. 1, 2007
63rd International Youth Congress, Hanoi, Vietnam, July 27 - Aug. 3, 2007
7th Congress of the European Esperanto Union, Maribor, Slovenia, July 28 -
Aug. 4, 2007
Children's Congress of the 7th Congress of the European Esperanto Union,
Areh, Slovenia, July 28 - Aug. 4, 2007
92nd World Esperanto Congress, Yokohama, Japan, Aug. 4 - 11, 2007
38th International Children's Congress, Jacugatake, Japan, Aug. 4 - 11, 2007
11th International Esperanto Meetings, Plouezec, France, Aug. 11-17, 2007
40th Conference of the International League of Esperanto Teachers, Ranzan,
Japan, Aug. 11 - 19, 2007
Russian Esperanto Days (RET-07), Primorsko-Aĥtarsk, Russia, Aug. 15 - 26,
2007
33rd International Esperanto Week, Sète, France, Aug. 18 - 25, 2007
Festival 2007 in Music, Montoire-sur-le-loir, France, Aug. 20 - 27, 2007
74th Italian Esperanto Conference, Pisa, Italy, Sep. 1 - 6, 2007
International Speaking-Practice Week, Dobrichovice, Czech Republic, Sep.
24 - 30, 2007
18th Mountain-Cabin Meeting, Beli, Isle of Cres, Croatia, Sep. 27 - 30, 2007
7th Kafeeklatsch And Games during Weekend Meeting, Herne, Germany, Oct. 5 -
7, 2007
14th Autumn Esperanto Meeting, Silver Bay, Lake George, New York, United
States, Oct. 5 - 8, 2007
24th International Festival, Bendorf, Germany, Dec. 27, 2007 - Jan. 3, 2008
6th "New Year Meeting", Föckinghausen, Germany, Dec. 27, 2007 - Jan. 3, 2008
5th Asian Esperanto Congress, Bangalore, India, Feb. 11 - 15, 2008
Cultural Esperanto Festival, Helsingør, Denmark, July 27 - Aug. 3, 2008
--
-- Don HARLOW
http://www.webcom.com/~donh/don/don.html
http://donh.best.vwh.net/Esperanto/
Bob LeChevalier
>Lojban speakers generally hold, apparently in conjunction with some SF con
>or other, what is generally known as an annual "logfest" (the correct Lojban
>name appears to be "jbonunsla"). Last year's logfest, held at Philcon,
>attracted, according to Matt Arnold, 20 participants (the group photos,
>however, show only 13-14 -- 14-15, if we count the guy with the camera).
Holding the event in conjunction at an SF con, any attempt to get
*everyone* present in one place for a photo at one time was quite
beyond us (and not everyone necessarily wants to be in a photo).
>Unfortunately, I can't find any evidence that a logfest has been arranged
>for 2007.
LogFest tends to be rather ad hoc. I used to PROMOTE LogFest for
several months in advance, but only "planned" it for 3-4 weeks. Since
we stopped holding it at my house, no one even thinks about it (to the
extent that the thing warrants "organization") until a couple months
before the event itself. While Matt did a super job of organizing
last year, much of his effort went for nought stymied by logistics
problems and some problems within the Philcon organization.
There will almost certainly be a LogFest presence at Philcon again
this year, since Matt was unable to muster the attendance commitments
that he wanted to try to hold LogFest at the con that he runs in
Michigan (one other problem we have with LogFest is that almost no one
commits to come until a few weeks before it starts even when planning
starts very early). It is unlikely to have quite as much
organizational effort as Matt made last year.
Note, BTW, in conjunction with your actual topic, that Lojban people
have made considerable efforts to put together the technological
capacity for online "events" where people can speak together in the
language. I don't personally get involved in these events, so I can't
tell much about them.
Lojban people are not generally organizers and promoters, but tend to
be far more laid back and ad hoc in their commitments.
lojbab
Donald J. Harlow
news:Lfw4i.6019$dd....@newsread1.mlpsca01.us.to.verio.net...
>
> The Union Mundial pro Interlingua has been pretty faithful about holding
an
> international conference every two years; the last one occurred in Sweden
in
> 2005. There was supposed to be one this summer, perhaps in Estonia, but
for
> the life of me I can't find more than a single reference to it (in
someone's
> blog, written in 2005); there's no sign of it at the site of the UMI. The
> usual turnout is around 50 participants; based partly on an analysis of
> almost 200 photos shot during the 2005 conference, and partly on a comment
> from a Swedish Interlingua speaker, it looks like the 2005 turnout was
> around 50-70 (the figure of 250 quoted in the English-language Wikipedia
art
> icle on Interlingua is grossly exaggerated). I'll try to get more
> information on a potential this-year conference.
>
"late summer or perhaps early autumn" and that "details are still being
worked out". For those interested, I recommend keeping an eye on the Union
Mundial pro Interlingua's home page at http://www.interlingua.com/ .
David Wolff
Bob LeChevalier <loj...@lojban.org> wrote:
> "Donald J. Harlow" <do...@donh.best.vwh.net> wrote:
>> Lojban speakers generally hold, apparently in conjunction with some SF con
>> or other, what is generally known as an annual "logfest" (the correct Lojban
>> name appears to be "jbonunsla"). Last year's logfest, held at Philcon,
>> attracted, according to Matt Arnold, 20 participants (the group photos,
>> however, show only 13-14 -- 14-15, if we count the guy with the camera).
>
> Holding the event in conjunction at an SF con, any attempt to get
> *everyone* present in one place for a photo at one time was quite
> beyond us (and not everyone necessarily wants to be in a photo).
> Lojban people are not generally organizers and promoters, but tend to
> be far more laid back and ad hoc in their commitments.
>
> lojbab
Well, that's no way to p/r/o/s/e/l/y/t/i/z/e/ e/v/a/n/g/e/l/i/z/e/
spread the word. :-)
Thanks --
David
(Remove "xx" to reply.)
Rick Harrison
> (and not everyone necessarily wants to be in a photo).
That is a true truth. I dislike being photographed, and I've been
acquainted with many people on the nerdy/geeky end of the personality
spectrum who feel the same way.
David Wolff
I don't mind being photographed. I mind standing around while N people
each take an amateur photo or six of the other N-1 people. And about
N/2 of them have never used their camera before so they have to figure
out which button to press while everyone else stands there.
I suppose I should be happy it's such a problem at Esperanto meetings,
but I still think "Grupfotoj... la malbeno de Esperanto!" (Group photos
-- the curse of Esperanto!)
Padraic Brown
<do...@donh.best.vwh.net> wrote:
>I don't know how many readers of this list have ever considered actually
>trying to _speak_ a spoken conlang. For most conlangs this never becomes a
>consideration, since nobody ever speaks them (among the artlangs, fictlangs,
>etc., Klingon, Quenya and Sindarin may well be exceptions). Among auxlangs,
>this is more common, though perhaps not as common as it could be. One way to
>actually use a conlang is to attend a conference where that conlang is
>spoken.
You're right that it's not the primary concern of the artlanger, but
you might be surprised to learn that many artlangers have considered
what their conlangs sound like to the extent of making recordings of
texts and learning to speak others' conlangs.
I have a lovely recording of a text in Teonaht, for example, and have
heard several other conlang sound bites. I tried recording a bit of
one of mine but gave up due to technical difficulties.
Padraic
--
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