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(Created page with "== Kalusa == The 2006 Smiley Award is presented to Kalusa, an unplanned constructed language begun by Gary Shannon and developed by a community of contributors. Congratulations to Gary and the entire Kalusa community! [http://kalusa.fiziwig.com Kalusa Homepage] === Origin of Kalusa === Gary Shannon, known for his innovative projects involving language and web technology, has contributed numerous ideas to the conlanging community. These projects include the movement...")
 
 
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== Kalusa ==
Kalusa is an unplanned constructed language initiated by Gary Shannon and developed further by a community of contributors.
The 2006 Smiley Award is presented to Kalusa, an unplanned constructed language begun by Gary Shannon and developed by a community of contributors. Congratulations to Gary and the entire Kalusa community!


[http://kalusa.fiziwig.com Kalusa Homepage]
[http://kalusa.fiziwig.com Kalusa Homepage]


=== Origin of Kalusa ===  
=== Origin of Kalusa ===
Gary Shannon, known for his innovative projects involving language and web technology, has contributed numerous ideas to the conlanging community. These projects include the movement to replace fonts for pictographic language, the Assertion Based Language Experiment, the conlang by mutation idea, the 30-minute conlang challenge, the listing of the only six verbs you'll ever need, the entertaining SOALOA, and a system for using the Roman alphabet as a syllabary. These projects are documented on his [http://www.fiziwig.com/ main page]. One of Gary's notable projects was an accidental conlang created with a friend, leading to his desire for a "collaborative conlang created by a group without any 'planning' whatsoever." This idea resulted in the conlang game Madjal, a language that anyone could add to but had some definitive grammar rules. While it generated interest, it did not gain the traction Gary had hoped for.
Gary Shannon is known for his innovative projects involving language and web technology. Examples include the creation of Piktok, the Assertion Based Language Experiment, the conlang by mutation idea, the 30-minute conlang challenge, a listing of the only six verbs you'll ever need, the entertaining SOALOA, and a system for using the Roman alphabet as a syllabary. These projects are documented on his [http://www.fiziwig.com/ main page]. One notable project was an accidental conlang created by Gary and a friend, leading to his desire for a "collaborative conlang created by a group without any 'planning' whatsoever." This idea resulted in the conlang game Madjal, which, while generating interest, did not gain the traction hoped for.


=== The Kalusa Language ===  
=== The Kalusa Language ===  
Kalusa began on May 22, 2006, with four simple sentences posted on the Kalusa homepage: # ''Ma vito es John.'' ("I see John.") # ''Ira vito es palu.'' ("He sees the cat.") # ''Ira vito es teku kia ruba.'' ("He sees the red book.") # ''Ma vito es da ruba.'' ("I see the red one.") With no initial grammar or grammatical information, Kalusa was open to contributions from anyone. In less than a week, the corpus grew from four sentences to over a thousand.
Kalusa began on May 22, 2006, with four simple sentences posted on the Kalusa homepage:  
 
# ''Ma vito es John.'' ("I see John.")  
# ''Ira vito es palu.'' ("He sees the cat.")  
# ''Ira vito es teku kia ruba.'' ("He sees the red book.")  
# ''Ma vito es da ruba.'' ("I see the red one.")  
 
With no initial grammar or grammatical information, Kalusa was open to contributions from anyone. Within a week, the corpus grew from four sentences to over a thousand.


=== Kalusa as a Collaborative Effort ===  
=== Kalusa as a Collaborative Effort ===  
The strength of Kalusa lies in its collaborative nature. Creating a language from scratch can be a slow and painstaking process, but Kalusa simplifies this by allowing the community to build grammar incrementally. New sentences employing features of the evolving grammar are constantly added, allowing contributors to expand the language by proposing new sentences and grammatical structures.
Kalusa's strength lies in its collaborative nature. Creating a language from scratch can be slow and painstaking, but Kalusa allows the community to build grammar incrementally. Contributors constantly add new sentences, expanding the language by proposing new structures and grammatical patterns.


=== Kalusa and Language Evolution ===  
=== Kalusa and Language Evolution ===  
Kalusa is akin to a naturally evolving language, similar to a pidgin. Pidgins arise in contact situations where multiple languages are spoken, and a need to communicate leads to the creation of a compromise language. Like pidgins, Kalusa features competing structures and lexical items, and its grammar remains in flux. From a linguistic perspective, Kalusa models the early stages of a pidgin. The community of users, familiar with elements of linguistic theory, contributes to the language's development. Despite the lack of initial input, Kalusa's growth has mirrored that of a pidgin, with constant competition between structures and lexical items.
Kalusa resembles a naturally evolving language, similar to a pidgin. Pidgins arise in contact situations where multiple languages are spoken, leading to the creation of a compromise language. Like pidgins, Kalusa features competing structures and lexical items, and its grammar remains in flux. From a linguistic perspective, Kalusa models the early stages of a pidgin. Despite the users' familiarity with linguistic theory, the language's growth mirrors that of a pidgin, with constant competition between structures and lexical items.


==== Factors Influencing Kalusa's Evolution ====  
==== Factors Influencing Kalusa's Evolution ====  
The evolution of Kalusa is influenced by four main factors: innovation, augmentation, analogy, and misanalysis. * '''Innovation''': New structures and words are created ex nihilo. * '''Augmentation''': Established patterns are expanded and built upon. * '''Analogy''': Users generalize patterns to create similar forms. * '''Misanalysis''': Users interpret structures differently, leading to new grammatical rules. For example, the first biclausal structure was created spontaneously: ''Jesus ira dun wepan.'' ("Jesus wept.") This led to the creation of sentences like: ''Ma wepan, ma ziresh.'' ("I want to weep.") Despite initial expectations that such structures might fall out of use, they became integrated into Kalusa's grammar. Users adapted and expanded these patterns, leading to the development of new modal-like words and sentences. Kalusa's evolution demonstrates that users can create and generalize patterns, contributing to the language's continuous growth. This process highlights the collaborative and dynamic nature of conlanging within the Kalusa community. [http://kalusa.fiziwig.com Kalusa Homepage]
The evolution of Kalusa is influenced by four main factors: innovation, augmentation, analogy, and misanalysis.  
 
* '''Innovation''': New structures and words are created ex nihilo.  
* '''Augmentation''': Established patterns are expanded and built upon.  
* '''Analogy''': Users generalize patterns to create similar forms.  
* '''Misanalysis''': Users interpret structures differently, leading to new grammatical rules.  
 
For example, the first biclausal structure was created spontaneously:  
 
''Jesus ira dun wepan.'' ("Jesus wept.")  
 
This led to the creation of sentences like:  
 
''Ma wepan, ma ziresh.'' ("I want to weep.")  
 
Despite initial expectations, such structures became integrated into Kalusa's grammar. Users adapted and expanded these patterns, contributing to the language's continuous growth. Kalusa's evolution demonstrates the collaborative and dynamic nature of conlanging within its community.
 
[http://kalusa.fiziwig.com Kalusa Homepage]

Latest revision as of 19:39, 8 November 2024

Kalusa is an unplanned constructed language initiated by Gary Shannon and developed further by a community of contributors.

Kalusa Homepage

Origin of Kalusa

Gary Shannon is known for his innovative projects involving language and web technology. Examples include the creation of Piktok, the Assertion Based Language Experiment, the conlang by mutation idea, the 30-minute conlang challenge, a listing of the only six verbs you'll ever need, the entertaining SOALOA, and a system for using the Roman alphabet as a syllabary. These projects are documented on his main page. One notable project was an accidental conlang created by Gary and a friend, leading to his desire for a "collaborative conlang created by a group without any 'planning' whatsoever." This idea resulted in the conlang game Madjal, which, while generating interest, did not gain the traction hoped for.

The Kalusa Language

Kalusa began on May 22, 2006, with four simple sentences posted on the Kalusa homepage:

  1. Ma vito es John. ("I see John.")
  2. Ira vito es palu. ("He sees the cat.")
  3. Ira vito es teku kia ruba. ("He sees the red book.")
  4. Ma vito es da ruba. ("I see the red one.")

With no initial grammar or grammatical information, Kalusa was open to contributions from anyone. Within a week, the corpus grew from four sentences to over a thousand.

Kalusa as a Collaborative Effort

Kalusa's strength lies in its collaborative nature. Creating a language from scratch can be slow and painstaking, but Kalusa allows the community to build grammar incrementally. Contributors constantly add new sentences, expanding the language by proposing new structures and grammatical patterns.

Kalusa and Language Evolution

Kalusa resembles a naturally evolving language, similar to a pidgin. Pidgins arise in contact situations where multiple languages are spoken, leading to the creation of a compromise language. Like pidgins, Kalusa features competing structures and lexical items, and its grammar remains in flux. From a linguistic perspective, Kalusa models the early stages of a pidgin. Despite the users' familiarity with linguistic theory, the language's growth mirrors that of a pidgin, with constant competition between structures and lexical items.

Factors Influencing Kalusa's Evolution

The evolution of Kalusa is influenced by four main factors: innovation, augmentation, analogy, and misanalysis.

  • Innovation: New structures and words are created ex nihilo.
  • Augmentation: Established patterns are expanded and built upon.
  • Analogy: Users generalize patterns to create similar forms.
  • Misanalysis: Users interpret structures differently, leading to new grammatical rules.

For example, the first biclausal structure was created spontaneously:

Jesus ira dun wepan. ("Jesus wept.")

This led to the creation of sentences like:

Ma wepan, ma ziresh. ("I want to weep.")

Despite initial expectations, such structures became integrated into Kalusa's grammar. Users adapted and expanded these patterns, contributing to the language's continuous growth. Kalusa's evolution demonstrates the collaborative and dynamic nature of conlanging within its community.

Kalusa Homepage