>> I suspect folks who are second-languague learners or who otherwise have trouble reading English might have trouble distinguishing the two languagues. <<
Oh, crap. You are right, and I didn't even think of that. I have edited the post to include this point.
>> (Chahi is written in the Latin alphabet, right?) That's... annoying... but can be probably be patched by having someone be a Translator Buddy / Literacy Buddy. <<
Yes, and I haven't spotted any unusual features. Conlangs often do include things to separate them dramatically from English, some of which are more usable than others. If you want ordinary people -- not language nerds -- to use your words, then you have to use English phonemes and word construction rules. *chuckle* Except, of course, the target audience for this book has bunches of other languages they might be using, none of which are any closer related to English than maybe Spanish. I can look at Chahi and recognize its features as congruent with Turtle Island languages, but they're not using the more far-out features as far as I've seen yet.
>> I've on occasion had to ask folks "Okay, what languague is this?" When dealing with multiple foreign languagues using the same foreign script.<<
*laugh* My partner calls me to the television to identify languages. And to sight-read Russian chessmaster names.
>> I find it can be hard to figure out pronunciation for stuff written in foreign alphabets, i.e. "Da/Nyet" vs да/нет. <<
You can't use a different script more than brief tidbits, unless you expect your readers can read that one too. Or you have to translated it right after, which I have sometimes done with Russian/Cyrillic in Love Is For Children. Otherwise you might as well be typing ####.
>> A lot of fanfics use footnote translations.
And really popular media may get fanmade translations.<<
Yep.
>> - [Someone is speaking/writing unfamiliar foreign languague nearby] This will usually be ignored unless additional strong contextual signals indicate I am the preferred audience/conversation partner, which in turn, usually nets an intent but somewhat confused look. (And I won't even remember the words out of a long speech, unless I get a translation.) <<
A quirk of my brain is that any foreign language yanks my attention to it. All human babies are born with this feature, which in most people turns off around toddler age, as the language window starts to close. Mine never really closed, and as a result, I can hear things most adults don't; but a cost of that is I still have to pay nearly full-price to maintain it, one of which is having my attention yanked around.
>>And languagues similar to on you already know might get more of a pass. I.e. Knowing conversation-level Spanish allows me to converse with Portugese speakers (though the writing is more confusing) or somewhat parse written Romance languages - despite only really knowing Spanish.<<
That's language hacking. I have been told normal people can't do it. That only comes with high linguistic intelligence. Most polyglots seem to have it, but average people only know the stuff they learned. They don't get the extras.
Me, I once won an award for writing poetry in Welsh, which I don't actually speak.
Re: Thoughts
Oh, crap. You are right, and I didn't even think of that. I have edited the post to include this point.
>> (Chahi is written in the Latin alphabet, right?) That's... annoying... but can be probably be patched by having someone be a Translator Buddy / Literacy Buddy. <<
Yes, and I haven't spotted any unusual features. Conlangs often do include things to separate them dramatically from English, some of which are more usable than others. If you want ordinary people -- not language nerds -- to use your words, then you have to use English phonemes and word construction rules. *chuckle* Except, of course, the target audience for this book has bunches of other languages they might be using, none of which are any closer related to English than maybe Spanish. I can look at Chahi and recognize its features as congruent with Turtle Island languages, but they're not using the more far-out features as far as I've seen yet.
>> I've on occasion had to ask folks "Okay, what languague is this?" When dealing with multiple foreign languagues using the same foreign script.<<
*laugh* My partner calls me to the television to identify languages. And to sight-read Russian chessmaster names.
>> I find it can be hard to figure out pronunciation for stuff written in foreign alphabets, i.e. "Da/Nyet" vs да/нет. <<
You can't use a different script more than brief tidbits, unless you expect your readers can read that one too. Or you have to translated it right after, which I have sometimes done with Russian/Cyrillic in Love Is For Children. Otherwise you might as well be typing ####.
>> A lot of fanfics use footnote translations.
And really popular media may get fanmade translations.<<
Yep.
>> - [Someone is speaking/writing unfamiliar foreign languague nearby] This will usually be ignored unless additional strong contextual signals indicate I am the preferred audience/conversation partner, which in turn, usually nets an intent but somewhat confused look. (And I won't even remember the words out of a long speech, unless I get a translation.) <<
A quirk of my brain is that any foreign language yanks my attention to it. All human babies are born with this feature, which in most people turns off around toddler age, as the language window starts to close. Mine never really closed, and as a result, I can hear things most adults don't; but a cost of that is I still have to pay nearly full-price to maintain it, one of which is having my attention yanked around.
>>And languagues similar to on you already know might get more of a pass. I.e. Knowing conversation-level Spanish allows me to converse with Portugese speakers (though the writing is more confusing) or somewhat parse written Romance languages - despite only really knowing Spanish.<<
That's language hacking. I have been told normal people can't do it. That only comes with high linguistic intelligence. Most polyglots seem to have it, but average people only know the stuff they learned. They don't get the extras.
Me, I once won an award for writing poetry in Welsh, which I don't actually speak.