<p>One guy taught his <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=008MAwAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PP13&amp;lpg=PP13&amp;dq=Volap%C3%BCk%20daughter%20to%20speak&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=pewsxUK8tC&amp;sig=LzZsaSMNA2ZFoJtjsm5AUtnh-Yo&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwiXj9eax43bAhXDshQKHdjOC9kQ6AEIhgEwCQ#v=onepage&amp;q=Volap%C3%BCk%20daughter%20to%20speak&amp;f=false" rel="noreferrer">daughter Volapuk</a>.</p>

<p>There is a contemporary case of someone teaching their kids their personal conlang, she used to be active on one of Facebook's conlang groups.</p>

<p>The revived languages, Cornish, Hebrew, Sanskrit, have similar dynamics to conlangs. Having government support in the form of schools and day care works wonders for the project being successful.</p>

<p>Getting a child to speak your languages takes time (20+ hours a week) of exposure, and it really helps to have a community of peers who also speak that language, or a child's decision to keep using their parents language will be personal and idiosyncratic. I get this impression from people I've met who tried speaking Arabic or Icelandic to their kids in the US where they got plenty of exposure to their parents, but no particular supporting community of peers.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-17T20:17:44.733Z
2018-05-17T20:17:44.733Z
MatthewMartin
<p>There's a <a href="http://conlinguistics.org/blog/?p=335" rel="nofollow noreferrer">pretty badly written account</a> (English translation) of someone's children learning Arka, though I have no idea if it's true.</p>

<p>There's also the better-known case of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klingon_Language_Institute#d&#39;Armond_Speers" rel="nofollow noreferrer">d'Armond Speers</a> teaching his kid Klingon.</p>

<p><strong>Edit:</strong> the author of the first article <a href="https://kyarei.gitlab.io/estel/book_of_arka.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">later confirmed that it was a hoax</a>.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-07-15T05:05:59.280Z
If this is a hoax, is there any value in keeping it here and linking to it?
curiousdannii
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-07-17T03:19:41.643Z
Not really, but I didn't know that it was when I posted this answer.
bb94
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-16T08:39:37.067Z
2018-07-02T05:26:18.833Z
2018-07-02T05:26:18.833Z
bb94
<p>Are there any modern accounts (either of personal experiences of individuals on this forum, or in general) of an individual creating their own language and teaching it to their child(ren)/family? </p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-13T18:15:10.820Z
If I remember right, the founder of Lojban used the language at home. I am not sure whether the children picked up the language.
Sir Cornflakes
<history><conlang-learning>
Teaching children constructed languages
# Teaching children constructed languages

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-05-13)

Are there any modern accounts (either of personal experiences of individuals on this forum, or in general) of an individual creating their own language and teaching it to their child(ren)/family?

**Tags:** history, conlang-learning
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: If I remember right, the founder of Lojban used the language at home. I am not sure whether the children picked up the language.  

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2018-05-17. Score: 9

One guy taught his [daughter Volapuk](https://books.google.com/books?id=008MAwAAQBAJ&pg=PP13&lpg=PP13&dq=Volap%C3%BCk%20daughter%20to%20speak&source=bl&ots=pewsxUK8tC&sig=LzZsaSMNA2ZFoJtjsm5AUtnh-Yo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiXj9eax43bAhXDshQKHdjOC9kQ6AEIhgEwCQ#v=onepage&q=Volap%C3%BCk%20daughter%20to%20speak&f=false).

There is a contemporary case of someone teaching their kids their personal conlang, she used to be active on one of Facebook's conlang groups.

The revived languages, Cornish, Hebrew, Sanskrit, have similar dynamics to conlangs. Having government support in the form of schools and day care works wonders for the project being successful.

Getting a child to speak your languages takes time (20+ hours a week) of exposure, and it really helps to have a community of peers who also speak that language, or a child's decision to keep using their parents language will be personal and idiosyncratic. I get this impression from people I've met who tried speaking Arabic or Icelandic to their kids in the US where they got plenty of exposure to their parents, but no particular supporting community of peers.


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### Answer by username_3 on 2018-05-16. Score: 5

There's a [pretty badly written account](http://conlinguistics.org/blog/?p=335) (English translation) of someone's children learning Arka, though I have no idea if it's true.

There's also the better-known case of [d'Armond Speers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klingon_Language_Institute#d'Armond_Speers) teaching his kid Klingon.

**Edit:** the author of the first article [later confirmed that it was a hoax](https://kyarei.gitlab.io/estel/book_of_arka.html).

> **Comments:**
> **username_4**: If this is a hoax, is there any value in keeping it here and linking to it?  
> **username_3**: Not really, but I didn't know that it was when I posted this answer.  

---

