Ivan A Derzhanski's Personal Interests


(This is going to sound like Makura no sôshi, but such is life.)
Languages
Natural languages (natlangs)
Have been heard speaking (with varying success) Russian, Bulgarian, Serbian/Croatian, Slovene, Czech, Slovak, Polish, Ukrainian, English, German, Dutch, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek (Modern), Irish, Persian, Hindi/Urdu, Hungarian, Estonian, Japanese, Turkish, Arabic (Classical), Hebrew and Maltese.
Have been seen reading (with the same reservation) Belorussian, Upper Sorbian, Lower Sorbian, Old Slavic, Scots, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Roumanian, Scottish Gaelic and Tati.
Have been known to be interested in Akkadian, Chinese, Egyptian, Finnish, Georgian, Korean, Lak, Nivkh, Quechua, Romany, Sumerian, Welsh … and all the rest of 'em.
Constructed languages (conlangs)
Some call them `made-up languages' and think them silly (which is a very silly thing to think). I'm into:
Have a look at Rick Harrison's essay `Farewell to Auxiliary Languages'.
And check out the profile of Universal, a moderately a posteriori project with some very interesting traits.
Writing systems, their history and typology.
Here is what I have to say on the Codex Seraphinianus.
Programming
Yes, I enjoy doing that from time to time. Have programmed in Python, Prolog, Lisp, Scheme, Icon and Unicon, Snobol, TeX & LaTeX, MetaFont, Awk, Logo, APL, Pascal, C, PL/I, Fortran and Basic.
Typesetting and fount design
A new version of the eIAD family of Computer Modern Irish founts available as of December 1998; get it now if you are still using the old one!
Apart from the things that are already out, I also have two families of Georgian founts (xucuri and mxedruli), but haven't got around to releasing them yet.
Reading
Favourite genres:
You've probably noticed a general preference for stories set outside the here-and-now; on the whole, however, I care no less for the writer's lámatyáve than for the genre and the content.
Some more prosaic works that I count among my favourites:
Favourite Russian poems (one per author):
Favourite poetic works (other than Russian verse):
Versification.
History and anthropology
Special focus on Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and pre-Columbus America. (Visit the Mexican Heritage Almanac.)
Religions and mythologies. (Odd hobby for an atheist? Tough.)
Intellectual recreations
Recreational mathematics and mathemagics.
Board games
Visit the Chess Variant Pages.
Games I described and/or implemented for Zillions of Games:
Games I invented:
See also Ari Luiro's paper on the names of chessmen in various languages (in Finnish; or a shorter version in English).
Card games
Here is another page for them.
I am maintaining a growing collection of names of court cards and suits in various languages. Contributions are very welcome.
Word games.
Situation puzzles.
Dancing
Scottish Country, the best of all styles.
Navigating CyberSpace, the final frontier.


Notes:


Created and maintained by Ivan A Derzhanski.

Last modified: 12 March 2016.