Hello, you may call me JD (since my awkward username is an old university ID).
In terms of background and credentials, I've had a strong passion for linguistics and languages for close to 20 years, which has included both formal and informal learning. In 2018, I received a Bachelor of Arts degree from a United States university (in California specifically); it included a full major in linguistics, along with a couple other academic specializations. Before, during, and after my undergraduate studies, I completed four years of French, one year of Japanese, and one year of Mandarin (Chinese). Outside of the classroom, I've also spent time studying Literary Chinese and maintaining my hold of Japanese through translation practice. Oh, and no thanks to my Latin American family members, I did manage to acquire a weak command of Spanish, which I'd like to improve at some point. For now though, my formal education has been put on hiatus since I decided to leave graduate school; I now work in private education and tutoring.
Beyond the academic, I'm also very passionate about "conlanging," which is the incredibly nerdy activity of constructing fictional languages, for whatever reason/purpose and to any extent. On this score, I've had my hand in a fair number of projects over the years, both personal or collaborative. While specific learning disabilities make it quite challenging for me to learn to speak languages (not to mention made-up ones), I revel in the designing the phonological, morphological, and syntactic systems which constitute the grammar of my constructed languages. Given this, I've researched a wide variety of natural languages and writing systems, past and present, from Sumerian and Old Chinese to Totonac and Chukchi.
Here on Wikipedia and Wiktionary, my main activities primarily include finding resources for language study, clarifying inaccuracies, and contributing where possible.
