Talk:Kenneth Searight

	Biography portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography articles
	This article is supported by the science and academia work group.

Constructed languages Low‑importance

	Constructed languages portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Constructed languages, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of constructed languages on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Constructed languagesWikipedia:WikiProject Constructed languagesTemplate:WikiProject Constructed languagesconstructed language articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

LGBTQ+ studies

This article is of interest to WikiProject LGBTQ+ studies, which tries to ensure comprehensive and factual coverage of all LGBTQ-related issues on Wikipedia. For more information, or to get involved, please visit the project page or contribute to the discussion.LGBTQ+ studiesWikipedia:WikiProject LGBTQ+ studiesTemplate:WikiProject LGBTQ+ studiesLGBTQ+ studies articles

Untitled comments

I'm unsure whether the creator of Sona is the same Kenneth Searight mentioned in this article: http://freespace.virgin.net/old.whig/proporn.htm . Frankly, I was unsure that Searight actually existed -- most of the references to him on Google come directly or indirectly from a digitalization of the Sona book. But I was able to find the Sona book in the LOC online and the British Library online, so it's probably reasonable to assume that the person isn't a fictional character created by imaginative latter-day conlangers.

The LOC listing gives Searight's birth year as 1883, but they don't have any other publications (such as the aforementioned 137-page verse autobiography) listed -- nor does the British Library. I found birth and school records on ancestry.co.uk. I'm going to try to dig up the --ESP 18:49, 18 Jan 2004 (UTC)

I forgot to mention: the LOC lists Searight as "1883-", with no year of death. It's unlikely but possible that a 120-year-old Englishman is alive somewhere in the world, but I'd wager this is an oversight. --ESP 18:53, 18 Jan 2004 (UTC)

So, it appears that the Sona language book was published on C.K. Ogden's press, Psyche. Ogden (creator of Basic English) wrote the intro to the Sona book, and he was renowned for using pseudonyms. There's a possibility that Searight is still non-existent, but the hoax is older than I thought. --ESP 22:29, 19 Jan 2004 (UTC)

So, I've done some more research on Searight. It was originally compiled here, in the public domain, and copied to Wikipedia. I'm the author of the page linked. --ESP 07:22, 29 Jan 2004 (UTC)