the Maligned Art

Just an addendum to what I wrote to Lojbab:  Bob, it seems so utterly
useless to complain that the neophyte langers on this list are ruining
the credibility of Lojban with "serious" linguists.  This strikes me
as a feeble reason for finding fault with new and perhaps naive
conlangers who irritate you more than they really hamper you (I mean
seriously; which ones of us are writing to our local linguist urging
our private conlang on him/her?).

Inventing a language, whether aux or loj or art or fic, has always been
met with misunderstanding and dismissal by academics.  This is a key issue
in my survey, which I hope will lead to some study of the Maligned Art. We
fellow conlangers do not need this within our own ranks.  And frankly, I
find your plaint that the word "language" is being misused here to
be--while interesting philosophically and linguistically and certainly
worth discussion--somewhat moot in this context, on a listserv taking the
shortened name for "Constructed LANGUAGES."  It is a given that what we
are toying with are parts of imaginary or even potential languages--
artificial, auxiliary, artistic, fictional--and that it is convenient to
call them languages, and even licit in this context.

I've invented a beach town.  I've mapped out every artificial street, I
know who lives in what houses.  Am I not going to call it a town simply
because it lives only on paper?  Shall I not refer to Tsorelai Mundya as a
city?  Or must I always speak of it as my "invented city"?

Well there you have it, Bob.  People say "my language" or "my city," and
everybody knows that it's a fictional language or a fictional city.
On   this   listserv.


Sally
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sally Caves

Li fetil'aiba, dam hoja-le uen.
volwin ly, vul inua aiba bronib.

This leaf, the wind takes her.
She's old, and born this year.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++