Which auxlangs? (was Re: I won't start a flame war)

Quoth Charles:
> Don Blaheta wrote:
> > This is a good point, and the more I think about it, I think that two or
> > three well-chosen auxlangs would serve the purpose the natlangs were
> > meant to (provide some recognisable element) without overloading the
> > shirt---and then we could say they were *all* conlangs.  Based on a mix
> > of historical importance and variety, I'd say that the auxlangs to be
> > included should be Volap=FCk, Esperanto, and Interlingua, and Lojban if
> > you count that as such.  For variety of look, I think that we're well
> > set with the long list of conlangs that have been provided.... :)
>=20
> I'd say I dislike your selection of auxlangs.
>=20
> Better to leave them out, or include *my* favorite, Occidental,
> which is likely the most recognizeable.
Everyone has their favourite.  Mine's Novial.  But I don't think it
should necessarily go on the shirt.  Here's my semi-objective reasoning
for the choices I gave:

* Volap=FCk was the first auxlang to attain widespread use; it also is
  byzantine in its complexity and rather unrecognisable as a European
  language unless you know what to look for.
* Esperanto is *by far* the most well known auxlang; and it's definitely
  in the top two or three best-known conlangs.  When I bring up
  conlanging to random people, the most common first response is "is
  that like Esperanto?"  (close runner up: "...Klingon?")  So even if
  people don't recognise it on sight, when you explain what the shirt
  is, and they say "oh, like Esperanto?" you can then point to it and
  say "yes, and there it is."  If no other auxlang goes on the shirt,=20
  Esperanto should.
* Interlingua is, of the three, the one I feel least strongly about, but
  I think it's reasonable to put one (1) romance-based auxlang on the
  shirt, and from all evidence it is the most widespread and well known
  of them.  Occidental would also be a good choice, Novial wouldn't be
  too bad (but I'm biased there :), and really there are several valid
  choices.  Based on popularity, I'd say Interlingua, but whatever.

> Or, use a true conlang-auxlang, Jay's "Ekspreso", to represent all
> auxlangs.
I'm really not sure what you mean by a "true" conlang-auxlang; all the
ones I listed are conlang-auxlangs (as opposed to, say, English, Lingua
Franca, Tok Pisin, or Mandarin).  It would, however, be a fine idea to
replace Interlingua with a romance-based auxlang created by a list
member... I don't remember if Ekspreso meets the romance-based
criterion, though.  (Not that it matters.  If Jay created it, it's fair
game for the shirt *regardless* of any other concerns.)

By the way, let me state that for simplicity of management, I think we
should run this T-shirt project like most OSS projects, i.e. Fabian is
the benevolent despot; he listens to our input, takes it into account,
but doesn't need to be bound by votes or anything (and is technically
free to ignore anything and everything we say :).  This sort of
management tends to cut down the flaming, and really, is anyone going to
not buy the shirt just because the languages aren't *exactly* how they
wanted them? ;)

--=20
-=3D-Don Blaheta-=3D-=3D-dpb@cs.brown.edu-=3D-=3D-<http://www.cs.brown.edu/=
~dpb/>-=3D-
Le kel vivar per espade morir per arkebusenbolte.