Re: Caste Languages

 --- "Hiro M." skrzypszy:

> I remember an episode of Babylon 5 where Delenn told
> that each of the three Minbari castes (Worker Caste,
> Warrior Caste, and Religious Caste) had its own
> language.
Ha! Another fan of B5!

> Has anyone ever attempted to create a language that
> splits into three similar but distinct dialects due to
> a cultural schism? Or what the three languages would
> look like after thousands of years?
Not exactly to create it. But your question immediately reminds me of a story
my girlfriend told me yesterday. She had been in the train, sitting next to two
Polish men. Their conversation was a typical example of the worst kind of
street Polish you can imagine (and believe me: Polish can be really bad in this
kind of things). Basically, every sentence contains the word "kurwa" (whore) at
least two or three times, and many verbs are substituted with some version of
the word "f*ck". Apparently they were unaware of the fact that someone else in
the train could actually understand Polish.
This kind of slang can easily be comparated to the caste language you asked
about.

FWIW, I have never applied the idea in any of my conlangs, but you never
know...

Jan

=====
"Originality is the art of concealing your source." - Franklin P. Jones

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