Re: CHAT: t-shirt

andrew wrote:
>
> Am 09/25 01:05  J?rg Rhiemeier yscrifef:
>
> > Quite hard, indeed.  BTW: What was Tolkien's opinion on auxlangs?
> > I have read that he took some interest in Esperanto, but wasn't he
> > quite sceptical about that matter?
> >
> If I remember correctly in the Letters he criticised Esperanto and
> Novial for having no history behind them.  I suppose he was arguing that
> a language should have its own culture, even one that is constructed for
> it.
Like Tolkien, I have always felt that a conlang needs a (con)history
behind it.
Otherwise, it is hardly a language, but tends to degenerate into a code
or an algebra.  A system to encode information in, yes, but a language
must feel *alive* (ObConlang: the Nur-ellen word for "language", _lamb_,
is an animate noun.).  And this is what seems most amiss to me in most
IALs.
They are just "machines" rather than "organisms"; you can use them,
but they don't have their wealth of idioms and traditions.

Jörg.