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Re: CHAT: t-shirt

From:Jörg Rhiemeier <joerg.rhiemeier@...>
Date:Monday, September 25, 2000, 22:09
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.