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Re: Unilang: the Lexicon

From:Andreas Johansson <and_yo@...>
Date:Saturday, April 21, 2001, 19:45
Óskar wrote:
>Once again, I think the key-word is _balance_. Something like "a mediori" >(in pig-Latin :p). The basic items in the lexicon would probably best be a >priori, while more specific concepts, and certainly all local/culture- >specific items, would be borrowed. But we must also consider the inner >structure of the language; words like "democracy" and "philosophy" might be >tempting to borrow, but perhaps some fairly logical constructions from >native morphemes would do better. What are "long nonsense words" good for, >even if they're Greek?
Hm, while the idea of "a mediori" seems good, I disagree about the last. If a word is found in most of the major langs of the world I think it definitely should be used in the Unilang too. As for "long nonsense words", I don't think that applies to "democracy" - even to English-speakers that know squat of Greek, its connection to "autocracy", "theocracy" etc is quite obvious. BTW, I assume you're intending to keep the "international" scientific terms? I see VERY little point in ditching words like "deoxiribos" ... Andreas _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.