Re: a "natural language" ?

>> yep, back to this fun.  :)
>>
>>  rather than ask for the technical mumbo-jumbo of "what makes a language
>>seem natural or fake?".....I'll ask something better....
>>
>> What natural language in the real world, if you only encountered it for
the
>>first time today or tomorrow, would you say "no, that's not a natural
>>language" ?
>>
>> thoughts?
>>
What about something like Tok Pisin, with its vocabulary kind of "bilong
Inglis" all "gan bagarap"?

My first reaction on hearing someone speaking Tok Pisin was that it was
some sort of language game like pig latin.  It took a while for me to
become aware that it was a real lang.

But I guess you're mostly meaning weirdnesses of grammar or structure.  For
that, any tonal language gets my vote.  Tones freak me out and I don't
really understand them.

Geoff

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