Re: CHAT: Which world? Which culture?

Quoting Costentin Cornomorus <elemtilas@...>:

> > So my question to those fellow conlangers would
> > be: Which culture do you mirror into your conlangs?
> > Your native one?
>
> In my opinion, my native country doesn't _have_
> its own culture yet, really. Give it a few
> centuries to settle in.
Aside from pointing out Mark Rosenfelder's article to the
contrary, I would agree that it does not have *one*, but
many.  No one can move north (or south) through Virginia and
not notice precisely where the South begins; the culture south
of that line, with a number of later changes, was in place long
before 1789.  Some other notably distinct cultures in the US:
Northern Louisiana v. Southern Louisiana, East Texas v. Central
Texas v. South Texas v. West Texas, New Mexico v. Arizona, Chicago
v. the rest of Illinois, Southern California v. Northern California,
to name but a few. Cultural differences range from attitudes in
religion and politics to just what physical form the local bread-style
is supposed to take (e.g. in Texas, cornbread should come in
brick-form; in the Carolinas, it comes in pancake form).  The idea
that America is one giant  homogeneous mass is, and has always been,
the false impression of outsiders, but it is widely held outside the
US for political convenience.  (You made no such allegation, but I
think it necessary to point it out.)

 =========================================================================
Thomas Wier            "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics    because our secret police don't get it right
University of Chicago   half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of
1010 E. 59th Street     Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter.
Chicago, IL 60637

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