Re: The Forbidden Expariment

At 4:07 pm +0100 24/11/99, Grandsire, C.A. wrote:
[...]
>        I've heard that it had once been performed long ago (maybe during the
>Middle Ages) and that the results had been that all children had died by
>stopping to eat. Seems like communication is vital for life (maybe it's
>only a legend though).
I've not heard of that one (which doesn't meant to say it didn't happen) -
but the famous example is the one related by Herodotos way back in ancient
Greek times.  He related king Psammetikos of Egypt had two children brought
up, hearing no human speech.  The first word eventually uttered by one of
the children was 'bekos'.

This was discovered to be the Phrygian word for 'bread' or 'food', thus
proving that the original human language ('hard-wired' into the brain as
some would say now :) was Phrygian.

>> I have a new version of the FE (Forbidden Experiment). I wonder whether
>> any of you has thought about teaching his/her conlang to his/her baby
>> (apart from the national language, of course). I wonder if any of you
>> has decided to achieve a "different" family in this way. I can see my
>> son asking if he can go out with girls... in lojban!! (for example)
>>
>
>        I know that there are Esperantist families where children are raised
>with Esperanto as a first language. Those children are called "denaskaj
>Esperantistoj" (Esperantists from birth) and are considered to be some
>2000 in the world.
Yep - and I've heard that at least one person is bringing up his son in
Klingon as well as English!
------------------------------------

At 12:55 pm -0500 24/11/99, Mia Soderquist wrote:

>
>Lots of kids are raised with two languages, or in a
>minority-language only household, and most of them seem to get
>along pretty well.
Lots are in fact millions.  My two grandsons are among the millions (French
& English in their case) and get along very well.  I have read it argued
that bilingualism is the human norm and monoglots form a minority of the
human race.  I'd not argue that - but I'm darn sure bilingualism is far
more widespread than those of us from essentially monoglot cultures realize.

Indeed, trilingualism is, I understand, not unusual.

>I don't think that it would be particularly
>different if the minority language was a conlang.
I don't see why it should different, provided that the conlang has been
developed suffiently.

>I have thought
>about it, but I am not happy with my fluency in any one of my
>conlangs.
Yes - that's the rub.  One has to be reasonably fluent in the language.  I
tried to pass myself off to my elder grandson at one time as more fluent in
French than I really was - he soon saw through it even at the tender age of
2 or 3!

Alex's original question is an interesting one and, despite examples above,
no example of a conlanging actually using their conlang with their children
has been given.  Is any conlanger fluent enough in their conlang to even
contemplate doing this?

Ray.




=========================================
A mind which thinks at its own expense
will always interfere with language.
                   [J.G. Hamann 1760]
=========================================