Re: A question and introduction

On Fri, Jun 14, 2002 at 01:47:19PM -0700, JS Bangs wrote:
> Andy Canivet sikyal:
>
> > >(I'm of the opinion that the best method to construct an artlang is to
> > >invent a conculture -- everything in the language is driven by the
> > >culture, which gives the language a deep, internal consistency, sorta like
> > >how a fern leaf looks like a miniature fern, etc.. It just *feels* right.
> > >:-P)
>
> I'm sort of the opposite opinion.  I have seen too many langs that depend
> too heavily on some "concept," which is said to flow from the culture, and
> which permeates the language in totally absurd ways. "This culture
> worships cows, so they only use the letters c-o-w, and all words have
> three syllables to match the number of letters in the word COW, and there
> are 348 individual roots for different kinds of cows, plus a whole set of
> cow-forming affixes, and poetry based on the noises that cows make, etc,
> etc, ad nauseum." This "deep, internal consistency" quickly turns into
> banality.
[snip]

On the contrary, I think that such banality only arises from an initially
banal idea. I don't see what's wrong with having a common motif permeate
every aspect of the language, except when the motif itself is banal to
begin with.


T

--
You are only young once, but you can stay immature indefinitely. --
azephrahel

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