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Re: A question and introduction

From:H. S. Teoh <hsteoh@...>
Date:Friday, June 14, 2002, 21:07
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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JS Bangs <jaspax@...>