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Re: my proposals for a philosophical language

From:Danny Wier <dawier@...>
Date:Thursday, January 23, 2003, 14:33
From: "Sarah Marie Parker-Allen" <lloannna@...>

> I'm also curious -- how many of you have made up religious traditions in > order to influence a constructed language? I'm toying with the idea of a > human culture that has some very odd ideas, thanks to their interaction
with
> other societies (e.g. they find all elves weak, because elves in this > scenario choose to die, and they see that as cowardice -- a truly > *couragous* person would be one with the stamina to stay alive and work
for
> the good of all the world forEVER), and considering the possiblity of
giving
> them a language (possibly a derivative of another language, Sarah1 or > something) that's been charged emotionally to reflect their theology and > all. I always knew I wanted them to have a language, but it occurred to
me
> that by making that general attitude a moral and religious maxim, it'd be > more logical to have it cemented into the language itself. And from there > all these OTHER ideas about their religious/moral outlook on life > developed...
Well Tech is a conlang for a conculture, so I have a conreligion as well. The Techian Elves (which are actually incarnated angels or djinn) are monotheistic in the Abrahamic tradition, but believe in dualism, karma, reincarnation and prophets as divine incarnations or avatars. Actually I'm mixing six religions and other philosophical traditions here. I'm much more familiar with the Bible, and the Quran to a lesser extent, than I am with the Vedas, Avesta or Socrates/Plato/Aristotle, so I have a lot of work to do. I tend to describe myself as an "independent theist", but my personal faith is a lot like that of those Elves I created. My main purpose for the language at this stage is politics, religion and sex. Mostly sex right now. One of the many physical weaknesses of the Elves is that the male orgasm can be fatal. Which balances out since male Elves typically live well over a hundred years (females live MUCH longer, and Elves are traditionally matriarchal). Sex is a very intense (and rare) thing, not at all treated mundanely like it is with humans. I really have a lot more conculture than conlang worked out. ~Danny~