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Re: REQUEST: Engelang?

From:David J. Peterson <dedalvs@...>
Date:Monday, May 30, 2005, 8:08
Tom wrote:
<<
What is an "engelang"?
 >>

Definition from Langmaker.com: "A conlang designed to achieve
pragmatic rather than artistic goals."

http://www.langmaker.com/db/eng_engelang.htm

This can obviously be part of the goal of an auxlang (or any
language, for that matter), but the way I think about is what the
language creator sits down to do when creating a language.
How I basically think about the various terms:

(1) Auxlang: The creator of an auxlang sits down to create a
language that can easily be spoken by a large number of people,
in order to facilitate communication.  The goal is to create a
useable language.

(2) Artlang: The creator has an artistic vision either about how
a language should sound, what the basic structure of a language
should be, how a given language is an outgrowth of a specific
culture, or some combination of these or other factors.  The goal
is to create (more or less) a work of art.

(3) Engelang: The creator starts out with a problem, e.g., how
can a language with the fewest number of sounds work?  How
can I make it so that the most basic concepts are expressed with
the fewest number of words?  Can a language exist without
any pronouns?  The creator, then, sets out to create a language
to solve these problems specifically, without taking into consideration
any aspect of language which doesn't relate to the problems they
set out to address.

That's what I think of when I think of an engelang.  All the languages
I've thought of that have features like an engelang, though, can
really be classified as artlangs or auxlangs or conlangs.  I was looking
for one that's purely an engelang.

-David
*******************************************************************
"sunly eleSkarez ygralleryf ydZZixelje je ox2mejze."
"No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn."

-Jim Morrison

http://dedalvs.free.fr/

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tomhchappell <tomhchappell@...>