Re: CHAT: Early Conlang Archives

On Tue, 9 Mar 1999, Edward Heil wrote:

> I've just been having a lot of fun browsing some old (91-94) archives of
> the Conlang list:
>
> http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Lab/1635/clang/
>
> What struck me was the immensely different character of discussion then
> and now.  I imagine a major part of it comes from splitting off auxlang:
> back then it seems to have been dominated by idealist discussion on
> IALs, and what was the best or "right" way to do things.
I remember that. I was on the "old" conlang list for a while in 1994,
and I signed off chiefly because of the hostile attitude of many
auxlangers to the people who were just in it for fun - I felt I
wasn't being taken seriously, and this discouraged me greatly from
posting anything at all, even the most "learned" things I could come
up with. Whatever I did wasn't for real, obviously. The only person I
remember holding his own in the midst of all that was Herman Miller.

> I have no taste for IALs personally, no matter how "correctly" they are
> done, and given a year of leisure to spend learning an artificial
> language I'm sure I'd prefer Boranesian to Lojban or Ido, anyday!  I'd
> even prefer Esperanto to Ido because of its status as a work of art, the
> brilliant creation of (mostly) one mind, despite its many flaws from the
> point of view of many auxlangers.
Same here. Does anyone remember somebody posting that there were kids
growing up with Esperanto as their mother language, and being flamed
to Hell and back because *that would cause inconsistencies* and it
was completely contrary to the spirit of an auxiliary langyage?

> I guess this is a semi-rant that doesn't apply to many people on this
> list, but I thought it might at least provoke a little interest.
It does apply (or at least appeal) to me - thanks!

   Irina



               ira@rempt.xs4all.nl (mailing list address)
                     irina@rempt.xs4all.nl (myself)
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