Re: Yaguello [was: Re: LUNATIC again]

On Fri, 27 Nov 1998, BP.Jonsson wrote:

> At 17:12 24.11.1998 +0000, And Rosta wrote:
> >Sally:
> >> Marina Yaguello made this same mistake, caving in to the same old
> >> stereotypes about invented languages.  Only HER target was auxiliary
> >> languages, which she attacks with a personal vengeance that is unsettling
> >> (most inventors of language are middle-European; most of them don't know a
> >> thing about linguistics--which she "corroborates" with the remark in a
> >> note that professional linguists don't do this, despite Jespersen,
> >> Saussure, etc. etc; most of them are dreamers; most of them are
>
> FWIW the Esperantist Saussure wasn't the linguist Saussure, but his brother
> Rene'.  Never heard that the other objected to his brother's interest,
> though!
But I understand from some of my studies of Saussure that Ferdinand was
himself quite interested in auxiliary languages.

>
> BTW: _Was_ Marr really a conlanger?
Yaguello paints him as such.  The book is back in the library, and I
can't find my copy.  When I do I'll get back to you.  Basically, she
has a section devoted to "male and female language inventors," the
quintessential examples, and she gives Marr as an example of the former
and the medium Helene Smith (?) (my memory is failing me at 45) as an
example of the latter.  When I first glanced at this woman's book, I
was delighted by the legerdemain.  But being myself a conlanger,
lucubrating into the wee hours of the morning, wasting my time with
notecards and words, I finally didn't enjoy being put into the neat
categories this writer had set out for me and all the rest of us;
despite the jokes and the flashy writing, she was ultimately contemptuous.
Imagine: having a whole final section of her book entitled "In Defense of
Natural Languages."  What's the threat?

 >
> [Yes!  I'm _*REALLY*_ behind in my mail.  My old harddisk drive finally
> decided that it wouldn't play anymore, and it took some time to find a
> substitute at an acceptable price.]
That little snipe was meant for And.  :)  I'm not repeating the compliment
for just anyone. ;-)  Yeah, same thing happened to me this summer.  I lost
everything, all my downloads, and all my backup files.  Fortunately, I
could log on at school. Hope you found a computer you like!

Cat is sitting on scanner.... OFF!

Sally
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Sally Caves
scaves@frontiernet.net
http://www.frontiernet.net/~scaves/teonaht.html
http://www.frontiernet.net/~scaves/contents.html


Li fetil'aiba, dam hoja-le uen.
volwin ly, vul inua aiba bronib.

This leaf, the wind takes her.
She's old, and born this year.
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