Re: [SEARCH]: Srikanth's Lin

At 4:16 pm -0500 15/3/02, J Y S Czhang wrote:
>In a message dated 2002.03.14 09.21.47 PM, ray.brown@FREEUK.COM writes:
>
>>In my view, Srikanth's Lin - to take just one example - shows far more
>>creativity, imagination and artistry than many of the the humdrum
>>natlang-clones I've seen.  He has pushed the concept of compactness
>>(practically) to its limits with his enneasemy & other techniques.  But
>>by no stretch of the imagination could one mistake it for a natlang (it was,
>>after all, designed to encode the telepathic communication of an alien
>>culture).
>
>    Ooh, _that_ sounds truly intriguing :)
It is.

>Tell me more, please, Ray... or
>any one familiar with this language.
As I understand it, the project began as experiment to see how compact one
could make a (written) language.  As it developed, Srikanth evolved a
fictional setting for his language to account for its peculiarities; it is
the language of the Lynu, an exterrestrial who communicate by telepathy.
Srikanth claimed a tribal family living in the Chambai valley of central
India were his earthly contacts with this exterrestrial race.

The compactness of his earthly representation of the language is meant to
reflect the speed at which these beings communicate; in addition it has:
- a system of fractional/multiple pronouns to reflect the lesswell defined
boundaries of the ego of the Lynu psyche, as perceived by us humans;
- a somewhat different clause structure to vaguely reflect the
non-linearity of telepathic language;
- many homophonous words distinguished only by their non-verbal nuances.

That third feature is made possible by the "low audio resolution in the
transmission" and is "alledgedly paralleled by the Lin feature of
enneasemy." [enneasemy = the feature of having nine different meanings]

As an example of its compactness, on the introduction page Srikanth gave:
"The (human) being sees the interesting book" >> "h v i2b"
"The importanant agreement is possible" >> "i5o m"
"
>    Any resources on Lin, pretty please?
I got all my information from:
ftp://202.41.67.172/home1/srik/lin/Lin.html

Srikanth used to be a regular contributer on this list, more often under
the pseudonym 'skrintha' IIRC.

Ray.


=========================================
A mind which thinks at its own expense
will always interfere with language.
                     [J.G. Hamann 1760]
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