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Uusisuom, Unilang, auxlang discussions in CONLANG

From:Oskar Gudlaugsson <hr_oskar@...>
Date:Monday, April 23, 2001, 15:06
Since I started reading the list again only a few weeks ago when the
Uusisuom discussion was nearing an end, I totally missed that whole
discussion. I presumed "Uusisuom" to be just another obscure conlang (which
it indeed is), so I never bothered to check out where the "Blandness (was:
Uusisuom's Influences)" thread had started. But recently I gathered that
this Uusisuom is some kind of auxlang, so I inquired on it.

Having viewed the lang's homepage and read through all the threads about it
of late March - early April, I must honestly say that it's the most
hilarious CONLANG thread I've ever seen; no offence to Daniel (Uusisuom's
author) or anyone else involved :) As for my opinion on Uusisuom, I
wholeheartedly agree with most that it would make an excellent beginner's
artlang, while at best a naive auxlang. I hope the friendly comments and
criticisms of this list will inspire Daniel to study more linguistics,
especially phonology, to improve his designs; we all started this hobby
somewhere :)

I now realize, however, that my whole auxlang discussion may have entered
the list at a bad time, when some were getting tired of the subject. I
noticed iterations of this not being a list for auxlang design. I'm sorry,
for example, that my threads spurred a brief flame-war between list members
about Esperanto, which would otherwise not have occurred.

Though no-one has openly complained of my writing on the subject, I wish to
explain why I feel these writings belong here. One big reason is: they
don't want them in AUXLANG! The difference between CONLANG and AUXLANG
isn't necessarily, I think, in what can be discussed, but rather _how_ it
is discussed. AUXLANG discusses auxlangs in a completely non-theoretical
manner; the main subject is the political reality of such languages, and
not design questions. If we see my auxlang design as design ponderings for
a futuristic artlang named "Unilang", whose nature is that it is the
intermedium of all humans in some ideal future, I think it is easier to
accept its presence here.

Again, nobody even criticized, but I felt obliged to explain why I've taken
up this somewhat flammable subject here. The discussions have generally
been positive, and I am grateful for the attention the subject has had,
after all :) May it remain so.

Regards,
Óskar

Replies

Daniel44 <daniel44@...>
Raymond Brown <ray.brown@...>
Raymond Brown <ray.brown@...>