Re: Ancient conlang

--- Gary Shannon <fiziwig@...> did screeve
and scrawl:

> How would such a conlang differ from a modern,
> or even
> classical period conlang.  Obviously the
> vocabulary
> would be very "rural/pastoral/practical" as
> opposed to
> "urban/philosophical/academic",
I'm not sure that such a language would really be
any different! And I hope you're not indicating
that "pastoral" langauges can not also be
philosophical or academic!

Personally, I think the main differences will be
in lexicon: there'll be bejillions of words for
husbandry, farm tools, perhaps kinds of animals
(consider the various Quechua words for types of
llamas), perhaps seasons differing from
agricultural types, etc.

> but what about the
> grammar.  Assuming a non-IE language, or even a
> language of an alien culture on a planet far
> from
> Earth, would such a conlang necessarily have a
> simpler, less developed grammar than more
> modern languages like Latin or Ancient Greek?
I think "not necessarily". Since they ain't
human, you can fashion their brains any way you
please. Maybe they won't even be capable of
"complex" language. Or perhaps it will just be
"complex" in other directions (perhaps requiring
appendage movement, colour change, or whatever).

Padraic.


=====
la cieurgeourea provoer mal trasfu ast meiyoer ke 'l andrext ben trasfu.


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