Re: Ancient conlang

Gary Shannon wrote at 2004-01-14 16:04:32 (-0800)
 > Suppose someone where interested in creating a conlang
 > for a conculture that was somewhere in the timespan
 > between hunter-gatherer and early "civilized", say
 > 5000 BC to maybe 2000 BC, with maybe a primative
 > writing system like the Indus Valley script.
 >
 > 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", 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?
 >
 > --gary

Not at all.  If you look at, say, Amerindian or Australian aboriginal
languages - which would seem to be the closest modern-day analogue -
they're often extremely complex, grammatically.