Parallel Languages

Hi all,

My first introduction to a parallel language was Mua. A parallel language is
one where the meaning of words is created by each user of the language. This
may sound like chaos but no, there's more. There are guidlines that keep each
persons individual interpretation close to everyone else's

A persons interpretation of the vocabulary is called his set.

The way this was achieved in Mua was by starting with what we here call a
philosophical language. Instead of the creator of the language deciding what
each word meant it was left up to each individual to decide. Yes. You write to
me using your set and I translate back to english, or whatever, using my set.

Here's the thing. Each field of human endeavor can have its own set. This
means that one person can be talking about physics and the other person can be
understanding him as a cook. Dig? The physicist uses the physics set The cook
understands from the chefs set. Neither of them really have to know what
profession the other guy is coming from. In fact its better if they don't
know.

What this does is give ideas and inspiration. Clearly the Cook thinks, "Wow
what kind of soup is this guy making?" Because all ideas expressed in the
physicists set have their corespondences in the Cook's set, but clearly some
strange ideas are going to come through.

I studied Mua for a while with the guy who created it and lost touch with him
before I realized the full implications of his language. There are several
aspects of Mua that I still don't understand.

Has anyone else ever studied or created a parallel language?

-Duke Keenan

The Keenans
makeenan@syr.edu

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