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Re: concepts of Babel text

From:Irina Rempt <ira@...>
Date:Thursday, May 3, 2001, 9:21
On Thu, 3 May 2001, Pavel A. da Mek wrote:

> But the Babel text describes only what happened, > not why it happened nor if that was good or bad. > Miscellaneous concepts may be seen behind this story. > Some extremistic auxlangers maybe can interpret > splitting of languages as a harm done by God to men, > but most of artlangers here will consider it undoubtedly as a gift.
It describes what happened *in a specific culture*. If one's language comes with a culture of its own, it may be the case that not only did it (or anything like it) never happen in the history of that culture, but it *could* never have happened because the premises are too different. In Valdyas, for instance, it's ridiculous to think that all the world ever spoke only one language, because it's self-evident that if you go to the next village, the people talk different from you, and if you travel for ten days, you'll have trouble understanding the people there. A world that speaks the same language all over is, for the average Valdyan, (a) science fiction (not even myth, because myths are true stories about the gods and this obviously can't be true because no god would stand for it) and (b) boring. Getting to know other people is fun, and the way people speak is part of them. The gift of the gods is variety, but right from the beginning, not as a splitting-up of unity. Irina -- Varsinen an laynynay, saraz no arlet rastynay. irina@valdyas.org (myself) http://www.valdyas.org/irina/valdyas

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