Re: Previous post, more examples..

Clint Jackson Baker writes:
 > --- Abrigon Gusiq <abrigon@...> wrote:
 > > cow             = anizhazutuv (animal, herbivour,
 > > land, large,
 > > domesticated)
 > >
 > > But want to be able to describe what it is, but with
 > > smaller words..
 > >
 > > Some form of defining that you can easily tell what
 > > the word means cause
 > > you know where the letters go,  and each slot of the
 > > word has a
 > > sub-meaning.
 > >
 > > nihutuv=animal, herbivour, land, small. (I know I
 > > need more work but ).
 > >
 > > Humans might be.
 > >
 > > Nomatum = animal (sentient), omnivourse, land,
 > > medium.
 > > Might add a way to the creatures motive means..
 > >
 > > Mike
 >
 >
 > __________________________________________________
 > Do You Yahoo!?
 > Yahoo! Health - Feel better, live better
 > http://health.yahoo.com
 >


 > There was a phillang (how's that for a coinage?) from
 > the eighteenth century that worked like this--I came
 > across it in the intro to an Esperanto dictionary, but
 > I can't remember the name of the lang.  Does anyone
 > else know?
 >
 > Clint
 >

Ro.  At least, Ro _is_ like this.  There may have been others.  I'm
sure I've heard references to them, and I got the idea they were
earlier.  There's such a language mentioned in Pinker's _Words and
Rules_, but I'm not sure if that's Ro or not.  I believe _The Search
for the Perfect Language_, by Eco, covers this kind of thing, but I
haven't read it.

http://www.invisiblelighthouse.com/langlab/ro.html

This kind of word generation is generally not seen as a good idea
these days.  It does have some advantages - if you only need to know
the general category of a word, it doesn't matter if you miss part of
it, and it'd be helpful when hearing a new word in speech because
you'd know at least some of its characteristics.  But there's a lack
of redundancy.  If any element gets garbled, it's guaranteed to mean
something else (it might be nonsensical, but a lot of times it won't
be).  Also, just imagine if you were, say, a greengrocer.  Everything
you sold would have almost the same word, and you'd be likely to make
a lot of mistakes.