Re: Tiny lexicon languages

On Wed, 16 Jun 1999, Jim Henry wrote:

> On 14 Jun 99, at 19:40, Nik Taylor wrote:
>
> > Boudewijn Rempt wrote:
> > > The description in Dutch runs to twelfe pages
> > > of double-column text.
> >
> > I thought there were only 24 words?  How would that take up twelve
> > pages?
>
> With 24 words you might have a lot of polysemy.  I suspect any of
> many people could write a whole essay on each of the 24 most
> frequent/important words in their native language.
>
> This reminds me: in re-reading the old conlang archives (1991-
> 1993) I found an intriguing message about a challenge to create the
> most expressive isolating language with only 20 words.  Would
> anyone care to try this in the list now?  (Perhaps we should wait till
> the translation relay is over.)
Oh, absolutely!  Sign me up.  What are the rules?  Must it be completely
isolating?