Re: Tiny lexicon languages

On Wed, 16 Jun 1999, Jim Henry wrote:

> On 16 Jun 99, at 17:56, Boudewijn Rempt wrote:
>
> > Personally, I far prefer languages like Sanskrit with a truly enormous
> > lexicon! The more words, the merrier I am, so I don't think I'd take up
> > this challenge, but I'd be very interesting in the results - was this
> > challenge also about ritual or magical languages?.
>
> Personally I prefer a relatively small lexicon with creative use of
> derivation, but 20 roots is probably too small to be useful...  it will
> be interesting to try, though.
>
Yes, even Sanskrit has a finite number of roots - at least, it had
so until the Sanskrit grammarians started inventing root for words
with no clear root. Sanskrit is _good_ in compounding, too, which
is a derivation process I enjoy myself very much.

Boudewijn Rempt  | http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt