Re: A DISTURBING proposal! (was Re: Personal langs and converse ofaux)

>
> > I would add another reason this experiment is doomed to failure. I find
>it
> > highly improbable that the conlang will be developed to a high enough
> > degree to allow for casual, constant conversation. And even if it does
>get
> > to that point, the experiment would require that all members of the
> > household speak the conlang, otherwise it is unlikely that the children
> > will pick up on much of it. Only a single person using the language will
> > not be using it naturally, eg, asking and answering questions, using
>words
> > other than very basic ones, etc.
>
>I don't know. There was the recent case of the guy who tried to teach
>his son Klingon by speaking it to him exclusively. AFAIR, the kid
>learned a fair amount, but when he was four or five he cottoned on to
>the fact that no other kids in the world spoke the language --- so he
>told his father that he didn't want to play along any more.
>
>(That father had to extend the language a fair bit himself, IIRC ---
>the official version doesn't have words for 'go potty' and 'drink your
>milk, don't play with it').
>
>Lars Mathiesen (U of Copenhagen CS Dep) <thorinn@...> (Humour NOT
>marked)
Hmm, I've heard of several occasions where one parent has successfully
thought his/her child(ren) a natlang that nobody else, not even the other
parent, in the area speaks/spoke.

Known, this isn't exactly parallel as the parent presumeably told the kid(s)
that they where going to go to wherever the lang is actually spoken sometime
in the future, giving an extra bit of motivation. But with a less social, so
to speak, child than the one you heard of it presumeably should work with a
conlang too. AFAIK, nobody's experienced any special trouble in teaching
kids Esperanto - there's even people who have Esperanto as their first
language.

                                                 Andreas
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