Re: What is needed in an conlang classificatory system?

For what it's worth, my views are that the system could be
extended, but not necessarily along the hierarchical system
employed in the current classification.

Languages can be artificailly divided along the lines of
arbitrary, but significant properties of the language. For
instance, a system could ask for each languages to be classified
for three or four significant features. eg:

A. is the language...
   1. Naturally spoken by humans (in this timeline?)
   2. An artificial auxillary or constructed language
   3. Other (eg a language for communicating with machines)

B. is the major source of the language's words...
   1. mostly developed from natural languages
   2. mostly constructed a-priori
   3. neither of the above

C. is tone used in the language to convey...
   1. mainly grammatical features
   2. mainly instances of emphasis within the spoken flow
   3. none of the above/not spoken

D. is the interatcion between objects and actions mainly shown
through a grammatical system of...
   1. SOV variations
   2. ergative
   3. active
   4. something else/not applicable

etc.

The classification would thus be A.B.C.D (in this system Gevey
would classify as 2.2.3.1, rather than the ubiquitous 2.1.2 of
the current system)

I'm sure the professional linguists could come up with a better
set of properties, while keeping the system as simple as
possible for amateurs like me to follow...

Rik

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The Gevey Language Resource.