Re: USAGE: Language revival

On Wed, 24 Nov 1999, Charles wrote:

> Patrick Dunn wrote:
>
> > I like the irregularity, the difficulty, and the strangeness of
> > our language.  It makes such wonderful poetic tricks possible.
> >
> > It's why I got turned off of Glosa.  I couldn't write a decent poem in it.
> > (Same with Esperanto, although that had some promise)  Too damned orderly.
>
> http://www.zeta.org.au/~rgaskell/shakesp.htm
>
> : Somni, dulce somni
> : Natura moli kura-fe, kom mi pa sti tu anti
> : ke tu pa sto kata mi oku-teg
> : e los mi este in oblivio
>
> Glosa has enough unstressed little grammatical Words
> to achieve an English-like poetic Rhythm, I believe;
> and one could likely coerce it to appear quite brutal,
> except that all Auxlangers have such gentle Natures.
> Again, the Capitalization of common Nouns would help.
My Concern (I have adopted your Proposal, that all Nouns should be
capitalized, as a Matter of Course) is that Glosa -- although euphonic --
lacks Ambiguity (although not to such a Degree as its Proponants would
like to contend) and therefore lacks my favorite Quality of poetic
Language.  For Example: how many Ways can one say "I love you" in Glosa?
Only One: Mi amo te (I think: I'm working from Memory, and I have not
written to Ed in Glosa in some Time).  In English, though (and English is
poor in Emotional Description Words):  "I love you.  You, I love.  I adore
you.  I like you.  I want you.  I love thee.  Thee, I love." and so on. In
Glosa, three Words, and in the same Order every Time (ah, yes, one could
throw a "fo" in there somewhere, I suppose).  In English, infinite
Variety, even if we restrict our Choices to forms of "I love you" and deny
the Synonyms. In Glosa there lacks the Opportunity for Decision, which is
the first Principle of poetic Composition -- God, I sound like Blake!
It's the capitalization of all Nouns that does it: makes one sound like a
18th Century Pedant.

This is all very subjective, of course; ample Argument exists on both
Sides.  I found, though, that no Matter how I tried, I could not coerce a
Poem from Glosa; and even my meagre Knowledge of Spanish has made a tiny
Poem (although not a good One, I suspect) in that Language.  I even wrote
a poetic Line in Hebrew once, that was not so terribly bad -- it at least
had nice Ambiguity.