Re: Auxlangs and Orcs' Langs
| From: | J Y S Czhang <czhang23@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Wednesday, March 17, 2004, 10:03 |
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In a message dated 2004:03:16 10:11:15 PM, butsuri@BUTSURI.FREESERVE.CO.UK
writes:
>J Y S Czhang wrote at 2004-03-16 16:32:39 (EST)
> > In a message dated 2004:03:16 08:24:01 PM, m.poxon@VIRGIN.NET writes:
> >
> > >I seem to remember somewhere in that essay he likens Esperanto to
> > >a creation of food hygienists rather than cooks, which given his
> > >view of such things tends to demonstrate his dislike of it (sorry,
> > >I don't have the quote to hand)
> > >
> > >Mike
> > >
> > >> Unlikely, I'd say. JRRT liked Esperanto, thought the idea of an
> > >> IAL a good one (in "English and Welsh" he mentions as one of the
> > >> external virtues of Welsh the fact that it is not "in
> > >> competition for the ruinous honor" of being a global lingua
> > >> franca), and particularly praised E-o over its competition as
> > >> being "the work of one man, and not a philologist" (an
> > >> artlangish auxlang, in fact).
> >
> > I think you both are right. IIRC Tolkien was pretty favourable
> > to E-o in his younger days while his colleagues were gaga over
> > Ogden's Basic English, but as he got older his view changed and
> > became highly critical.
> > What I am curious about is did Tolkien know of Otto Jesperson
> > (and Novial) and vice-versa...
> >
>
>In a 1932 letter(?) to _The British Esperantist_ reproduced here:
>
http://donh.best.vwh.net/Languages/tolkien1.html
>
>Tolkien writes that "N**" is "ingenious, and easier than Esperanto,
>but hideous -- "factory product" is written all over it, or rather,
>"made of spare parts" -- and it has no gleam of the individuality,
>coherence and beauty, which appear in the great natural idioms, and
>which do appear to a considerable degree (probably as high a degree as
>is possible in an artificial idiom) in Esperanto -- a proof of the
>genius of the original author..."
>
>"N**" is presumed to be Novial by an editor (at what point the
>editorial comments were made is not clear from that page, and I have
>no further information).