Re: A prioi vs. A posteriori ?

 --- Greg Williams skrzypszy:

> Have any of yall created an 'a priori' language with a lot of 'a posteriori'
> vocabulary (i.e., with a lot of the lexicon from natlangs) or the reverse (an
> 'a posteriori' language with a lot of 'a priori' vocabulary)?
The latter. At least, that depends on how you define "a lot".
Hattic and its sister languages Askaic and Megza are Indo-European languages,
and both their vocabulary and their grammar are derived straightly and
systematically from Proto-Indo-European. But from PIE to our times is a long
way to go. And since every Indo-European language has an amount of vocabulary
of non-PIE or unknown descent, I try to do the same in Hattic c.s.
As a result, about 20 % of all vocabulary in these languages is a priori. That
is a raw guess, of course.

> I was thinking of creating a "fun" personal sort of conlang picking out
> things from languages I like and adding my own stuff.  I want to know if and
> how often others do mixes like that.
That is not the way I do it. In general, I use an IE root when I can find it,
and I make up some nice-sounding word of my own when I cannot. I try to make my
languages as naturalistic as possible, which limits the possibilities for a
priori words. Nevertheless, I enjoy the freedom that a priori word creation
gives me.

Jan

=====
"Originality is the art of concealing your source." - Franklin P. Jones

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