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Re: A prioi vs. A posteriori ?

From:Jan van Steenbergen <ijzeren_jan@...>
Date:Friday, January 31, 2003, 6:07
 --- 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 __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Everything you'll ever need on one web page from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts http://uk.my.yahoo.com