Re: CHAT: coincidence

*** Watch Reply To! ***

Yahya Abdal-Aziz wrote on Friday 19 May 2006:

[snip discussion of coincidences]

> ObConLang: I've noticed a slight tendency on occasion to
> avoid including word forms, however logically they might
> be expected, that occur in any other known language.
> Silly, or what?
>
> This exactly parallels a phenomenon that occurred in early
> 20th Century "serious" eg symphonic and chamber music,
> and especially among the serialists, who elevated it to a
> principle: "octave avoidance".  [... etc snipt]
>
> Question:  In coining vocabulary for your conlangs, do you
> A)  avoid using word-forms you know from other languages;
> B)  deliberately reuse such word-forms; or
> C)  let the chips fall where they may?
I've received three replies directly; which may or may not
have been intentional (reply-to seems to be set to me rather
than the list).  In case anyone would like to share, I'd be
happy to forward all replies, if their respective authors are
agreeable.  Guys, (A, S and H) please contact me off-list if
your reply included any trade secrets! ;-)

In summary, these replies boiled down to one A) avoid and
two C) don't-care.  I'm a bit more A) myself.  An example is
the words "Hel Vôcre" which popped into my head this mor-
ning.  It's taken me over half an hour to construct a (wildly
implausible) back story for them, which I will post separately.
I might instead have spent the energy more profitably on
creating new forms, vocabulary or grammatical rules for one
of my incomplete conlangs.  (Or mowing the lawn ...)  I guess
I don't believe in coincidence.  (I used to teach statistics,
inter alia.)  So I feel I can't reuse too much vocabulary (at
least transparently) when I know you guys know a lot more
than I do about historical linguistics - you'd see the holes
straight away.

Regards,
Yahya

--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.392 / Virus Database: 268.6.0/341 - Release Date: 16/5/06

Reply