Re: Gothic language

Latin is a conlang now???  They never told me that when I was studying
it...

I guess we'll have to agree to differ as to how widely we're willing
to use the phrase "conlang."  I can't myself see the use of widening
the term to include every use of language which is in any way
"artificial," which is what you have do to call literary Latin a
"conlang."  Perhaps "Hemmingwayese" is a conlang too because nobody
talks the way Hemmingway wrote?

I'd prefer to use existing terms like "dialect" "style," or "idiom"
to describe cases where someone is writing something which, while it
may not exactly parallel spoken speech (does writing *ever* exactly
parallel spoken speech?), is intended to be understood by speakers of
a natural language, using the hermeneutic resources they have at hand
as a result of their natural language knowledge.

Ed


Padraic Brown wrote:

> On Wed, 25 Aug 1999, Ed Heil wrote:
>
> > Padraic Brown wrote:
> >
> > > When I can I'll have a look!  Of course, "Real Gothic" was a conlang as
> > > well, invented by St. Wulfilas (patron of conlangers?) in order to
> > > translate Christian scripture for the various Visigoth tribes.  In
other
> > > words, a sort of interlanguage which could be used by more than just
one
> > > tribe.
> >
> > That's a little hard to believe.  Do we know for a fact that, even
> > ignoring necessary coinages to accomodate difficult-to-translate terms
> > and constructions, Wulfian Gothic was so distinct from any of the
> > tribal dialects that we must call it a different *language*?
>
> I didn't say it was a "different language", only that it's a "conlang".
> As far as I have been instructed, its audience originally came from
> different parts of Visigothland; and his brand of language levels some odd
> forms and accentuates commonalities.  In other words, I don't think it can
> be said his work is of any particular dialect.  (If I write something sort
> of Middle Englishy, picking and chosing forms from the various dialects
> and levelling all the odd stuff so that it has a good chance of being
> understood widely, that makes a pretty good comparison.)
>
> >
> > This seems to stretch the bounds of the term "conlang" to me.
>
> Gothic is a conlang in the same sense Latin is.  The way both are
> presented, they are languages constructed to convey literature & no one
> spoke them precisely as written.  It's conlangy enough for me, if not for
> thee; plus makes a good excuse for having another patron saint of the art.
>
> Padraic.
>
> >
> > Ed
> >
>