Re: the smallest dictionary

Hallo!

David Fernandez-Nieto wrote:

> i am interested in languages (conlangs and natlangs) that have
> specially small (and complete) dictionaries. can you inform about
> it. thanks.
First of all, welcome to the list!

All natlangs I know of (and I think *all* natlangs) have at least
one open class of lexemes - i.e., new words can readily be coined
for new concepts.  And even languages of "primitive" societies
have thousands of words.

So if you want especially small vocabularies, look for conlangs
with closed vocabularies, such as Toki Pona.  However, such languages
either have serious difficulties expressing more than a limited set
of concepts, or make use of clumsy circumlocutions, or both.

If you ask me: small vocabularies don't make sense because the world
is not simple enough for that.

Greetings,

Jörg.