Re: Joseph Smith the Conlanger?

>>>> Andreas Johansson<andjo@...> 03/14/05 3:54 AM >>>
>Thanks to Philip, Doug, and James for answering!
>
>Quoting "James W." <emindahken@...>:
>
>> On Mar 13, 2005, at 11:18, Andreas Johansson wrote:
>>
>> > In a recent online discussion, someone quoted a piece from the Book of
>> > Mormon
>> > that contained the word "delightsome". I jokingly asked if that's a
>> > word (it's
>> > listed in the AHD, but I don't think I had seen it before). In reply,
>> > I was
>> > told that Smith had probably invented it himself; at any rate he
>> > certainly
>> > invented a lot of English words when he wrote the Book of Mormon.
>>
>> I can't think of any. It could be that since I was raised in the
>> religion in
>> question, I'm just used to the terminology. Like Philip, I can only
>> think of
>> words for coinage and animals (apart from people and places) that were
>> "coined."
>
>I suspect, then, that the claim I heard was exaggerated, or simply false. The
>BoM isn't exactly written in contemporary English; maybe the claimer mistook
>archaisms for neologisms.
Could be.

[snip]

>> Then there's the Deseret Alphabet "conscript" (see
>> http://www.omniglot.com/writing/deseret.htm) that was short-lived during
>> Brigham Young's time as leader of the church. It was meant to be a way
>> to
>> write English. As to WHY it was created... I don't know the answer to
>> that one.
>
>Hm. What distinguishes a "conscript" from a plain regular script? The Cherokee
>syllabary, IIRC, was the work of one man. Hangul was done by committee. The
>only thing differentiating such from conscripts is that they've been used
>communicatively for natlangs.
Well, in this case the script didn't catch on. It seems like, from the
description, that
it was created by committee, but again, that in itself, doesn't make it
a con- versus
regular script. In my opinion, the fact that it is not in use, makes it
a conscript. Of
course, IMO Hangul and Cherokee are conscripts also. They just have
thousands to
millions of current users. :)  So I agree with your assessment
differentiating them
from other conscripts.

James W.