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Re: Joseph Smith the Conlanger?

From:James W. <emindahken@...>
Date:Monday, March 14, 2005, 2:45
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."
> Now, I wonder if anyone here knows if the word indeed originates in > the BoM, if > it's true Smith invented a lot of words (normal words, not names of > people and > places) for the BoM, and if any have entered normal usage, within or > outside > the Mormon community. > > Andreas
None of the words I mentioned (other than people and places) have wider use, that I know of, and even the people/places words are pretty much a Mormon community exclusive. So perhaps you could say that Joseph Smith was a type of neologist, not a conlanger. :) 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. James W.

Replies

Ph. D. <phild@...>
Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>