Re: Láadan

Roger Mills writes:
 >
 > I grant that I haven't really thought a great deal about these items, but it
 > does strike me that some are just as ambiguous as "normal" Engl. words.  For
 > inst., what does she mean by "love", physical or non-physical?  What is
 > "heart-kin"-- one's circle of friends? really close friends (some of whom
 > could well be blood-kin)? spouse/significant other?
 >

I agree with you, but the fact that the glosses given are ambiguous
doesn't necessarily imply that the words are ambiguous within the
context of Laádan.  I wouldn't be surprised if more detailed
description of the meaning of the morphemes is given in the grammar
(or the dictionary, if there is one). (Not that I'd be terribly
surprised if it isn't, though.)

 >
 > Which is one meaning of "responsible".. As taliesin pointed out, the word is
 > ambiguous, and so is SHE's use of it.
 > "Ms. Jones is ?niná for the Marketing Dept."
 > "Ms. Jones is ?niná for the poor performance of the Marketing Dept."
 >
 > Because of its pairing with ninálh, I assumed she meant "responsible for
 > something bad"--
 >

I think you've made the wrong distinction here.  I wouldn't want to
give the impression that I have any great knowlege of the language,
but one thing I have picked up is that "lh" is a pejorative.  _Ninálh_
is thus _niná_ with added negative connotations.

 >
 > Anyway, as I believe Nik Taylor pointed out, aside from the terms for
 > menstruation and pregnancy, most of the items are or could be
 > gender-neutral, and don't seem to be a vast improvement over exisiting
 > vocabulary.  As a conlang excercise, however, some of them do offer food for
 > thought........
 >

I agree that the advantages of Laádan appear to be principally gender
neutral.  The examples do give the impression of being able to express
emotional factors more concisely and systematically than English,
however, and it may be that this is more important to women than to
men - at least, that seems to me to be part of the basis for the claim
that the language is of particular use for women.  How much of an
advantage these features really offer I can't say, without more
detailed knowlege of the language.