Re: CHAT: Essentialist Explanation

En réponse à Pavel Iosad <pavel_iosad@...>:

>
> Sadly, yes
>
> http://listserv.heanet.ie/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0207&L=gaelic-l&F=&S=&P=420
>
Well, this piece of nonsense actually hurted me so much that I felt obliged to
send a message to that person. It went so:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Mr. Gunn,

I don't know you, but you don't know me either and yet you felt that you had
the right to judge me and spread your sickening prejudice to the world, so I
guess it's just fair that I answer your accusations.

In a message from Wednesday 3rd of July to the Gaelic language bulletin board
you sent the following message:

"In case anyone feels my reaction to Eamon Graham's msg was out of step with
the carefully innocent tone of his, I must advise our members that that he
belongs to a ConLang group (mostly based in the US, who cannibalize native
languages to construct new ones, which they call their own, and which can
be and have been used for ciphering purposes, serving political interests
far removed from those of the natives whose cultures were raided to make
them). I would ask our members _not_ to collaborate with members of such
groups, and I had hoped, until now, that our groups had escaped their
unwanted attentions.:-("

I never saw in my whole life such an amount of stupid and untrue prejudice
except on texts released by some extreme right organisations. But hoping that
only ignorance rather than malevolence made you say such things, I decided to
write to you in order to make things a little clearer on what really conlanging
is about. Maybe next time you will think before making such disgusting
assumptions on a group of people you don't know. The world suffers enough
already of such a behaviour, so it would be really bad to add more of it...

First, the assumption that conlangers are "mostly based in the US". Well, sorry
to say so, but as a French man living in the Netherlands and knowing the list
from the inside, I know that it is absolutely false! Conlangers are to be found
in many countries and many cultures, and the apparent importance of the English-
speaking part comes only from the fact that the list itself is English speaking
and that as the richest country in the world, it's just normal that most people
having an Internet connection and time enough to participate in such a
discussion group are to be found in the US.

Second, this accusation of "cannibalising native languages to construct new
ones". Well, I don't even understand this assumption. It's like saying that
architects cannibalise the Pantheon when they take it as an inspiration for
their own constructions. I'd rather take it as honoring it than cannibalising
it. If some languages are disappearing, it's certainly not the fault of a group
of people who make a hobby of inventing languages! I can't even imagine how
that would be possible! Moreover, most conlangers don't base their languages on
existing ones, at least not consciously, and thus cannot even be accused of
cannibalising anything!

The reference to "ciphering" has brought some light on your assumptions. It
seems you confuse conlangers, who just happen to have a hobby of constructing
languages (so what? Is it that worse than collecting stamps or constructing
model planes which will never leave the ground?) with the military people who
used a simplified version of Navajo as war code during WWII. Well, let me make
something clear: conlangers have NOTHING to do with the American Army or any
other army in the world, nor with any governmental group, secret service or
anything of the kind. You can find conlangers within any class, gender, ethnic
group, sexual orientation, nationality, culture, religion, etc... as you want.
They make languages for their own fun, without intending anything else than
sometimes sharing their hobby with a few people, most often keeping it secret,
at worst using it as a secret language to write their personal diary or school
notes! I don't see anything political in that. The people you seem to be
referring to were no conlangers. They were soldiers who came up with the idea
of using a not well known language as war code. You may not like the idea (I
personally find it a good idea. On the other hand, the behaviour of the
American government towards the Navajos and other Natives I find impossible to
forgive, just like I can't accept the behaviour of the French government
towards the Breton, Basque and Corsican nationalities. And if you had really
wondered who we were, you would have found out that most conlangers are rather
trying to protect minorities rather than destroy them. Or at least their
personal opinions go in that sense). Conlanging is something else. Whether it
is a craft, an art, or whatever you want to call it, it has no other goal than
itself! I am not creating languages in order to provide a secret code to some
malevolent governmental organisation. I'm creating languages because I like
that, just like people paint for fun, or play music, or write poetry, etc...
This is no more than that (and anyway, a government who wants to use one of my
languages as a code would have a hard time using them, knowing that no language
of mine has more than a few hundred words in its lexicon! :)) ).

So, before attacking a group of people you know nothing about, try to learn
what they are really doing before attacking them on grounds that have nothing
to do with them! You may like or dislike the idea of constructing own
languages, but please don't attack conlangers using this kind of prejudice.
Nobody needs this kind of unfair treatment.

Now I wish I had made myself clearer, but English is not my native language,
and often, especially when I become emotional, words don't come out as easily
as they should. Note also that I'm part of a minority myself, and I left France
partly because I couldn't lead my life as I wanted there. So you will
understand that I cannot accept being treated that way for what is just a
harmless hobby. I just hope that it is really only ignorance that made you talk
this way, and that now that you know a little better the subject, you will less
virulent against people who do nothing except sharing their thoughts and works
on their hobby.

Regards,
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, this message is not good enough in my opinion, but I was so emotional
that it is the best I could write. I don't expect it to have much effect, but
at least I'm at peace with myself, knowing that I've tried.

I'm taking Rousseau's hypothesis that man is basically good and that it was
mere ignorance which made this person talk this way. I'm probably wrong, but at
least I've tried...

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.

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