Re: Aesthetic Language Sense

On Tue, 5 Oct 1999, Ed Heil wrote:

> Here's another element of language aesthetics...  There are those
> (e.g. http://www.conknet.com/~mmagnus/LetterPage.html ) who claim that
> the sounds of all words -- not just onamotapoeic ones -- serve as
> iconic symbols for the meanings of the words.
Well... I'm getting quite wary of the word _all_, used in connection
to language. Of course, there is iconicism in sound, with is why I'm
not entirely happy with the Denden _kela_ for 'mouse'.
>
> I suspect most conlangers allow some degree of iconism to enter into
> their language projects...  choosing words which are not only "right"
> for the phonology/phonotactics of the language, but also in some sense
> "right" for the concept.
>
That's the difficult part - and it's also why I don't like to work
with programs like langmaker - it takes to much of this 'rightness'
out of the language. But I even don't like to derive my words
regularly from roots using sound laws - even that gives me words
that feel to 'mechanic', when I do it. Of course, that might just
be an error of application.

<... snip good stuff ...>

> Anyway, I started looking into Klingon and got tired of it for this
> very reason: I got the sneaking suspicion that the words were randomly
> generated, and that no matter how I pursued it I would not reach a
> point where they "sounded right" for their concepts.
>
<...>

> But I didn't get that out of Klingon.
>
> Does anyone feel the same way?  Or did anyone look into it and have a
> very different experience of it than mine?
Of course that might be right for a language for an alien people
that has a very 'unreal, cardboardy' feel to them ;-). I think you're
right, and it isn't just the orthography that's an eyesore - the
words haven't got it.

Boudewijn Rempt  | http://denden.conlang.org/~bsarempt