Re: How to name the languages of sentient beings?

On 11/30/05, Paul Bennett <paul-bennett@n...> wrote:
>What's a good word for the set of languages, nat and con, that are
>meant for communication between sentient beings -- i.e. excluding
>computer programming languages, data modelling languages, and so
>on, >but including languages for aliens, and unusually smart
>hamsters, >and what-have-you? "Human" languages is wrong, as
is "natural". I'm >rather at a loss.

I don't believe that any form of "sentient" is adequate.  It seems
to me that, in any given conculture, some sentient beings speak and
some don't.  "Sentient," after all, has nothing to do with the
ability to speak, but the ability to feel.

What is needed is a word (an adjective, it appears) that includes
all the species that can communicate.  Since anything is possible in
a conculture, that could very well include animal as well as plant
life (or any other form imagined).  And the word has to distinguish
between forms that can communicate and those that can't, _e.g._,
oaks can communicate but elms can not.  I don't believe there is
such a word, at least in English.

I found in the OED the word "loquent" meaning having the ability to
speak, and that's the word I use in my conculture for the dragons
and the six human-like races that can speak, the other life forms
being merely sentient.  I call these the loquent peoples or races or
nations.

Charlie
http://wiki.frath.net/user:caeruleancentaur

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