Re: translation needed

Fabian, quoting someone from sci.lang.japan:

>> Jesus F. Christ! I thought I'd heard every variation of otaku-ism, but
>this
>> takes the cake. I would like to point out that there are REAL languages
>that are
>> in sad need of study because they are going extinct, but instead, you
>idiots are
>> sitting around analysing KLINGON and ELVISH.
>>
>> I recently read a paper about a linguist studying the last two users of of
>a
>> dying American Indian language. One man, who understood the written
>language,
>> but not the spoken one, was blind. The other could understand the spoken
>> language, but not the written, but he was deaf. The language cannot be
>recorded
>> or studied, but if only ONE linguist had discovered the endangered status
>of
>> this language before the two men became old and handicapped, the language
>might
>> not have died such an ignoble death.
>>
>> If only some of the energy you expend discussing these fictional languages
>could
>> be harnessed for something useful! But no, you would rather study
>something that
>> doesn't even exist. I cannot even feel pity for someone who wastes their
>life so
>> frivolously.

Quite apart from being unbearably vicious and sanctimonious, the author of
this rant seems to have neglected the problem of MONEY, which (as an up-
and-coming linguist in search of funding and employment) I am all too aware
of.  Studying endangered and dying languages requires money to pay for
consultants, and in many cases additional funding to cover travel and
accomodations for the linguist.  Conlanging, on the other hand, is free.  I
don't need to write endless grant proposals and search high and low for
native speakers in order to write a grammar of Tokana!

The author of the rant also makes a number of other interesting (fallacious)
assumptions, such as:

(1)  Conlangers (who the author is apparently confusing with LINGUISTS)
have a duty to document endangered languages.
(2)  Conlangers are obsessed with constructing and discussing invented
languages, to the complete exclusion of all practical endeavours.  ("Hello,
my name is Matt and I'm addicted to conlangs!")
(3)  Conlangs "don't exist" and are not "real".
(4)  Anything not firmly grounded in "reality" is trivial.
(5)  Anything done for pure pleasure is a waste of one's life.  (I can only
assume that the author considers all other forms of art and entertainment
to be similarly wasteful.)

Saying that we shouldn't waste our energy inventing languages when there
are real ones becoming extinct is like saying that nobody should write a
novel or play about familial relations until we've solved the problem of
spousal abuse.

But of course, I'm preaching to the crowd here (or, as the Tokana would
say, I'm trying to convince the guanacos to eat grass).  I'd better go
have dinner before my blood sugar gets any lower...

Matt.