Re: An Idea (Hopefully Non-offensive)

En réponse à Raymond Brown <ray.brown@...>:

>
> I'm flattered at Oskar's nomination!
>
> Perhaps he knows that I am very skeptical of the whole idea of a
> constructed auxlang, so would, in fact, have no special preference.
>
I think that should be a requirement for all judges for that contest indeed.

>
> My experience in Auxland leads me to diagree strongly here.  My own
> opinion
> FWIW is that a large judging panel will never agree among themselves on
> the
> criteria that makes a "good auxlang".  On the other hand, speaking
> personally, I would not want to be a sole judge.  But I think a panel of
> three would be right, especially if they were chosen to give a balance.
>
Three may be a little just. I would vote for an odd number of judges anyway, 3
or 5. More would be too much. And to be sure that the judges would make a good
balance, I think that all three or five judges should have a different native
language. Since you have, I think, already been accepted as a judge, no other
judge should be a native speaker of English (sorry, I know you guys are in
majority, but even if, like me, you are quite skeptical about the Sapir-Whorf
hypothesis, you must admit that one's own language influences quite a lot the
way one perceives other languages, we already had this discussion when we
discussed about our favorite natlangs :) ). As the only French native speaker
currently active on the list, and as an auxlang-skeptic who still learned
Esperanto because I found it nice-looking and sounding :)), I could be a judge
too if you agree with it. I don't have your experience of auxlangs, but as you
said we have to make a balance :) .

> >so as to prevent special preference, and to allow everyone to enter
> >a language, including the judgers (they wouldn't judge their own).
>
> ...and they shouldn't be participants.
>
Agreed. But the whole point of this looks quite twisted to me anyway, because
the auxlangs which will have to be judged won't be made seriously (I highly
doubt that someone serious about his auxlang, like Daniel44, would ever even
think of participating such a contest), so it wouldn't such a problem. What
would be judged is not really auxlangs, but conlangs reflecting their authors'
ideas about what an IAL should be. Especially if people are given so little time
to work on it.

> I got the "churn out another auxlang this month" bug out of my system
> long
> years ago and, as I say, have now become an auxlang-skeptic.  I would
> not
> enter.  In any case, if one of the judges actually one, wouldn't some
> wonder if it hadn't been fixed?  Best, I think, not to allows judges to
> enter languages themselves.
>
To ensure the honesty of the contest, I agree. If we did otherwise, whatever the
result their would be doubts about it.

> But as opinions differ so widely about the criteria for auxlangs, it
> would
> surely be fairer if contestants knew what judges would be looking for.
> If
> I were not so busy at the moment, I would try to put a few ideas.
>
Maybe each judge should have a specialty, one judging on criteria of ease of
learning, the other one on criteria of internationality, or whatever (I'm giving
dummy examples here :) ). And if we take esthetics as a criterion, all judges
should give their opinion about it, not just one. Since esthetics is such a
personal matter, it would be the only way to ensure that the judgement is not
biased. That's also why I think judges of different native languages each are
mandatory.

Anyway, just my two centimes.

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr