Re: An Idea (Hopefully Non-offensive)
| From: | Raymond Brown <ray.brown@...> |
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| Date: | Tuesday, April 24, 2001, 18:45 |
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At 1:20 am -0400 24/4/01, David Peterson wrote:
> As I read all this stuff about auxilliary languages and Uusosiun (oh,
>geez, I forget the name. Daniel, I apologize!), I can't help but always
>think to myself, "Hey, I can make a way better universal language than that!"
>(as I originally thought when seeing Esperanto for the first time), and I
>imagine that this thought (or a similar one) has occurred to many.
Yes, it must have done. I spent my teens churning out 'improvements on
Esperanto' and then 'improvements on my improvements' - there must've been
two or three a year :)
[snip]
> Why don't we have a competition?
> Let's all create a universal auxilliary language and then send to a group
>of us to judge (since putting them up on e-mails would be long, tedious and
>impractical).
Yep - but that's the problem. As Rick Harrison so rightly observed, the
auxlang world is competitive. Each auxlanger thinks his/her project is the
best & the others defective in some way or other - and the result is flames.
And one thing you can bet your bottom dollar on is that there'll be no
agreement about the criteria of how to judge the languages.
[snip]
>So, what do you think? I think
>it would be fun. :)
It could (and ideally should) be fun. It will only be fun, however, if all
those who enter do so for fun and all agree to abide by the judge's
decision (yep - I think one).
But one thing I am certain about is that it should be conducted off the
list. If some people want to take it up as a purely fun activity, maybe
someone (David?) should act as co-ordinator.
Certainly, I don't find anything offensive in David's idea. But having
visited Auxland & stayed there too long before leaving, I have grave
misgivings. However, if it goes ahead, go luck to all contestants :)
Ray.
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A mind which thinks at its own expense
will always interfere with language.
[J.G. Hamann 1760]
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