Re: What to Call Non-Conlangers

> > Ha!  I think this one's the best.  First, it rhymes.  Second, even
> > though it would seem to technically imply that these are people
> > without language, the only people who use "prefix-lang" are
> > conlangers, so it seems like the "-lang" suffix implies conlanging,
> > even in a word like "natlang".  Yeah, my vote is for nonlanger
> > (not that we're voting).
>
> I'd second it. Actually, I thought of it as soon as Dan asked for
> suggestions, but didn't get around to saying it :). It seems a little
> bit mean, but since it's clearly nonsensical as well, it's IMHO much
> preferable to "avlangers", "civvies", "[mun]danes", etc etc...
Definitely gets my vote.  But it doesn't necessarily imply people
without language.  I see it this way: there are a number of words
ending in -langer, right, which describe people who engage in
various related activities - e.g. conlanger, romlanger, loglanger,
etc.  These people could be collectively called "langers".  Thus
those who don't engage in such activities would quite clearly be
"non-langers"!


IB.

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