Internally artificial conlangs (Was: Re: T-Shirt)

On Mon, Sep 25, 2000 at 09:06:07AM -0400, Padraic Brown wrote:
> On Sun, 24 Sep 2000, Nik Taylor wrote:
[snip]
> >But not an artificial auxlang, right?
>
> Artificial in that Tolkien created created it; or artificial in Middle
> Earth? It's artificial in that Tolkien made it, but within the history
> of ME, it is a natural formation.
[snip]

Hmm, interesting. So, how many of our conlangs are artificial in their
*internal* histories? Just curious...

My current conlang is internally semi-artificial, in that it was, um,
shall we say, adapted from regional dialects and *heavily* modified? In
the beginning, the Experts spoke many different local dialects (which are
properly distinct languages), but as they developed their philosophy, the
languages melded together into a common Expert language which carries
heavy influences from their philosophies. It's hard to say whether this is
(internally) a natlang or a conlang, because the Experts *did* actively
try to incorporate their philosophy into their language, but OTOH the
language is based on existing local dialects.

For a long time, the Experts were the only ones who spoke this language,
but later, they basically became the ones in charge of the education
system, and so the language became a lingua franca.


T