Re: Relexes Pt. 1: Defence

In response to Padraic's response:

First of all, I hope I didn't sound too argumentative or obnoxious.
I'm just playing around with some ideas, and I may have stated them
overly strongly in an attempt to set them out.

I fully agree with your point that relexes are out of place in serious
works where a conlang is sposta be the native language of some
conculture, whether human or alien.  (Unless, of course, there are
special circumstances, e.g. a splinter group of English speakers comes
up with a new religion whereby lots of existing words become taboo, and
new ones replace them... or a group of cant speakers gets stranded on
an island, and the next generation grows up speaking cant)

I guess the point I wanted to make is that relexes are not limited to
being a stage to be grown out of.  When, as often seems to happen,
people develop relexes of their native language as their first attempt
at conlanging, I agree that it is good if they learn more about the
variety that languages can have and are not limited by their native
language in this way.  However, I think as long as people know what
they are doing, and are aware that relexes are don't really belong as
natlangs of concultures, there is space for relexes that aren't just a
stage on the road to a different kind of conlanging.

I haven't thought very hard about why one might want to make a relex;
there are "stealthlangs", as I mentioned... then, what about
stealthlangs associated with concultures?  That would be one place for
relexes to fit in.  One could even relexify a conlang, say by making a
language game spoken by some kids in the conculture associated with it.
 I actually think it would be a kind of interesting project to create a
coherent relex of one natlang using words from another natlang - say
English syntax with German relexification source.  Relexes can be a
field for experimental linguistics just as non-relexificational
conlangs can.


Estel

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