Re: fictional worlds

 --- Santiago wrote:

> I have a question for you all... I'd like to know to what extent are the
> cultures behind your conlangs absolutely fictional... I mean, what sort of
> words you didn't include in your langs, because of referring to human-made
> objects or concepts so closely related to human cultures that they cannot
> exist in your fictional cultures... Have you thought of the physical
> appearance of your langs' speakers?
In my case, concultures are only meant to accompany my languages.
All my languages are Indo-European, three of them (Vozgian, Motyak, Slopik)
Slavic, three others (Hattic, Askaic, Megza) form a separate branch. All six
are spoken in some part of the Russian Federation. So, no aliens, no other
planets, not even an unknown continent.
There is obviously some kind of conculture involved; in my experience this
comes almost automatically with the language, be it for explaining its history.
But in my case, those concultures are poorly developed. And apart from the
fact, that they are non-existent, they are far from fictional in this sense
that they could have existed, and as a matter of fact, they exist in the
neighbouring areas.

> My lang, Moesteskin (Moestesian would be in English) has a lot of vocabulary
> relating to the latest (an not so late) technology developments... Yes, words
> like "television", "computer"... what do you think of that? It doesn't look
> original, does it?
Why not? That depends fully on the objectives of your language. I have (at
least theoretically) words for those as well, but only because those cultures
and language are suppose to exist in our world.

> Should I do away with those terms, and try to create a whole culture with
> their own objects and then name them with the lang?
See above.

> Moesteskin actually was born as that, the language of a people of a fictional
> world, but then I abandoned the idea of thinking so much about the fictional
> context... Now I'm considering the issue...
Good luck, then.

Jan

=====
"Originality is the art of concealing your source." - Franklin P. Jones

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